Sen. Tim Kaine
Senate Democrats are caving on the shutdown.
The broad framework for agreement, which was negotiated in part by Sens. Angus King, Jeanne Shaheen, and Maggie Hassan, as well as GOP senators, has “more than enough” members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to advance, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose the terms,” Politico reported.
In exchange for their votes, these handful of “moderate” Democrats—which notably does not include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer—are getting nothing.
Well, that’s not true.
They’re getting a promise of a vote on ACA subsidies in the Senate, which will easily go down in defeat. Not to mention, Speaker Mike Johnson has said he’ll never even bring the matter up for a vote in the House.The deal also fully funds the Veterans Administration and Department of Agriculture, and the operations of Congress, of course, because they have to take care of themselves.
Nothing in that is a victory for Democrats.The surrender is perplexing given how clearly the shutdown was hurting Republicans, so much so that President Donald Trump specifically cited it as one reason for why Republicans got their asses kicked in last Tuesday’s off-year elections.
But instead of letting Trump figure out a way out of his own mess, Democrats inexplicably threw him a life vest on Sunday night.There is one silver lining—this deal will eventually haunt Republicans. Had Democrats succeeded in saving ACA healthcare subsidies, clueless voters would never have known of the Democrats’ role in safeguarding their insurance.
When Republicans vote down Democratic efforts to save health care for millions of Americans, the blame will be crystal clear.
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