Originally published at: Dems Are Focused on Health Care But Trump’s Power Grab Looms Over Gov’t Funding Fight
Lawmakers came back from their lengthy August recess this week. They have until the end of the month to fund the government for the next fiscal year and avoid a government shutdown. But there’s an elephant in the room as negotiations get underway: how do you do the work of legislating when the executive branch…
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Six months ago this would have sounded reasonable, now it doesn’t come close: The levee is crumbling and getting a health-care appropriation concession is shoving a finger into one of the cracks.
Actually it is worse than that given the probability this administration will slow-walk, mal-administer or blow off any appropriation they don’t like but whatever.
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JFC, these Dems are still talking about “Bipartisanship”. Our country is being actively destroyed by the people they want to reach consensus with. How about call them out for their fascist behavior and make take it or leave it demands for the American people. Restore Medicaid and the affordable care act tax credit, halt all unlawful blocking of appropriated funds and stop the pocket rescissions. Unmask and defund ICE. Stop unlawfully invading our cities.
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Fool them once, fool them twice, fool them for the 10,000th time. The Democrats are a bunch of Ned Starks.
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I, for one, find it REALLY heartening to see Senate Democrats fighting over the arrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic. That is the fight this country needs right now. Way to go!!
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I think interpreting the Dem ask depends on whether they think there is a chance for a deal. If they want to make a deal and this is what they are asking for, I agree with most of the condemnation here. If they think a deal is impossible, for example because Trump wants to shut the government down more than anything, then the Dem ask is so they can campaign on Trump shutting down the government to keep healthcare costs high.
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Bipartisanship is history. It is time to play hardball with these Fascist punks. Shut the government down completely and keep it shut until the MAGA boysand girls finally get a clue what the government actually does for them…At that point, maybe they will take care of this bunch of moronic rightwing toadies for us.
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Being focused on health care is smart. The Medicaid cuts are very unpopular. They jeopardize support for Trump. If they can get the Republicans to push back refusing to save Medicaid they win in 2o26.
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They’ve got to ask for more than temporary return of the subsidies. How long is that going to be good for, til January? Next October?
They need to listen to Josh, and fight for the Constitution AND the subsidies.
Right now they sound like they’re trading Manny Machado and a couple of journeyman relief pitchers for a 12th, okay, a 6th round draft choice.
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Another bipartisan opportunity to steal the Ds lunch
The other side says they aren’t going to honor any concessions, so what are you doing?
I get it, it’s tough - but I feel like your only demand shouldn’t be to help make their stupid bill less crappy while increasing the deficit AFTER they already used the cuts to pass their budget. It’s also the part of their bill that people pay attention to (healthcare premiums, even the media loves to talk about those).
At least include new popular Dem policies so that people see some sort of attempt at leveraging their power. Those “independents” they love to court aren’t going to notice that Dems got their subsidy back, only that nothing happened after all the screaming about the R budget.
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The Dems think voters don’t have a choice, that they will get the anti-Trump votes and win next year even if the party accomplishes very little before the election. That seems like a risky assumption.
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It’s smart, but it seems like it’s a small ask, nonetheless.
And what other items do they have to bargain with? Seems like they have this one chip, and that’s it, I think you need more than one chip when you’re wheeling and dealing with someone, right?
Tell me again, how did these people get elected again (and again and again)?
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That’s about it. Sad and pathetic at the same time. The Republicans will not honor any deal with Senate Dems. Normally, it’s the way business is done where both sides need something. But with Daddy Trump in the background as puppeteer, nothing will be honored. Democrats will say, “we had a deal, not our fault!” 'Pubs will snicker and voters will get fucked once more.
I know it’s easy to say “shut it down” but these times are not even remotely close to politics as usual. These are all or nothing moments.
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The CR agreement needs to reflect Democratic values and principles
It’s more likely that TRUMP will impregnate Satan, then for Republicans to do anything that reflects Democratic values and principles… EVEN the Corporate Democrats that are what most in the Senate are.
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To be fair they’re also fighting with the bandleader over the song list.
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Ok, so the Nazis are building the concentration camps and the Senate Democrats are trying focused on health care, an issue the Republicans know they have to clean up for reelection anyway.
So when it is over and are asked why they did not oppose the Nazis in this effort when they had a chance, are they going to say they did not know; is that excuse going to really hold?
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Smart?
Out of everything we have faced in the last seven months, these folks are really myopically focused on “the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits that are set to expire at the end of 2025 — in exchange for their votes”? Even if they got what they want and managed to help those who rely on it, there are about five people in the country who would actually even notice that Democrats were responsible for preserving the credit… and that is assuming the administration even honors the deal.
If this is the entirety of their game plan, it is only barely beyond complete and utter capitulation and their slide into irrelevance will only continue unabated.
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So sure we live in a fascist country now, but people really underestimate how important that tax credit was to a few people in 2026!
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Not to mention that if the Senate Democrats get this done, NO ONE will know who was responsible for it since Trump will take credit. How stupid can they be?
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They won’t even honor deals with themselves. Ask Sen. Cassidy how much mileage he got out of his “deal” with RFK Jr.
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