When Democrats flipped off the lights of the government, no one was quite sure how long the tantrum would last. Now, more than a month later, it seems almost ironic that the record-tying day of the shutdown falls on November 4, when tens of millions of voters head to the polls to make a rare, off-year statement. But this time around, that statement won’t just include how Americans feel about dozens of ballot initiatives and candidates — but Republicans’ leadership and Democrats’ defiance.

To a lot of observers, Election Day might finally be the break federal workers have been waiting for. “They’re setting everything up for next week,” Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told Politico Friday. “If they [agree to open the government] before Tuesday, then their base may not show up because it looks like they caved. … That’s why they’re setting everything up to open next week. We’ll be open next Wednesday, or Wednesday night, or Thursday.”

RealClearPolitics’ White House Correspondent Phil Wegmann agrees. Maybe, he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “This Week on Capitol Hill,” “if Democrats are able to put a few points on the scoreboard” by winning a few big races in New Jersey or Virginia, “they’ll be more eager to come to the table here in D.C.” Even so, Wegmann insisted, “It’s been remarkable. We have seen Republicans, for the most part, stay in lockstep — both in the House and the Senate. And I think that’s because they’re taking their cues not just from President Trump, but also from Majority Leader [John] Thune (R-S.D.) [and] Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). The only reason I want to point that out is because we began the year with a lot of consternation in the Republican ranks, but as of right now, they’re standing pat.”

Unfortunately for Johnson and Thune’s party, so are Democrats. The difference is, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) party is feeling the squeeze. After 14 votes to reopen the government by Republicans, America’s business and union leaders have publicly turned on Democrats. Airlines like Delta and United are calling on Congress to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), which is what the GOP has lobbied for from the beginning. Then, adding to the Democrats’ PR nightmare, a “broad coalition of business associations” — including banking, real estate, retail, manufacturing, technology, wholesalers, and even the Chamber of Commerce — piled on. The groups, which represent corporate behemoths like Walmart and Apple, didn’t mince words when they warned that every day, “the larger and more durable the economic damage becomes — and some of it might never be recovered.”

In what may be the Democrats’ most surprising critics, five unions — including the American Federation of Government Employees and Teamsters—broke with Schumer’s party, demanding they pass a clear CR.

Even the media, Schumer’s most reliable cheerleaders, have tired of the party’s rebellion for individual gain. “Schumer has allowed the shutdown to drag on because he’s worried about fending off a primary challenger in 2028, and he’s still smarting from blowback he got from angry liberals after he agreed to fund the government this spring,” The Washington Post’s editorial board declared. As for the grand façade that Democrats are fighting to keep health care costs low, the Post argued, “Keeping the government open should be separated from policy disputes about how to spend taxpayer money. It is wrong that Democrats have held the government hostage for a month in hopes of extending costly Obamacare subsidies, just as it was for Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to shut down the government in 2013 for 16 days in a bid to defund the Affordable Care Act altogether.” The answer, they contended, “is to reopen the government with a clean funding bill.”

Speaking of the Obamacare tax credits, which is apparently the political hill Democrats are willing to die on, Wegmann reminds people that what we’re talking about here “is the extension of former President Biden’s expansion of Obamacare, which was designed to be temporary. It was a COVID-era measure, and it made a lot more individuals eligible for coverage.” As even Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) insisted, Democrats are the ones who, in 2022, wrote the legislation to end these subsidies in 2025.

And the reality is, Paragon Health Institute emphasized in damning research, health care costs wouldn’t really be rising because these tax credits end. By their calculations, sunsetting these subsidies “accounts for only 4 percent of the expected 20 percent average premium increase next year.” In other words, their experts wrote, Democrats can’t blame the “sharp jump in premiums” on the end of these subsidies. “The real drivers are the same structural flaws that have plagued Obamacare since 2014 and rising health care costs,” Paragon’s Gabrielle Kalisz explained.

The real problem, many stress, is “the premium increase to higher medical utilization, inflation, health care consolidation (which the ACA contributed to), and surging costs for expensive drugs — especially GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes medications, specialty drugs, and biologics (including new gene therapies). Insurers also cite workforce shortages, price transparency measures, and tariffs as nominal contributors to increasing premiums.”

Under these pandemic credits, Kalisz says, “the federal government has been paying 93 percent of the premium for the typical enrollee. Even after the COVID Credits expire, the federal government will still cover more than 80 percent of the typical enrollee’s premium through the regular subsidy. Taxpayers, not consumers, will remain the overwhelming source of revenue for insurers selling ACA exchange plans.”

No wonder Republicans have never voted for these subsidies, FRC’s Perkins shook his head before raising some of the major problems with Obamacare. “First off, many of them see these subsidies as propping up a program that doesn’t work because it is anything but affordable as its name, Affordable Health Care Act, [implies].” In a slap to taxpayers, Obamacare isn’t subject to the Hyde Amendment. “So it funds abortion and now funds these transgender surgeries in particular for minors.”

If the White House wants to negotiate with Democrats on this issue as a condition of ending the shutdown, they do so at their own peril, Wegmann cautions. “They’re going to [face] a lot of heat from Republicans and the pro-life lobby. … Hyde has never applied to Obamacare. There’s nothing in the statute that prevents these dollars from going to abortion,” he reiterated. “… Just this summer, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, you had Maryland dip into a $24 million Obamacare fund to provide abortion services for women coming from outside of that state. So for conservatives and pro-life lobby, this is a bright line. This is their brick wall.”

That may be why, when Perkins asked Speaker Johnson what he’d like people to pray about, the Louisianan said, “For God’s wisdom and guidance. We do live in a great nation. We can’t take it for granted,” he emphasized. “… And we need to get past all the bitter partisanship. We need to get the government open and do the basic responsibility that we’re given by God. I think we will. I’m optimistic.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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