THE CHANGING HISTORY OF THE SHUTDOWN. Why did Senate Democrats shut the government down for more than 40 days? Now that the standoff is over, it appears a number of Democrats cannot agree among themselves on why they did what they did.
The stated reason for the shutdown, of course, was the Democratic demand that Republicans extend taxpayer-paid, Covid-era “emergency” subsidies for people who purchase health insurance through Obamacare. Democrats created the subsidies, on top of the massive subsidies that already exist under the Affordable Care Act, to help Americans pay for coverage during the pandemic. The 2022 Democratic legislation called for “emergency” subsidies to remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2025. Now, of course, the “emergency” is long over, and the subsidies’ expiration date is fast approaching. So Democrats, who are also worried about hefty price increases of Obamacare coverage in general, came up with a plan to demand that the “emergency” subsidies be extended, or they would shut down the government. Republicans offered a “clean” bill to fund the government; Democrats filibustered, and the shutdown came.
But why did it come? For over 40 days, Democrats pounded on the healthcare theme. Every day, every waking hour, they accused Republicans of taking away healthcare from millions of Americans. That’s why Democrats simply had to shut down the government. “We’re in a government shutdown, and you may be asking yourself, ‘How the hell did we get here?’” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer after one week. “Donald Trump and the Republican Party are hellbent on taking healthcare away from 16 million people.” On the House side, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “The government remains closed because Republicans have zero interest in actually providing affordable healthcare to everyday Americans.” And so it went, day after day.
It was never going to work. This newsletter has explained it many times, but the short version is that the party that attaches conditions to reopening the government is the party that loses the shutdown. As a shutdown drags on, the public wants the government to open first, and any policy negotiations to take place later.
So now, the shutdown is nearly over, and the action has turned to Democrats pointing fingers of blame at each other. Progressives throughout the party are angry at the eight “moderate” Senate Democrats who abandoned the blockade and voted with Republicans to move forward on funding the government.
And then there is the debate over how the shutdown came about. Here is what the New York Times‘ Ezra Klein, who is well-connected among progressive Democrats, wrote this week: “Democrats said the shutdown was about the subsidies, but for most of them, it wasn’t. It was about Trump’s authoritarianism. It was about showing their base, and themselves, that they could fight back….The Affordable Care Act subsidies emerged as the shutdown demand because they could keep the caucus sufficiently united.”
Whoa. It wasn’t about the subsidies? And when Democrats said, over and over and over, that it was about the subsidies, they weren’t telling the truth? That appears to be the case, according to the “dozen or so House and Senate Democrats” Klein spoke to.
If Democrats were really targeting “Trump’s authoritarianism,” then what, specifically, did they mean by that? You can bet they would put the administration’s immigration enforcement high on the list, but that probably wouldn’t be a very effective topic for a shutdown. After all, a recent Harvard-Harris poll found that 79% of Americans favor “deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes,” and 54% favor “deporting all immigrants who are here illegally.” Shut down the government for that?
What about other manifestations of Trump’s “authoritarianism”? Sending the National Guard to fight crime in some high-crime areas? Blowing up drug-running boats in international waters? The prosecution or investigation of John Bolton, James Comey, and John Brennan? It’s hard to imagine shutting down the government over any or all of those issues.
Maybe an issue, like affordability? Certainly, that’s an important issue with voters; it played a big role in last week’s Democratic electoral victories. Democrats could certainly argue that President Donald Trump hasn’t done enough to bring down prices. The problem is, Democrats would have a huge glasshouse problem if they were to shut down the government over prices. Which party presided over inflation that rose to 9.1%?
Apparently, if they had their choice, Senate Democrats would have launched a kind of everything bagel shutdown, based on a little bit of all their grievances against Trump’s “authoritarianism.” But the party’s more strategic minds decided to focus on healthcare. And so Democrats spent more than 40 days telling Americans that the government was shut down because Republicans wanted to take away their healthcare. In fact, it now appears the shutdown was more of a Democratic tantrum against Trump in search of a rationale.