The Democrats were furious Monday over eight senators who caved to support a deal to end the government shutdown that does not include the Affordable Care Act subsidies their party had spent weeks fighting for.
The offending lawmakers include Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Tim Kaine, Jacky Rosen, John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, and independent Senator Angus King, who claimed that they’d ensured a Senate vote on extending the tax credits. Their capitulation comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted for weeks that he wouldn’t promise them a vote on anything, and even if he does follow through with a vote, it’s unlikely such a measure will pass the House.
Democratic lawmakers slammed their colleagues for forfeiting health care coverage for an estimated 5.1 million Americans by 2034 and increasing premiums across the marketplace.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders railed against the deal while speaking before the Senate Sunday. “If this vote succeeds, over 20 million Americans are gonna see at least a doubling in their premiums in the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “For certain groups of people, it will be a tripling and a quadrupling of their premiums. There are people who will now be paying 50 percent of their limited incomes for health care. Does anybody in the world think that makes sense?”
Never underestimate the Dems’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Oh, yeah, sometimes I think they do it on purpose. They seem to want to constantly prove that they are better losers than the MAGAs.
They earn more money as the minority, promising to codify Roe v Wade, keep the DREAM Act, protect queer rights.
Why would they ever actually do it when they would lose money next election season?
They absolutely do it on purpose. The party is expressly neoliberal capitalist. Progressive policies are anathema to them.
And when two parties exist in a FPTP system, with one being extremely regressive, Americans expect the other party to be equally progressive in their approach!
Instead, as with the Rachet Effect, the Dems can’t onboard progressivism because they’re captured by corporate donors and consultants.
Primary 'em out!
Mainstream dems have been in failure theater mode for at least a couple of decades