By Douglas V. Gibbs
The current government shutdown has now reached 28 days, making it the second longest in U.S. History. Without approval for appropriations non-essential spending is halted until the latest funding bill is approved by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President. The House of Representatives passed the current bill, but the Senate Democrats have blocked the GOP-led spending bill 13 times.
Under President Trump the current group of Republicans are not the establishment bunch of old who acted like they were Democrat-light or believed that compromise meant giving in. The Democrats have never supported government shutdowns, but they’ve never had to because the GOP always gave in. Now, they are playing chicken with a champion at the game, and the Republicans are on board with Trump’s firm position.
The Republicans, to help Americans who are being negatively affected by the government shutdown, be it federal employees or those who receive benefits, have tried to put in place temporary bills that would pay for these things while the battle continues, but the Democrats has refused. When asked about how the Democrats are going against their own history on shutdowns, the answer is always the same: TRUMP.
In the latest Senate vote it was 54-45, which means not a single Democrat that has been voting against the bill have budged. And to be honest, I’m surprised, because for most officeholders, reelection plays into their decision making. The Democrats are losing in the polls with each passing day, and there is no end in sight. Do they not see that with the Mid-Term Elections on the horizon this could spell doom for them? Under Senator Chuck Schumer they aren’t budging, despite the looming problems for them if they continue to refuse to give up their stance on illegal alien benefits, and the unconstitutional Affordable Care Act.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune has called the Democrats irresponsible, especially when it comes to food stamp funding which is set to run out on Saturday. Twenty-five Blue States are suing the administration over food stamps, as if it’s not their own political party’s fault this is going on.
The bill is not even a long-term fix, it was designed to fund the government through November 21. Only Democratic Senators John Fetterman (PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and Independent Angus King (ME) who is an independent who caucuses with Democrats have been voting in favor of the bill. Schumer said that the only way this will end is if expiring Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies become a part of the conversation. The open enrollment for the health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act begins November 1.
While the Democrats claim that the Republicans are taking away healthcare for millions of Americans, the reality is the impact on Americans is much smaller than they claim. In fact, according to The Daily Signal, some of the premium tax credits put into law by the Affordable Care Act under then President Barack Obama will continue under the new bill. President Joe Biden signed a bill in 2021 which expanded those credits to higher earners and boosted their benefits – and some of those too will continue to receive a tax credit. So, what are the Democrats screaming about?
After the subsidies expire the Taxpayers will still pay 80% of the premiums, but higher earners whose income is above 400% of the federal poverty level who are currently entitled to the tax credit would lose their tax credit entirely. Many of those who are self-employed would, however likely be eligible to deduct premium costs on their tax returns. The lowest earners who receive the credit currently have zero-dollar premiums, but they would be on the hook to pay up to 4.19% of their income for their premium should the boosted credit expire.
In short, those in poverty will go from paying nothing to paying up to under $5.00 per week for their healthcare coverage.
The only group that would completely lose their healthcare coverage under the current schemes would be illegal aliens.
The shutdown, in short, is primarily about whether or not illegal aliens, who are not supposed to be in the country in the first place, continue to receive federal benefits like healthcare paid for by the American Taxpayer.
As for the SNAP benefits which will be the next program unfunded when the first of the month comes, nearly 42 million Americans receive those benefits. Commonly known as food stamps, the program assists about 1 in 8 Americans to buy groceries. The average payment is $350 per household. 83% of those households include children, a disabled person, or an elderly person. Most of the people on food stamps, however, aren’t even from this country.
“45% of Afghanistan immigrants are on food stamps.”
“42% of Somali immigrants, 34% of every immigrant from Iraq, 23% of Haitians.”
“59% of ALL illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. Government and the U.S. Taxpayer are not even Americans.”
Millions of illegal aliens are now collecting food stamps from a program funded by hardworking American taxpayers.
Meanwhile, there are no paychecks as a result of the shutdown for active-duty troops, air traffic controllers and border patrol agents. The Democrats think they are using the shutdown as leverage – they are willing to leave people without paychecks and cripple the infrastructure for illegal aliens, and they believe it is leverage when in reality they are doubling down on what caused them to lose in 2024. And along the way the Democrats have rejected one-off bills to pay the troops, certain federal workers, air traffic controllers and fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
As Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has pointed out, there are four simple facts about the government shutdown:
- Democrat votes are required to open the government.
- Democrats have voted 13 times to keep the government closed.
- Democrats refuse to budge unless Republicans restore left-wing projects.
- Democrats admit to using “pain” as leverage and boast it’s working.
The bill requires cloture (60 votes) in order to be passed in the Senate, an internal rule designed to allow the minority party to have the ability to influence debate and the vote. The GOP has 53 Republicans in the Senate, so the vote in favor of the bill by some Democrats is needed to end the government shutdown. According to Johnson, the Democrats are “demanding a ransom to reopen the government” and what they are demanding are “really crazy things.”
- They want $200 billion in health benefits for illegal aliens and non-citizens.
- They want billions of dollars in wasteful programs to be returned to foreign countries.
- They want half a billion dollars to go back to left-leaning news organizations.
- They want to cut $50 billion from the rural hospital fund the GOP got passed July 4 to prop up healthcare in rural areas (which also tend to be Republican-leaning regions).
- They want $4 million for global LGBTQI+ awareness campaigns around the world.
We’re not doing that. And the Trump led Republicans understand that the way to Make America Great Again is not to give in every time the Democrats hold the American people hostage for ridiculous unconstitutional federal actions. The cracks are surely on the horizon. A few Democrats have got to be realizing the damage this shutdown is causing the Democrats. The longer it takes for them to give in, the more damage they are causing in future elections.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
