Democrats Split on Shutdown Solution Without Health Care Guarantees

Arizona Democratic Representative Greg Stanton said he doesn't plan to vote for the deal to end the shutdown because it doesn't extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and there's no guarantee the House would take up the issue.

Democrats entered the shutdown seeking to renew tax credits to stave off insurance premium price hikes and to show voters they have the stomach for hardball negotiations in President Donald Trump’s Washington.

As the record-long shutdown neared its end more than a month later, they failed to achieve either goal.

A group of eight Democrats on Sunday broke with the rest of their party — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — to vote with Republicans to advance a bill to re-open the government on the impasse’s 40th day.

That plan doesn’t include the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that Democrats staked their shutdown fight on. They did get a pledge for a separate vote on the health-care tax credits in the coming weeks, but the prospects of Democrats landing a win from that endeavor are far from certain.

The deal is likely to cause discord in a party that just days ago was celebrating a series of wins in mayoral and gubernatorial elections where voters responded to the party’s affordability messaging.

“I think it’s a terrible mistake,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said. “The American people want us to stand and fight for health care, and that’s what I believe we should do.” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries also criticized the plan to re-open the government, saying Democrats in his chamber wouldn’t support it.

- The White House on Monday expressed support for the bipartisan deal to end the US shutdown, a key development that makes it likely the government reopens within days.

President Donald Trump has wanted the government reopened since the start of the shutdown and considers the deal a positive development, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity said.  Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he spoke with Trump about the deal on Sunday night and he expects the president to sign it into law once Congress passes the legislation.

The Senate still must wind its way through potentially time-consuming procedures and House members must travel back to Washington to vote for the first time since Sept. 19.

The Senate is resuming deliberations on its deal with centrist Democrats on Monday but has not yet scheduled a vote for final passage. Thune said he hopes the vote would be “in hours and not days.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would give House lawmakers 36 hours’ notice to return to the Capitol once the Senate passes the bill.

Flight disruptions and food aid delays are likely to persist until the shutdown officially ends. Still, Republicans on Monday took a victory lap, with Johnson telling reporters that the shutdown “nightmare,” now in its 41st day, is finally coming to an end.

Stocks rallied Monday morning on bets the shutdown will soon end, with the S&P 500 up more than 1% shortly after the market opened. A gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps climbed over 2%. Bonds fell.

The moderate senators’ deal failed to deliver the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that Democrats staked their shutdown fight on, provoking a furious backlash within the party just days after many Democrats were celebrating last week’s election victories.

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom called the deal “pathetic” while Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker slammed Republican concessions in the agreement as an “empty promise.”

Senate Vote

The Senate took a major step toward reopening the federal government Sunday evening as it voted 60-40 on a procedural measure to advance a temporary funding bill.

Under the agreement, Congress would pass full-year funding for the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Congress itself, while funding other agencies through Jan. 30. The bill would provide pay for furloughed government workers, resume withheld federal payments to states and localities and recall agency employees who were laid off during the shutdown.

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