Well into the second month of this country’s longest shutdown of the federal government, the Democratic Party, at long last, had positioned itself as an actual opposition to President Donald Trump and his authoritarian ambitions — or so it seemed.
In a deal struck with Senate Republicans over the weekend, enough senators who caucus with Democrats — eight, to be exact — agreed to a plan to re-open the government. Acquiescing to Trump and the GOP, these Senate Democrats brokered no meaningful concessions, rendering this entire shutdown fight pointless.
In exchange for votes to continue funding the government, the Democratic leadership’s central demand was a permanent extension to health insurance subsidies within the Affordable Care Act, a measure that would prevent premiums from skyrocketing over the next year.
But this deal offers no such extension. Instead, GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune has promised to hold a vote on subsidy extension by the second week in December.
In a news conference following the successful vote to move forward with re-opening the government, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, who was one of the party’s “yes” votes, said the deal is “an opportunity also to put Republicans on the record on the ACA.”