"Senate Democrats hoped the threat of soaring insurance premiums would force Republicans to act"

[Miles Archer]

I won't pretend to understand why we keep giving Republicans the benefit of doubt, that they will do the right thing if they only understand what's at stake.

They...don't...CARE.

And I also won't pretend to understand why they are confident they'll hold onto the House and Senate next year of tens of millions of Americans see their healthcare premiums double or triple, or they have to forego coverage altogether because they can no longer afford it.

YES...GERRYMANDERING. I GET IT. But will Republican dirty tricks and the six "conservative" justices on the SCOTUS with their heads lodged in Trump's colon be enough to overcome this? WILL the people who LOSE coverage BELIEVE Trump when he says it's all BIDEN'S fault?

When a group of Senate Democrats voted last month to reopen the government — on the promise that they’d get a vote to extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies — they hoped the threat of soaring insurance premiums would force Republicans to act. Now they’re hoping the failure of that vote can reignite negotiations.

On Thursday, dueling health care proposals collapsed in the Senate, all but guaranteeing dramatic premium hikes for people enrolled in plans under the Affordable Care Act once the enhanced subsidies expire on Jan. 1.

In the first vote, a Republican plan to replace the subsidies with direct-to-consumer payments deposited into Health Savings Accounts — $1,000 a year for enrollees age 18 to 49, and $1,500 for enrollees over 50 — failed to clear the 60-vote threshold for cloture, 51-48, with the vote falling largely along party lines. (Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the sole Republican to join Democrats in voting no.)

The GOP proposal also would have included a host of other reforms, including enshrining restrictions on the HSA funds so they can’t be used for abortions.

https://www.ms.now/news/senate-face-plants-health-care-obamacare-premiums

[NewHendoLib]

1. Maga is Lucy. Dems are Charlie Brown. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

I'm shocked that so many Dem politicians lack the imagination of understanding what total shits repubs are.

[markodochartaigh]

4. I think that

I may understand some Democratic politicians who have lived in a rarefied world for decades, or perhaps their entire lives. Many of their friends, relatives, and business partners are Republicans. They may agree on more things with Mitt Romney or John McCain than they do with AOC, Ro Khanna, or Dennis Kucinich. Now they see their friends, relatives, and business partners forced to take stands and act in ways that seemed unthinkable before.
It isn't that unusual. How many spouses or friends have gradually grown apart, one day realizing that people that they thought that they knew either had changed or were never the people that they thought that they were.
A lot of Republicans have been in denial about exactly what they have gotten into bed with. Probably a lot of Democratic politicians have trouble coming to terms with the fact that their good friends have unwittingly sold their souls.

[Arazi]

5. Plenty of DUers bought into this shit

God forbid anyone suffers a flight delay over Thanksgiving 🙄

Let’s predictably fuck over millions of Americans including me who are losing their health insurance in a couple weeks, and access to health care

[FascismIsDeath]

8. Why are you going on about flight delays and not SNAP and federal worker paychecks?

I 100% agree with you that this is a terrible thing, that people are going to suffer, etc. Not just people that rely on those subsidies, but everyone who has private insurance... this is gonna have shockwaves across the system. But flight delays were at the bottom of the list of reasons some Dems gave in. The hostages were about to be shot. Period. The notion that Democrats have any real leverage, at least until there is another election, is a laughable myth that is completely out of mathematical reality.

You should stop pretending that this was about flight delays. Thats just dishonest.

[Arazi]

9. We had less than a week of flight delays and Dems caved

Come on, you really don’t remember?!

We had weeks of SNAP and fed workers suffering but it wasn’t until flight delays were imminent that we saw them fold…

… for nothing but the opportunity for a symbolic vote from Thune.

Guessing Dem leadership feels happy tonight! Got that vote (while millions of us get fucked)

[Bettie]

11. People with private jets were

being mildly inconvenienced!

They couldn't land at the airports they wanted to land at when they wanted to land!

That can not stand, the wealthy should never be inconvenienced!

Oh, and they got their vote, I'm sure that will be comforting to the people who will no longer have health insurance because the price doubled or tripled.

It won't be comforting , but those 8 senators probably feel good about their vote.

[karynnj]

12. I think their logic might have been that keeping

the government shut was not going to end in passing a bill extending the subsidies. I don't think anyone thought the deal to get a vote meant they had a likely path to extending them either.

I think the ONLY hope was that enough pressure from Republican constituents on Republicans would lead them to extending if only for one year.

I think ALL Democrats, no matter how they voted to end the shut down, wanted to extend the subsidies. However that would have required passing something through the House, the Senate and then getting it signed by the President.

All we ended up accomplishing is making it 100 percent clear that the Republicans, who fought to give Elon Musk a tax break are eliminating needed subsidies for the middle and lower middle class and in the process throw the entire healthcare system into chaos. This obviously doesn't help anyone affected, but the Democrats have no power. Assign the blame to those who do

[moonshinegnomie]

15. thast why im glad to see more and more entrenced dems get primaried

maybe that will shake them up

[leftstreet]

2. So why did they cave on the shutdown again?

[tritsofme]

18. Because imposing more cruelty upon federal workers and SNAP families

wasn’t going to force Republicans to extend ACA subsidies?

[OrlandoDem2]

3. Somehow we need to create a public option next time we have the WH.

Maybe it’s through an EO. Maybe with the WH and Congress we can create a public option via reconciliation.

Here’s my point - next time in power we must get something tangible! It’s time to go for the whole thing and create what should’ve happened when the ACA was written.

[anciano]

7. Agree....👍

a public option would be realistically doable.

[betsuni]

19. A public option was written into the ACA and passed in the House.

Larger Democratic majority or a few Republican votes in the senate and it would've happened.

[Fullduplexxx]

6. this makes me sick , that there are still dems who dont understand the animals with which they are dealing

[Johonny]

10. I think a lot of them have decided the house is lost

Last edited Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:33 PM - Edit history (1)

And believe the natural gerrymandering of the senate will keep them at a minimum of 50 seats. Thus, the democrats will not be able deliver any ACA expansion post 2026. Thus, in affect they will have won and screwed poor people to give rich people a shit ton of money.

[dalton99a]

13. Because the naivete and delusion have served us so well

[wolfie001]

14. They're burning down Rome while the fat, orange imbecile is fiddling

[Cirsium]

16. Fight

"They...don't...CARE." Absolutely correct. They never will care. They will never come around. They will never "FAFO." Young people are fed up with the entire system and we need to fight for them. No more bipartisan shuffle, no more compromise, no more playing it safe. Fight like everything were at stake.

[liberal N proud]

17. The cruelty of the republican cult

[Woodwizard]

20. And now I get to hear

My maga in laws bitch about their health premiums going up in the coming months, and of course how it is the democrats. It never fails.