Democrats said they were holding out for bipartisan negotiations over health care. But their move to withhold the votes needed to keep the government open was a marked change in strategy.
“It is literally my obligation to try and fight for health care, and I’m willing to talk to anyone,” said Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, who joined all but three Senate Democrats in voting against the Republican short-term funding bill Tuesday night. “I’m willing to accept that I certainly will not get everything I want, but adults get in a room and negotiate.”
Democrats justified taking their hard tack in several ways.
They said it was Republicans and President Trump who had forced them to this point by not negotiating an extension of funding, and by reneging on past budget deals by intentionally withholding money that Congress had appropriated.
“This moment requires us to prove that we’re more than the adults in the room, but that we’re the fighters in the room,” said Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Boston Democrat. “And we have to resist, reject, and obstruct this harm at every turn. … Under a Republican majority, our choices have been bad and bad.”
Battered for months by Trump’s aggressive budget cuts and still stinging from passage of a Republican tax bill projected to cost millions of Americans their health care, Democrats decided they had to take a stand — even if that meant a shutdown.
Senator Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, said it was a “hard call” not to vote for the funding bill because of the damage it will inflict on federal workers and the public.
“On the one hand, do you want to appease a president whose demands never end? Or do you want to have a shutdown? And that’s harmful as well,” Welch said. “So this is a pick-your-poison situation.”
Democrats have called for Republicans to extend enhanced tax credits for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act and reverse about $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid through 2034 in the One Big Beautiful Bill Republicans passed this summer. Trump and Republican congressional leaders have balked, insisting that policy discussions should not be part of a short-term government funding bill and that there is time to extend the ACA subsidies because they don’t expire until Dec. 31.
But Democrats said they needed to act now with insurance rate notices going out in October that will show significant premium increases.
“Our health care system was already broken, and now Trump and the Republicans want to take away health care from 15 million Americans and raise premiums for everyone else,” said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. “We have to push back. We’ve tried for six months to negotiate. They won’t do that. So this is using the sliver of leverage that we have.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer received intense blowback from the Democratic base and House members for pledging to hold firm during a similar short-term funding fight in March then giving in to a last-minute deal without securing any concessions. Ten Senate Democrats eventually agreed to a short-term funding extension, helping avoid a shutdown.
But much has changed since then, said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who was among those Democrats who voted for the funding deal in March.
“We watched President Trump and what he is doing to this country, particularly when it comes to health care costs for families,” Durbin said.
Others said the latest budget battle was the culmination of a series of broken promises from the White House, including moving to cancel funding approved by Congress.
“Trust has broken down,” said Massachusetts Representative Stephen Lynch. “We have to trust that when the president signs a funding bill, that he actually spends the money and doesn’t try to repeal it, or exercise a rescission. So that’s what’s problematic here, all those other rules are [from] an older day when we trusted each other.”
Representative Mark DeSaulnier, a California Democrat, described the dynamics of these funding fights like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown over and over again.
“Every time we’ve done the right thing, they’ve continued to get worse,” he said. “So, we’ve tried over and over again, and the response is, ‘You’re a bunch of suckers, we’re going to cut more.’ … At some point you have to draw a line, and this is it.”
Republican senators were fuming at their Democratic counterparts on Tuesday, keen to point to all their criticisms about Republican-fueled shutdowns in the past.
“It’s such a disservice,” said West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who sits on the Appropriations Committee. “I mean, in their own words, what did Schumer say? Chaotic, disservice, this was his position in 2013, idiocy. … He’s right in that this is a meaningless fight. It’s not fighting for the American people, it’s fighting for the political left.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who declined to call the House back into session this week after having passed a short-term extension earlier this month, said Democrats were rejecting the type of short-term funding bill some of them defended voting for last spring.
“Remember, this is exactly the same thing that Chuck Schumer voted for in March and came out and told everybody he had to, it was necessary,” Johnson said on CNBC Tuesday. “Their position right now is pure politics. They’re doing this for Chuck Schumer’s backside, not for the American people. And they are willing to inflict pain to do that.”
But other Republicans were circumspect about how a switch of party control in Washington can often lead to such changes of heart.
“If it weren’t for double standards, there wouldn’t be any standards at all up here,” said Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. “Of course, it’s hypocritical, but Republicans have flip flopped on things, too.”
He said Schumer is opting for a shutdown this time because of the backlash he got from the left wing of his party in March. But Kennedy said Schumer is taking a risk.
“There’s a famous movie line that says, ‘If you pray for rain, you better be prepared to deal with the mud.’ And Chuck is going to have to deal with the mud,” Kennedy said. “I don’t think my Democratic friends have thought through how to get this thing back open.”