Democrats, after a great election, cave to Trumpublican extortion

"A policy and political disaster."

Excuse me, but wasn’t the goal for Democrats an extension of Obamacare subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year and more than double premiums for millions of low- and middle-income Americans?

Wasn’t that a clear issue in last week’s blue-wave election? Didn’t the results indicate that voters blamed Trump and Republicans for the government shutdown and for cutting health insurance subsidies that created the mess?

Aren’t Democrats the champions of government-subsidized health insurance through Obamacare and Medicaid? Didn’t Republicans cut Medicaid by between $800 million and $1 trillion over 10 years so they could give millionaires and billionaires another tax break?

Then why did seven Democratic senators and one independent break with their caucus to fund the government and end the shutdown?

They got some guarantees for federal workers and SNAP recipients harmed by the Trump regime’s cruel and extortionate scheme, but came away with nothing on healthcare except the promise of a vote on subsidies in December.

Republican promises being pretty much worthless, there’s no guarantee of a vote. The opportunity to put Republicans on the spot, specifically on Obamacare, might never happen.

If it does, and Republicans reject the extended subsidies again, that will be the only good that will come of this politically: Republicans will go into the 2026 election having made health insurance unaffordable again for millions of Americans.

Meanwhile, the Democrats’ demand that the Medicaid cuts be restored appears to have disappeared from the conversation.

Give Republicans credit: In the long history of debate over the role of government in the lives of Americans, they have never changed. As Franklin Roosevelt put it, they have behaved consistently like “the man with two good legs who never learned to walk forward.”

They reject most subsidies for low-income people, even their own constituents, and suggest without evidence widespread fraud throughout the nation’s social safety net. They never supported Obamacare and, after it became law, tried repeatedly to kill it. They frequently suggest that Social Security be privatized. Republicans consistently promote and abide historic levels of income inequality and the trickle-down prosperity myth. Now they seem content to let Obamacare subsidies expire and reduce Medicaid benefits.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Democrat of Maryland, refers to Republicans’ “indifference to the health care crisis and growing unaffordability of our country.”

Countering this sad record are Democrats. Democrats established Obamacare. It was Democrats who consistently said Americans should not have to worry about whether they can afford to see a doctor.

That’s what’s profoundly disappointing about the eight senators who have given up the fight over health care.

For the record — and with the faint hope that they can be pressured to change their minds — here are the seven Democrats and one independent who agreed to go along with the Republicans on the shutdown and the number of Medicaid recipients they each represent.

Angus King, I-Maine: 396,000 children and adults, with 72% of the adults working full- or part-time.

Tim Kaine, D-Virginia: 1.5 million children and adults, with 70% of adults employed.

Dick Durbin, D-Illinois: 2.9 million, with 70% of adults employed.

John Fetterman, Pennsylvania: 2.9 million, with 72% of adults employed.

Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire: 181,000, with 75% of adults employed.

Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada: 738,000, with 67% of adults working.

It looked like the Democratic coalition, the moderates and progressives, were holding together on behalf of the people represented in those statistics. It looked like momentum had turned blue. It looked like Democratic leadership would make a principled stand for people who cannot otherwise afford health insurance.

Bernie Sanders said any retreat from the party’s demands on health care would be “a policy and political disaster.” As always, Bernie is right.