... it stops nothing unless you think republicans cared about the people they hurt when government is shut down. For whtever that game was worth, it's been played out, but it hasn't led to a republican victory. It's a two month pause in the political infighting to allow people to get paid and fed. Folks need to grip on that.

Our focus should be on the 'republican health care crisis' which is still contained inside and outside the republican budget that's only advanced another two months.

I don't see why that's something to declare defeat over.

The next flashpoint is when the subsidies expire and we hold the vote right afterward.

No doubt there are many republicans nervous about the cuts and stringing them out into January isn't some advantage for them, it's either rope to reel themselves in or to hang themselves with it.

There was always going to be pressure on lawmakers to end the shutdown the closer the holidays drew near, on the ones who cared about the furloughed workers and other priorities for the people, that is, the Democrats.

Not sure what people are going on who supposed republicans who engineered all of this would somehow become concerned people were being hurt by shutting down the government most republicans don't give a shit about.

Not sure why anyone believed that was good for more than the political positioning we clearly got out of it with republicans clearly in charge of the exploding premiums - and reublicans left without any Democratic vote in the Senate on the shutdown or anything else to point to as an excuse for their own majority party not making those subsidies available.

I mean, what the heck did you think that was all about anyway? Did you not see the politics using health care cuts being exercised in tandem by both Democratic leaders, against a lot of headwind from supposed allies telling them to divert to the troop deployment or some other issue?

I'm not following the internet fantasy pollitics that assumes that Democrats were locked into the media expectations game in which they tried with all of their might to knock our leaders off of their messaging, constantly asking why Democrats were keeping the government shut down and ignoring the simple majority republicans need to advance their own partisan budget and fund their republican majority government themselves.

I was following the actual politics, not the worst interpretations offered up for us to adopt and grouse over by gaslighting journos and internet hacks with monetized youtube pages.

Johnson has already publicly stated he will reject the Democrats budget proposal and will probably not entertain extending the ACA tax credit. It reset the clock.

the 'clock' already started for Americans looking at their projected premium increases.

And the dog will be out of the starting gate on the day subsidies actually increase, a few weeks BEFORE we hold the vote on extending them.

I'd think there will be a lot of talks back and forth during this interim between nervous republicans and Democrats about a compromise.

Not sure why anyone thought we'd move the Senate, the House, and the WH by now without their own party;s voters experiencing actual economic shock and pain.

Look at where we are. They think they're just hurting Democrats. Their people, in more republican states than Democratic using the tax credits, are the only ones that will move them, not pain that they deliberately intended for federal workers or SNAP recipients.

The shutdown was never going to be the trigger, never going to serve as a shortcut or substitute for political movement of republican supporters getting priced out of the health insurance they've been relying on care of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in 2021 and 2022.

It was a catalyst which some folks can't seem to see past their own attachment to the expectations game that was actually in play to snare republicans over their entire health care cuts, 'The Republican Health Care Crisis' as Jeffries puts it.

This is political opportunity, and it's folks who can't grasp the shutdown politics who haven't managed to catch onto the wave of opposition that the Dem leaders stirred up for us.

The way I see it is, if folks believe they have enough influence to push Democrats around for trying and making progress, they can certainly use that influence to push republicans even further.

I mean, we don't need to hold federal workers and their families, as well as everyone else whose lives and livelihoods depend on a functioning government hostage to our politics. it certainly wasn't moving republicans after 40 some days to hurt people any less than they already intended by engineering this shutdown.

Is there really some purpose or intent in arguing this as if Democrats engineered something republicans could solve with their own votes ending the filibuster, or in reconciliation?

Do I really have to keep pretending there was an actual Democratic party hold on the majority party budget? I'm moving on from that construct to the present one, and I think that's the imperative right now: To take advantage of the ground we gained.

I think the reactions you're seeing spring from that. As I said, States and Courts were stepping in on SNAP. Trump/GOPers starting to squabble. Dem sweep of elections, holidays coming, etc etc

They knew that republicans weren't going to give an inch and that we were eventually going to cave - but saved the election by delaying until after we won.

The fix was in for a while. The cynical side of me says that senate dems told Spanberger and others from Virginia that this would be resolved right after the election. It played for a cudgel in VA.

They knew the republicans wouldn’t give in a bit. What’s pathetic is they gained next to nothing. I’m really amused by this vote Dems will supposedly get. The trust they place in Thune is laughable. I’m tired of the gaslighting by some on this site, that somehow republicans caved. They’re laughing their asses off. If Trump is saying it’s a good deal, well it clearly isn’t. I don’t need some hack pundit telling me otherwise.

This story is really about the five who made the different in the end.

...cited Politico saying their negotiations began on day one with republicans, and that Schumer did well holding them back until afterward.

some pyramid schemes to sell you.

They are already starting off with stronger abortion restrictions just to have the debate.

We lost this one. Bigly.

...and I'm not one of the people who supposed republicans who engineered the shutdown they could end themselves cared enough about the federal workers they were hurting to make any compromise.

The compromising begins when it's political fraught for republicans to continue, ie. their own voters rebelling against the premium increases that will occur in the interim before the upcoming vote that was negotiated as part of this.

It's one thing to claim that the shutdown was the beat all. it's quite another to equivocate about it all as if that was the end all beat all to the entire political effort.

It was a step forward for anyone interested in taking up a part of the fight; that is, if they're done fighting the deconstructed political construct that brought us to expecting action on something no one was talking about before the shutdown; something not part of the budget or the shutdown which Dem leaders made the most important thing for supporters and detractors.

Keep up.

We caved. The Rs didn't have to give up anything to get their shitty CR. What impetus did we give them to care at all about the next time we won't vote with them. They just have to wait and we'll give in.

I mean, I appreciate the attempt if only for the art of the thing.

But it's getting to be a bit much.

That poor billy club needs a vacation.