General Discussion

...now firmly established in the public's view that republicans have been completely in control of that since before the shutdown.

That's due to the success of both Democratic leaders and others in making it appear to be a consequence of the shutdown by prioritizing it in every statement and appearance.

I'm sure they both recognized the value of that advocacy and focus was unlikely to result in republicans just giving something away that they had already refused to just because Americans were hurting, just as republicans had intended.

So we postponed the fight until after the holidays. Republicans can still do the thing they haven't yet done, and no federal worker, no person relying on the government for their basic needs has to sacrifice those things for the politics, at least over the holidays.

The most interesting development is that the vote scheduled on the ACA subsidies will occur after higher premiums have already gone into effect a few weeks previous. I don't know what people expected republicans to care about a government they don't appreciate and are trying to end, enough to bend on an ACA tax credit they didn't want for Americans in the first place.

The ONLY lever the party has is a people-powered elevation of the issue, and they've pulled a hat trick on that one, making it the most important issue today when NO one was prioritizing it. Not to mention the Schumer-Biden feat of forcing this vital benefit into a reconciliation budget during the pandemic, knowing full well that the temporary credit would be politically fraught for anyone trying to remove it.

That's not shutdown politics, it's advocacy that stretches from the creation of the tax benefit to the showdown over the expiration deadline. Even though the shutdown aided the politics through the deftness of our party leaders, it's not the end game. It never was, banking on republicans caring about the pain caused to anyone in their way.

This is now down to their relationships with their own voters, not Democrats ready to bail them out of the hot water that Schumer and Jeffries have drawn for them to drown in.