General Discussion

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.