The Democrats were furious Monday over eight senators who caved to support a deal to end the government shutdown that does not include the Affordable Care Act subsidies their party had spent weeks fighting for.

The offending lawmakers include Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Tim Kaine, Jacky Rosen, John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, and independent Senator Angus King, who claimed that they’d ensured a Senate vote on extending the tax credits. Their capitulation comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted for weeks that he wouldn’t promise them a vote on anything, and even if he does follow through with a vote, it’s unlikely such a measure will pass the House.

Democratic lawmakers slammed their colleagues for forfeiting health care coverage for an estimated 5.1 million Americans by 2034 and increasing premiums across the marketplace.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders railed against the deal while speaking before the Senate Sunday. “If this vote succeeds, over 20 million Americans are gonna see at least a doubling in their premiums in the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “For certain groups of people, it will be a tripling and a quadrupling of their premiums. There are people who will now be paying 50 percent of their limited incomes for health care. Does anybody in the world think that makes sense?”

  • 𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Textbook definition of controlled opposition


    Some rambling thoughts:

    For all the screeching about 3P leading up to the election, NOW might be the time to drive something like the Working Families Party (that helped elect Zohran) forward and purposefully fragment the Dems at a federal level. What is there to lose? They’re compromised and failing to pose any kind of opposition while Nazis literally control every facet of federal government (and are definitely fucking with elections). Splitting the party would act as a dead man’s switch that puts pressure on the Dems to shift left and form a coalition or officially die as a party.

    Realistically, ~3% support would be enough to be a serious threat. Remember that MAGA started with the joke of a tea party

    I’m not saying this is a perfect idea, this is just an angry shower thought in response to the Dems. But I wanna know your thoughts, agree or disagree

    • acchariya@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yeah stop sending money for chuck Schumer to use to fuck everyone. At least Donald trump took donors money and did what he said he was going to do, give to a party you agree with and no longer the so called least bad option. Real progressives need to see the ship sinking and get off now.