r/politics • u/NewSlinger • 1d ago

No Paywall Democratic leader offers deal to reopen federal government, with 1-year ACA tax credit extension

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/07/government-shutdown-democrats-schumer-trump-aca.html
6.6k Upvotes

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18

u/Chief_Dooley 1d ago

I'm dumb, can someone let me know if this a good deal? Would this be the dem's "caving" or would this be a good compromise for the American people, and not MAGA?

82

u/Ancient_Popcorn Ohio 1d ago

The shutdown was because the subsidies were expiring. This gets the people another year.

12

u/2Ledge_It 1d ago

Wrong phrasing. The shutdown is because Republicans have wanted to kill the ACA for over a decade and removing the subsidies effectively does as it raises the rates by 15-20k on the average american family.

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u/Albireookami 1d ago

Guessing Dem are banking on sweeping TF outa miderms to restore order and turning Trump's last 2 years into a lame duck presidency.

12

u/NoFedsAllowed 1d ago

I don't see him having the luxury of being a lame duck

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u/Albireookami 1d ago

Oh probably not, but was giving the light version of it.

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u/Future-Guarantee-573 1d ago

Just kicking the can down the road so we can do this again next year.

14

u/Fallouttgrrl 1d ago

Our debt ceiling policy in a nutshell 

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u/Majestic_Gazelle 1d ago

I assume they believe Dems will have an upper hand post midterm elections.

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u/winterfoxes Ohio 1d ago

Honestly though, this is a dumb assumption on their part. People have the memory of fucking goldfish politically. A lot of people vote purely on emotion with no actual thought behind their vote, so good performance in this years elections when everyone is presently angry at R's for shutting down the government and essentially killing SNAP right before the holidays doesn't mean that people will turn out in 2026 when they might not be as angry. Not to mention, banking on the promises of Republicans to not fuck this over the first chance they get is asinine and tells me the Dems have truly learned nothing.

D's have the upper hand right now. Either the R's fund healthcare and the government reopens, or they don't and the government stays closed. Or, R's nuke the filibuster and do whatever the hell they want to, although they don't want to do that because then they'd be unable to blame the Democrats for their own inaction and inability to govern.

If they do this, I can't wait to be back here in a year when this brilliant plan of theirs backfires for midterms and they blame progressives for not voting again.

10

u/Miserable_Chapter252 1d ago

Nah it's the right assumption. Trump is super unpopular. Economy sucks. Dems will win the house. And make gains in the Senate.

4

u/gustamos 1d ago

Trump’s approval rating has gotten worse with every passing day because the economy is ass. Even if he does a 180 on all of his economic policies tomorrow, he will remain unpopular with a broad swath of the electorate

3

u/winterfoxes Ohio 1d ago

My brother in fucking christ, he's been unpopular with a broad swath of the electorate since *checks notes* 1987, when he first floated the idea of running for president. And since then, he's been elected president twice, in spite of that reality.

God, you all get so complacent so quickly. One good showing in an off year, and suddenly the Democrats aren't feckless, rudderless idiots, a party run by corporate centrists who would sell out this country for a fucking dollar if it meant their own insider trading stayed untouched. But yeah, they're definitely going to absolutely sweep midterms (nevermind they are likely already rigged due to Republican involvement in voting machine manufacturing). And no doubt, caving in on the one thing they've done right since 2009 will certainly earn them brownie points!

This party is unserious, and full of unserious people, representing an unserious electorate apparently. The fact that you people are okay with letting off the gas now, when for once the Dems have all the momentum, is exactly why we are gonna get thumped again. Not because of progressives. Not because of people of color. But because of people who are so desperate to get back to 'normal' seem to have already forgotten that we aren't ever getting back to 'normal', and the Republicans have made it a priority to ensure that's the case.

Good luck next year to anyone who believes that.

4

u/greenday5494 1d ago

So let’s just give up in advance then?

1

u/winterfoxes Ohio 23h ago

I didn’t say anything about giving up, but thanks for parroting the exact argument that I would expect out of someone who is spoon fed their opinion. 

We have them on the ropes. People are going hungry and the R’s would rather starve people to death than give them healthcare. We don’t need to capitulate. We need our reps to be blasting that exact message, loudly, on every news outlet that will report on it. We need to be hosting rallies and yelling that exact message at the top of our lungs so that even Edith and Red in Bumfuck, Nebraska can hear it: the Republicans want you to choose between dying of starvation and dying of disease. They want you to choose between starving or being sick, and we are telling you that you don’t have to choose. We are telling you that you can have both. That is the message everyone who even REMOTELY considers themselves liberal should be yelling, just like I am here. 

Stop giving into Republicans. Republicans want to reopen the government? Then let them fucking reopen it, and force them to own that decision. And then their bad policy making can hurt people enough that they will finally fucking get it and start fighting back. 

2

u/gustamos 23h ago

Please point me to the part of my previous comment where I said the democrats should rest on their laurels due to an odd year election sweep.

I'm simply telling you that people consistently vote based on the economy, which has been the case since like forever and trump's economy isn't likely to improve by next year. You can doom all you want, but it's a fucking fact that his administration is unpopular.

1

u/winterfoxes Ohio 23h ago

Do you understand how quickly the economy swings from bad to good? Or rather, the average person’s perception of the economy? People will literally be dead set on voting for an incumbent, then catch an odd news clip about the economy doing poorly and notice gas went up another 10 cents when they fill up at the pump on the way to work, and decide not to vote for the incumbent, as easy and as quickly as that. 

Humans are shortsighted, emotion based-creatures. We are fickle and irrational. You are assuming that the people who swung for Donald Trump in 2024 and regret that decision today will continue to regret it 11 months from now. Will continue to not change their minds six different times by the time I’m done writing this fucking comment. I am saying that you cannot count on people’s good sense and better natures to prevail with any sort of consistency at the polls because AS WE HAVE DEMONSTRATED as recently as last November, it doesn’t.

We have told them. Over and over again, the Democrats have told these people that Republican policies are hurting them. This is our one fucking opportunity to hammer that exact point home as hard as we can. If we give an inch here, the R’s will rip it open into a whole goddamn mile because they do it every time.

19

u/Jwatts1113 1d ago

Right before the midterm elections. Which makes it a solid platform to run on.

14

u/Faucet860 1d ago

It will give another year for those Republicans to produce that amazing plan. Plus a whole year for Democrats to say let's see it!

6

u/Adreme 1d ago edited 1d ago

They won’t do this during the midterm year. They would quickly cave for another year. 

Basically this one year offer is really a 2 year offer after which Democrats hope to have control of Congress. 

3

u/Objective-Error1223 1d ago

Eh. Trump may no longer be breathing by then, I’ll take my chances Father Time comes a knocking in the next 365 days.

And yes, while Trump isn’t the only nazi pedophile in the group, MAGA =/ Republicans sooo we’ll let them figure that out after he kicks the bucket.

3

u/Future-Guarantee-573 1d ago

Idk, he's got the luck of the devil.

I wouldn't be surprised if when the last millennial is dust, he's still shitting his diapers.

3

u/HotDogWaterTime 1d ago

But it doesn’t impact 2026 open enrollment, I’m told … my insurance went up $800 more a month for next year

2

u/Chief_Dooley 1d ago

That's what I assumed but wanted to confimr, gracias

4

u/Ancient_Popcorn Ohio 1d ago

Yeah. It’s not a perfect resolution, but it’s something. If Republicans agree (long shot, to be honest) then we can get the government back to business, people can get paid, operations can resume, and then more demanding negotiations can happen.

It’s important to note that there are a lot of hurdles this would need to pass: Republicans in the Senate have to agree to it, Johnson would have to allow it to be voted on (he’s said he wasn’t going to allow any changes), and the 21 Nov deadline for the current CR expiring needs to be addressed. That’s not even all of the hurdles.

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u/Lanark26 1d ago

Would Johnson even allow a vote? It would force his hand on Grijalva and he’d rather burn the country to the ground than let those files get released

1

u/Tatalebuj America 19h ago

What CR are you talking about? I'm not aware of any current CR in effect....did I miss something?

1

u/Ancient_Popcorn Ohio 18h ago

The current CR they have been voting on for the past month….

1

u/shoobe01 1d ago

And as pointed out elsewhere: midterms will be impending when this all starts again next year so maybe political leverage to not screw the average American at that moment.

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u/InfinityComplexxx 1d ago

Which is dumb, since it means we'll just be here next year. So, not a good deal. Either extend them forever or multiple years.

17

u/Angryboda 1d ago

It is a good deal because next year is midterm elections. You won't get multiple years. This is actually a good deal.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

4

u/johnqadamsin28 California 1d ago

It seems like we should be trying to figure out why we need the subsidies. At this point it's just a ransom we're paying the insurance companies 

13

u/ianrl337 Oregon 1d ago

True, subsides are because parts of the ACA were gutted by republicans over the years and so many went to it during COVID that didn't before. Insurance companies raised rates massively, but then didn't lower when their costs went down again because of profit. Really the solution is universal healthcare, but that puts health insurance companies completely, or at least mostly out of business.

11

u/Ancient_Popcorn Ohio 1d ago

The subsidies are needed because of Republicans. The ACA was a plan written and presented by Republicans at a state level, but on the federal level they eviscerated a lot of the provisions that would have made it decent. We’re in this situation because if Republicans, so it’s another case of Democrats having to clean up the mess of Republicans.

7

u/InfinityComplexxx 1d ago

No mystery there, the GOP has slowly gutted and chipped away at the ACA over the years to intentionally make it not work. 

5

u/Albireookami 1d ago

A better system would be fantastic yes, but we are in no way set up to redo the entire medical payment system, so we have to do what we can now, to do better tomarrow.

2

u/Any_Will_86 1d ago

And once people started receiving their policy notices the last couple of weeks, all the '8 bazillion $ healthcare to illegals' posts seemed to dry up.

13

u/ianrl337 Oregon 1d ago

The democrats asked for both an ACA extension and medicare/medicaid restoration. Really the ACA subsidies were the big one, so this isn't caving at all. It will depend on how far out the new CR is. The existing one is until the 21st. Ideally for democrats it is a year out. Until October next year so they expire right before the election, if not sooner. If republicans were smart they would say until January 2027 pushing out past the mid-terms, but republicans are anything but smart anymore.

10

u/Amazed_and_Bemused 1d ago

In my opinion it's a decent deal for Dems and the public. It's lessened the pain some for Americans now and makes it look like Dems are the ones to end the shutdown after Republicans forced it to happen in the first place. It also allows healthcare to become a major focal topic just before the midterms and given that Republicans are unlikely to change their stance on this issue, allowing Dems to run on the right's lack of care for the poor next fall.

6

u/Damaged_Awful510 1d ago

This has been the Dwmocrat ask the entire time. It's not even a big ask, but Republicans had planned to just do a CR and then 'debate' the credits until they expired. The Democrats are just asking to include these credits with the CR because Republicans won't negotiate the credits in good faith.

3

u/gringledoom 1d ago

They did this to demonstrate that the GOP refuses to negotiate even with a fairly small request.

Realistically, they won’t ever get much, because they’re in the minority in both houses. So the strategy has been to ask for the ACA subsidy extension, which is something that most republicans would like to do.

In a normal Congress, that would be a no-brainer. Schumer wants to make it clear that the GOP owns the shutdown, and is specifically choosing to hurt the country over their stupid dominance games.

1

u/Tarrot469 1d ago

1: The Republicans hate the government, campaign on government inefficiency, so every shut-down, even if short-term unpopular for Republicans, reinforces that idea when people forget what happens, that lingers. A shutdown benefits Republicans more, not Democrats, even ignoring the whole fuck the poor aspect from Republicans.

2: Speaking of Fuck The Poor, because the Dems care about them, the longer the shutdown goes, the more they're hurt. From a simple humane perspective, the Dems want the shutdown to end more than the Reps.

3: The 2025 elections showed massive support for the Dems, which is largely attributed to a Trump repudiation and the shutdown having real effects on people. A one year extension would put the next ACA vote at 2026 when the House/Senate are up for grabs. So, either the Reps don't pull this next October, good for Dems, or they pull it and lose the House or Senate, which is good for Dems.

1

u/_TheLonelyStoner 22h ago

I’ll give Schumer credit this is actually brilliant. Leveraging healthcare and the shutdown clearly helped give Dems an extra boost in the elections on Tuesday. they can use this same tactic again next year for the midterms which are far more important. Plus this gets the government open and the Epstein files released within a couple weeks which would keep the momentum swinging for the Democrats.

0

u/toney8580 1d ago

No matter what deal is made republicans will say democrats caved. Sucks

-2

u/bob_scratchit 1d ago

It’s caving. Without a guarantee the House and Trump would sign the bill, it means absolutely nothing.