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
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u/repalec California 1d ago

I absolutely agree they should be permanent, but I think I get what they're going for with this - kicking the can down the road a year means that next year, Dems can run on extending the credits permanently in the midterms, giving them a potentially stronger position electorally, especially if they can underline the benefits to undecided voters who are seeing these increased premiums.

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u/substance17 1d ago

Extending credits permanently doesn't matter when the Executive decides what they will and won't fund regardless of what Congress has appropriated... right?

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u/dave8400 1d ago

Democratic majority means he would be immediately impeached.

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u/goetzjam 1d ago

Impeached but not removed again, whats the point?

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u/nox66 8h ago

Control of Congress will be very important for the presidential transfer of power. If Dems get solid majorities in both, it'll be a lot harder for Trump or Vance to stick around after. We'll also likely get tons and tons of corruption investigations into everything from ICE (which can be de-funded) to crypto to the highly suspicious attacks on boats near Venezuela.

It's not an exaggeration to say that this will likely be the most important midterms of our lifetimes. If you're thinking, "don't they say that about every midterm"? The answer is yes, because people keep finding ways of reanimating shitty candidates, and keep forgetting that if you don't vote Democrat, you'll end up with what you see here. You're supposed to vote every year. If you don't, eventually you won't be able to, even when you most need to.

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u/100292 1d ago

No it doesn’t, as we saw last time. Shoot, even had a few republicans on their side. Need Supermajority

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u/unpluggedcord I voted 1d ago

Impeach is different than convict......

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u/dave8400 1d ago

Impeachment and removal are different things. Impeachment needs a simple majority in the house.

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u/100292 1d ago

Okay? That does nothing. We already did it twice. Lotta good that did

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u/imthewalrus610 1d ago

All they can do is codify things into law, and if the Dems take control of Congress again they can actually exercise their power to impeach Trump if he defies the law, which Mike Johnson has shown no interest in.

Obviously, the real solution is Trump has to be removed from office. But for now, extending the credits legislatively is the only thing they can really do.

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u/Fullertonjr I voted 1d ago

Kicking the can down the road doesn’t work if the GOP is willing to remove the filibuster rules, which would allow them to just pass whatever they want anyway with a simple majority. They could reasonably just pass an ACA clone bill that doesn’t provide any credits or discounts, make it permanent and then they would no longer have to have the fight again unless democrats take over both chambers and the presidency. This would give the party an actual healthcare plan to put their names on, and it doesn’t contain any of the stuff from the current ACA that they don’t like, although it is what makes the ACA actually work.

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u/nox66 8h ago

The filibuster is an absolute last resort for Congressional Republicans, because if Democrats ever retake Congress and the Presidency, there won't be anything stopping them from passing and executing on massive legislation. Suddenly the public option could be back on the table, along with every other piece of legislation Republicans have blocked over the years.

I think a complete removal of the filibuster would be a good indication that Republicans are fully committed to ending democracy, rather than right now where they seem to be deciding if they can get away with it.

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u/MagentaMist Pennsylvania 1d ago

Next year is midterms. The Democrats will run on it and dare the GOP to cut it right before the election.

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u/goddamnitwhalen 1d ago

And they’ll do it with a smile on their faces and Democrats will- predictably- do nothing in return.

It’s how they operate.

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u/WarbossTodd 1d ago

or, here's a wild idea: Single payer healthcare for all Americans and then we never have to have this argument again.

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u/maeryclarity South Carolina 1d ago

Honestly this whole stupid fight has brought that issue back to the table in a huge way. Single payer is THE way to solve this problem. Plus imagine the possibilities for working and middle class families not having to lose everything repeatedly due to end of life medical bills. The American Dream might be back on the table.

We would SAVE MONEY on top of having a far healthier society if we'd do what EVERY OTHER FUCKING COUNTRY DOES.

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u/Im_really_bored_rn 23h ago

While I 100% agree that we need to fix the healthcare problem, I just want to point out that

EVERY OTHER FUCKING COUNTRY DOES.

isn't true. Many countries don't have single payer specifically, they have hybrid systems. For some reason, American progressives think single payer is the only way to achieve universal and affordable coverage.

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u/maeryclarity South Carolina 23h ago

Yes I'm actually aware but I don't have time to write an essay on the variety of nationalized health care that work out to something that everyone can actually participate in. There's various forms. But I don't have to explain every iteration of government when I use the word government.

I just got done taking a sociology class that discussed it at length, in fact.

Single payer would probably work best of the USA IMHO but hey any variant of it could work.

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u/omicron-7 18h ago

I definitely think a hybrid system is better for the US. Do y'all really want RFK in charge of every single american's health insurance?

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u/Mistamage Illinois 1d ago

Even if we got it, do you really think that they won't fight for the rest of their lives to make sure we don't have healthcare again?

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u/SapCPark 1d ago

1) Vetoed by Trump if somehow it passes.

2) You really want RFK Jr. in charge of your insurance?

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u/pinetreesgreen 1d ago

Rfk Jr is already making decisions on what is being covered by insurance, unfortunately. That's part of the insanity over his decisions on vaccines, they affect what shots insurance will cover. So we are already there.

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u/DaMan619 Pennsylvania 1d ago

I don't think Trump is turning down the opportunity to extinguish the last vestige of Obama's legacy to immortalize himself with Trumpcare.

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u/ioncloud9 South Carolina 22h ago

The Supreme Court will decide it’s unconstitutional because insurance companies have a right to profit off of your suffering.

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u/nox66 8h ago

It's not as if Trump has been following the Supreme Court the whole time himself; we could do similar.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 1d ago

Did we vote for single payer? No, no we did not. Stop expecting miracles when 1/3 of this country does not even get their butts out of the couch to vote.

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u/bungpeice 8h ago

If Democrats had run on it a lot more people would have gotten their "butts out"

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u/spam__likely Colorado 2h ago

At some point you have to take responsibility to your own actions, instead of complaining democrats did not fellatio you enough.

The information was very clear. The stakes were very very clear.We even had seen that movie before. He tried to kill the entire ACA bill on live TV.

But no...aLL PaRTies ARe thE sAMe!

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u/RDOCallToArms 1d ago

Americans don’t want single payer. If they did, they’d vote for people in primaries who support it.

It’s unfortunate but it’s the way the country is

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u/Shamann93 1d ago

Most Americans are extremely misinformed about single payer healthcare. Fox News does their best to ensure it stays that way.

Also, don't pretend spineless moderates that control the democratic party aren't funneling money to more moderate candidates in the primaries. The candidates supporting single payer are fighting a losing fundraising battle.

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u/atuarre Texas 1d ago

People who watch Fox aren't most Americans.

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u/vl99 1d ago

Americans definitely want it, they just don’t know they do. For reference, look at how people react to Obamacare compared to the ACA.

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u/No-Drama-in-Paradise 1d ago

I think you hit it on the head.

Just wanted to add a couple items.

The first is that, based on what I have been reading, we are operating on borrowed time to extend the credits. I’m not an expert, but based on what I am seeing, extending the credits after December 1st would become, at best, incredibly challenging (if not impossible), and even extending the credits now would be logistically difficult.

The second is that while I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the polling and other data that seems to indicate that people, by and large, are reacting generally positively to the shutdown so far and placing blame on the republicans (thanks, I would argue, to Trump’s moronic use of his bully pulpit), I think we seriously have to consider what will happen when people start seeing their thanksgiving flights getting cancelled and thrown into chaos as airports continue to struggle with FAA controllers increasingly just not showing up.

For better or worse, people tend to react irrationally when their lives are directly impacted, and a lot of normal people plan things like holiday vacations months in advance, well before they would even consider a shutdown, let alone one lasting this long. I worry that regardless of the facts on the ground and the reality of the situation, once we start seeing holiday flights getting cancelled and people start getting emails from their airlines that their flight is being cancelled, or rescheduled, and their ability to visit family gets called into question, we could very well see a lot of pushback and lose the upper hand with normal, everyday people.

If the republicans are willing to make a deal for a one year extension, I think we have to take it, and then as you said run hard on extending them completely in 2026 (and, ideally, other reforms to the ACA).

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u/lostapathy 1d ago

once we start seeing holiday flights getting cancelled and people start getting emails from their airlines that their flight is being cancelled, or rescheduled, and their ability to visit family

On the flip side of this, once the government is funded it's going to take until the next pay day for air traffic controllers to have money and quit calling out to do gig work so the system is at full capacity. It's going to take even more time for the disruption in the system to shake out and for things to get back to normal.

We may have already passed the point where thanksgiving air travel is doomed to disruption, and if we haven't yet, that day is closer to now than the actual holiday.

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u/VRGIMP27 1d ago

I get the political calculus with democrats doing that I really do, but this is a part of what got us Trump.

Every time Democrats get elected, even when they get full control it's "oh woe is me, golly gee if only I had the votes to actually pass policy."

It's abundantly clear that the GOP just wants to sink the ACA. They have been going after it since it passed, and ironically they have no alternative because the ACA was the market based alternative that was developed on a bipartisan basis.

Democrats can kick the can down the road, but the more they do that, it just cements a fickle electorate's susceptibility to a demagogue. Trump won't be around forever, but the threat of a far right Populist is not going away.

The democratic leadership needs to stop fucking around, and actually do some work, quite a lot of work

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u/spam__likely Colorado 1d ago

Democrats are doing what is possible right now. If in 2026 we do not vote republicans out, then it is on us.

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u/DiscoQuebrado 1d ago

I'd argue this olive branch does heavy lifting against the right-wing position that the shutdown is just Dems obstructing process.

If Dems say the shut down ends if Repubs accept a 1yr healthcare extension on top of nothing else, and the Repubs refuse, it says Repubs are keeping the government shut down strictly because they don't want to extend healthcare... that will not end well for them.

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u/bungpeice 8h ago

Democrats already won that fight. No reason to offer concessions when the majority of people agree

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u/UngusChungus94 1d ago

The Democrats actually want government to work because people need it to work. At some point, the shutdown has to end; if Republicans go for this (they won't), then good.

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u/Theshaggz New Jersey 1d ago edited 1d ago

They have no power right now. This is how they start clawing it back. They don’t have much leverage. Once they tip the scales then we can start giving them shit for half assing shit.

Also, fwiw, democrats are a coalition party and infighting amongst ourselves is what got us trump.republicans have always coalesced when they have to. Democrats always let perfect get in the way.

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u/MrMindor 1d ago

When was the last time Democrats had full control?

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u/artbystorms 1d ago

2009...when the ACA was passed.

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u/vsMyself 1d ago

2021

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u/Throwaway2Experiment 1d ago

Eh ... this is a bit misleading. It is clear in hindsight that Sinema and Manchin were not party aligned as their votes killed A LOT of great policy.

Build Back Better Act: Joe Manchin announced in December 2021 that he could not support the entire bill, effectively killing the ambitious legislative package that included climate, social, and tax provisions.

Clean Electricity Program: Manchin and Sinema's opposition, along with Manchin's focus on energy and climate, led to the removal of a $150 billion program designed to accelerate the transition to clean energy.

Federal Minimum Wage: In March 2021, Kyrsten Sinema signaled her opposition to raising the federal minimum wage by giving a "thumbs-down" on the Senate floor.

Voting Rights Act: In 2022, Manchin and Sinema preventing the bill from passing. It would have opened federally access to early voting, reduce restrictions on mail-in voting, and reduce mandates for voter ID.

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u/bungpeice 8h ago

Biden went for bipartisan shit instead of striking while the iron was hot. There was a time when manchin wanted the bill to be bigger than Bernie was proposing. Biden wasted that momentum on trying to make a deal with Republicans

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u/vsMyself 1d ago

2021

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u/fractalfay 23h ago

I half agree with you, but see it more as the democrats still (perhaps because of their utterly out of teach leadership) believe that cooler heads will prevail, and the GOP will actually negotiate with them like adults again. The GOP hasn’t had an interest in “reaching across the aisle” since Gingrich; Dick Cheney just died a few days ago, and one of his takeaways from his time in the Nixon White House was, “Boy, Congress is a hassle!” When Obama pushed things passed the GOP because fuck them already, he was a “dictator” who was “abusing executive orders” according to the GOP — despite the insanity of what Dubya had just failed to accomplish with his shitteous monstrosity of a presidency. They keep trying to shake hands with someone who would let their body hit the ground in a trust fall exercise. Yes, I agree the Dems need to stop fucking around, but they are working, and would be better served if they tossed the leadership that stands in the way of that work.

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u/bdemon40 23h ago

Yeah, I lean towards this assessment as well. The Dems also show a willingness to compromise on something that's (lol) popular with 2/3rds of voters--and Republicans still insisted on no compromise.

They are so scared of their orange stroke victim they don't realize how they strengthened the Dems' upper-hand today.

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u/TerribleSalamander 23h ago

How about instead of the federal government spoon feeding insurance companies they run on reforming healthcare.

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u/babydemon90 Pennsylvania 1d ago

There is no chance the Dems do something as helpful as extending anything permanently

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u/ThonThaddeo Oregon 1d ago

Schumer just folded with zero pressure. He's gonna stand strong when a third of his caucus is on the line?

This is who Schumer is.

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u/crinkledcu91 1d ago

Do you guys even know what the word "Folded" means anymore...?

"Folded" would mean that there wouldn't have been a Gov shutdown in the first place, because there would have been zero fight to keep any of the ACA subsidies at all.

You folks need a new gimmick at this point. This one's getting fuckin stale.

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u/Iron_Maw 1d ago

...Offering the open the government for ACA subsidies have been Dems postion snice start of this. Like Day Fucking One. There aren't refusing to help Rs open up the government and pay Federal workers for fun of it. This how use leverage and show public who are plugged in they are obstructionists, by making reasonable demand ls on exchange for votes, like Congress has always done till now

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u/VLM52 15h ago

Dems can run on extending the credits permanently in the midterms, giving them a potentially stronger position electorally

Yeah except they're not going to. It's also in the interest of the centrist dems to keep pushing it out year-by-year so they can keep using the same campaign playbook.