House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries probably can’t stop the government from reopening at the expense of the Democrats’ precious Obamacare subsidies, but darned if the guy ain’t trying.
In what may be a foreboding sign regarding negotiations over a longer-term solution to the health care issue, Rep. Jeffries and a fellow member of Democratic leadership — House Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts — proposed an amendment to the spending bill that would reopen the government which would extend the Obamacare subsidies at the heart of the battle for another three years, according to The Hill.
Not only that, but they pitched it as a gift to Republicans.
“Before the Rules Committee this evening, House Democrats will give the Republicans another opportunity to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits by introducing an amendment that will extend these tax credits for a three-year period of time,” Jeffries told reporters at a media briefing Tuesday evening.
“Republicans have created a health care crisis all across America. You now have an opportunity to actually take some action by working with Democrats before the Rules Committee this evening to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit.”
Mind you, there was virtually no chance of this clearing the House Rules Committee — and, indeed, CBS News reported that it was voted down in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the shutdown entered its 43rd day.
The bill to end the shutdown, however, was advanced by the Rules Committee after Democrat amendments were shot down on party-line votes.
Another amendment which the Democrats supported — which would remove a provision in the Senate bill to allow senators to sue the federal government if their data was seized — got some sympathy from Republicans on the committee.
Will there be another shutdown?
The GOP members of the Rules Committee ultimately decided against removing it due to the fact it would require the vote to be sent back to the Senate for ratification, thus delaying the reopening of the government even further.
And at the outset, Republicans on the committee made it clear — after the long layoff caused by the shutdown — that the purpose of Tuesday evening’s marathon session was to get the bill on the House floor by Wednesday, period.
“The Rules Committee is convening to end, finally, the Democrat-induced-Chuck-Schumer-sponsored shutdown,” said the committee’s chair, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.
“It has been over 40 days since we last sat in this room when Republicans advanced a responsible, nonpartisan, clean CR and all but one Democrat voted to shut the government down.”
The problem is this: How long is it until we see another one of these performative showdowns? Because, make no mistake, that’s precisely what Minority Leader Jeffries is signaling that he wants with this quixotic amendment
Apparently, 43 days of no federal pay for troops and air traffic controllers, 43 days without congressionally authorized funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, that all wasn’t enough for him. No, he obviously wants his way.
And, with this move, he’s signaling that if his contingent within the Democratic Party gets their way, we’re headed for another logjam like this in just a few months time.
Obviously, something needs to be done about the broken Obamacare subsidy system. The problem is that the Democratic solution up until the shutdown was basically this: “If it’s broke, keep breaking it, and it’ll fix itself. And if it doesn’t, it’s your fault.”
Yes, obviously, this extension wasn’t going to make it onto the floor, if just because nobody wanted to send this back to the Senate for another vote and none of the Republicans were going to throw their weight behind it as a legitimate strategy to end the stalemate that paralyzed Washington, D.C., for nearly a month and a half.
The Democrats caved because reality set in: The whole reason they started this was completely unachievable, and they punished the American taxpayer for nothing.
But, apparently having learned nothing, Jeffries has set the starting bid for negotiations way too high — three more years of a broken, expensive system, after which I’m sure the Democrats will decide it’s working fine for them and offer another three-year renewal, again at the price of closing down the government.
Rest assured, if these are the bargaining tactics of the Democratic Party, reality still hasn’t dawned on them — and you can count on another shutdown in the not-too-distant future if reality doesn’t intervene.
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