40 Days and 40 Nights of Failure

 

     The more cynical, which is to say, the more realistic, of us knew they'd betray us. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory yet again is what Democrats do, after all. 

     It shouldn't have worked out this way yet it was inevitable. The GOP was on its back foot, or cloven hooves as it were. They were on the ropes. The polls were virtually unanimous in their assessments that the American people were blaming the Republicans and not the Democrats for the shutdown. SNAP benefits not going out, airports canceling thousands of flights due to a lack of air traffic controllers and government workers not getting paid only added leverage over them.

     Yes, the Republicans, who are plainly in the service of evil, sadism and cruelty, were going down for the third time. Even as their lungs were filling with water, they still bitterly refused to fund these programs, pay our workers and refused to extend the Obamacare subsidies. But we knew they were just stalling for time.

     Luckily for them, the Blue Dogs in the US Senate came rushing to their aid. They rushed through a raft of spending bills, some funding certain programs for a few months, others for three years. Now that cloture's been invoked, it goers before the Senate for a final roll call vote, then go to the House. That is, if the House still exists.

     Then it goes to Trump's co-opted desk.

     So, food stamps will be funded for a year, a CR to fund the government at existing levels will last until just January 30th, federal employees will be paid. Hooray, right? Wait, not so fast.

     There's something missing from this minibus aside from certain mentally-challenged lawmakers on board. Oh, right.

     The ACA subsidies. You know, the ones without which people on the exchange will see their premiums double or triple.

     That would be the ACA subsidies that was the main sticking point.

     In other words, eight Blue Dog Democrats caved to the GOP just as they were about to go down for the count and immediately took all the pressure off them when all they had to do was hold out for a little longer. As a result, about 20,00,000 Americans will be, and already have been, hit with sticker shock when their premiums get obscenely bloated. They threw them under the minibus, literally.

     And no one on the Hill seems to have the cajones to address the root cause for this- The greed and arrogance of these bloated health insurers who basically get to self-deal with little to no oversight whatsoever. Why are peoples' premiums going through the roof? The ACA never meaningfully tackled that issue when they were hashing it out back in 2009.

     What it boils down to is these scumbag Democrats kicked the can down the road  and just trusted that when it came time to debate the subsidies yet again that the Republican Party would (ha ha) deal with them in good faith. Hell, Mike Johnson even said recently that there was no guarantee the House would even vote on extending the subsidies, which is to say, there's not a chance in hell they will.

     Incidentally, if you don't already know,  the eight scumbags who sided with the Republicans are Shaheen, Hassan, King, Cortez Masto, Durbin, Fetterman (of course), Kaine and Jacky Rosen. Durbin's retiring but remember the rest of those names when they're up for re-election.