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TeaGovernment shutdown set to end this week Eight Democrats joined all but one Republican senator. To end the government shutdown.
This comes despite the final agreement not including an expansion of enhanced COVID-era tax credits to help people buy insurance Through the Affordable Care Act’s MarketplaceInstead, a vote on Obamacare credits has been promised in December,
Even more painful for the Democrats, The agreement comes on the heels of a clearly blue wave election in Virginia a week earlier, Which makes Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) decision to support the initiative all the more surprising.
“We’re going to have a debate in front of everyone, without the background noise of all the shutdown consequences that will distract people from it,” he said. Independent This week.
But so far, it doesn’t look like Republicans are interested in renewing the tax credit. For one, Republicans failed in every effort to find an alternative to Obamacare, as the ACA is more widely known.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who once called Trump a “jackass” but now considers himself beholden to the president, said that in the coming months, Republicans will create an alternative to the subsidies.
Graham explained, “I believe we should have stopped this thing a long time ago – the consequences of Obamacare are terrible.” Independent,
After his late friend John McCain voted to repeal Obamacare in 2017, Graham and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) tried to craft an alternative that McCain would also kill.
Now Cassidy has discussed turning health subsidies into a federal flexible spending account. Cassidy is primarily doing this to avoid a primary challenge and earn Trump’s favor after he voted to convict Trump for the January 6 riot.
But the proposal appears to be on the table with Senate Republicans, including moderate Senator Lisa Murkowski.
“Think about what that health savings account is,” she pointed out. Independent“That’s not saying the subsidy goes away, It’s just distributed in a different way, It’s distributed to you instead of the insurance company,”
The fact that Murkowski, who voted against repealing Obamacare and voted to convict Trump, seemed open to savings accounts instead of increasing subsidies, shows how allergic Republicans are to merely increasing them.
And that doesn’t mean House Speaker Mike Johnson can choose not to take up this legislation. But if Republicans decide not to take the subsidies and even substantially reduce them, they risk a biblical blue wave.
according to a voting from kffThree-quarters of Americans and about the same number of independents say Congress should expand subsidies, according to a health care nonprofit.
And a look at last week’s election results suggests that endangered Republicans have an added incentive to support him. According to VoteHub, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger won Virginia’s 2nd District, held by Republican Rep. Jane Kiggans, and the 1st District, held by Republican Rob Wittman.
Perhaps this is why Kaine believed Johnson would have no choice.
“If we do something that gets bipartisan support here, he’s not going to be able to toughen it up, because he’s told all the Democrats and many Republicans that we have to fix this ACA tax credit thing,” Kaine told The Independent. “And if it comes out bipartisan from here, they can’t take it to November 2026 without making November 2025 look like a picnic.”
This perhaps explains why Senator Susan Collins of Maine, perhaps the Republican incumbent most at risk, appeared most open to voting to increase subsidies.
Collins also voted against the One Big, Beautiful bill, which included sweeping changes to Medicaid, including work requirements and limiting the taxes states can collect. Revenue to receive matching funds for Medicaid From the federal government.
“I certainly anticipate and hope that there will be a bipartisan effort to come up with a bill that can pass,” she said. IndependentCollins said she wants there to be an income limit to ensure that “self-employed individuals, many individuals who work for small businesses, do not have to face the prospect of unaffordable health insurance,”
Collins is from a state that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 and who won a miracle victory in 2020. If she doesn’t vote for legislation to increase subsidies, she could be uniquely vulnerable.
Perhaps that’s why she said that although she’s not leading the conversation, she’s happy to bring her old “talking stick” to bipartisan talks to make sure everyone is heard.