Democrats fail Americans with a lack of consistent planning concerning the shutdown.
On Wednesday, Nov. 12, congressional Democrats showed a lack of planning and commitment to a plan as seven Democrats agreed to cross party lines and vote to end the shutdown. The longest government shutdown in history — 43 days — was ended in exchange for a promise of a vote in the Senate on legislation to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to lapse at the end of the year. The shutdown started because the Democrats recognized an opportunity to accomplish policy goals in a Republican-majority Congress. They wanted to get a guarantee that the subsidies would continue so that the 24 million people who purchase healthcare through the ACA marketplace will not suffer rising insurance premiums. To be clear, this is a great goal — healthcare is a huge issue in the U.S. at the moment and is certainly a topic worth fighting for.
Issues arose from the fact that Democrats were willing to fight for healthcare but had no coherent plan and were not willing to follow through on that fight to its end. The end result was a half-baked resistance that did much more harm than good. When the Democrats decided to not vote on the spending bills, they should have had the foresight then and there to know that the shutdown would not end quickly. The current Republican administration under President Donald Trump has shown time and time again that it is bullish and unwilling to compromise, especially with the current Democratic party. It does not exactly take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
Accordingly, the Democrats should have sat down at the beginning of the shutdown and figured out what their true intentions were. They knew what the effects of a prolonged shutdown would be, they knew what the effects would be if they agreed to end the shutdown and they should have decided a game plan based on those facts. If they really wanted to make sure the ACA subsidies continued, they should have committed to the shutdown to the bitter end, making the Republicans eventually concede that point. If they were really concerned about the loss of SNAP and other government programs, they should have decided to forgo the shutdown altogether and cite that concern as their reason for doing so.
Instead, they did neither. Due to either a lack of central planning, a lack of spine or a combination of both — looking at you, Chuck Schumer — the Democrats did not commit to such a plan, and Americans were left with the worst of both worlds. The government was shut down for almost a month and a half, flights were cancelled, many people went without pay and millions were affected by the loss of SNAP benefits. There were millions of Americans harmed by the shutdown and with what to show for it? The only thing the Democrats were able to get out of the Republicans was an agreement to vote in the Senate on a theoretical bill that the Democrats will propose in December to continue ACA subsidies. However, there was no similar guarantee in the House, meaning if Democrats somehow miraculously do write a bill and get it passed in the Senate, there is no guarantee it would ever see the House floor before the subsidies end. By trying to finally show that they can be a true resistance to the Trump administration, the Democrats have shown just how woefully inadequate they are at doing so.
