ACA: Not One Republican Vote

Just in case you thought Democrats refusing to reopen the government were being altruistic, rethink that thought.

Loosing Leverage 

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D., Mass.) admitted that she and her Democratic colleagues were exploiting the funding lapse to advance their agenda:

I mean, shutdowns are terrible, and of course, there will be, you know, families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously. But it is one of the few leverage times we have. 

Thanks to the courage of eight Democrats, the US government is about to reopen.

Meanwhile, in a press release from Rep. Clark, she says not a word about families who may have been harmed by the shutdown. Clark expresses no remorse and doesn’t even acknowledge that a funded government is good news for people who rely on government assistance.

Clark offers is another “partisan rant that Republicans won’t agree to fall into the trap she and her party colleagues deliberately set to hide the full cost of their subsidy scheme until the GOP could be forced to share the blame,” reports James Freeman in the WSJ.

Now we read of the railing, raging, caterwauling about an alleged betrayal from the renegades. The stalwarts are furious that these traitors voted to fund all the agencies and departments that Democrats have always insisted must be funded.

It’s as though Rep. Clark and her angry caucus care more about pushing people into government programs than about the people who already rely on them.

Is Chuck Schumer terrified of inviting 2026 primary challenges from the belligerent left?

The Gang of 8

The Journal’s Katy Stech Ferek and Siobhan Hughes report on the senators who crossed the aisle to join Republicans in voting for a legislative path that will end the government shutdown:

The eight members of the Democratic coalition to vote in favor of the package included the three Democrats who had done so previously: King as well as Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. They were joined by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Jacky Rosen of Nevada. None of the eight are up for re-election next year.

Perhaps Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D., Calif.) said it best. He’s an “F-NO!” on the House vote. “The Senate might fold, but I sure as hell won’t,” he said.