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The Democrats blinked. Again.
After six weeks of a Republican-engineered government shutdown – the longest in US history – the Democrats went bankrupt. They agreed to reopen the government without securing the one thing they had sworn not to yield to: Expanding the federal insurance subsidies that millions of people rely on to keep their Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance even marginally affordable.
Although Republicans took the blame for the shutdown, Democrats were the first to relent. With Democrats in a corner of their own making, Senate Republicans, as soon as they saw the collapse coming, did what Republicans always do: They started talking about abortion.
The Democrats have made their bed
Republicans offered to extend federal subsidies –but only if ACA plans impose stricter restrictions on abortion coverage.
“But wait a minute,” you might think. “The Hyde Amendment already bans federal funding for abortion (even though banning public funding is discriminatory).”
You’re right, it is. But Republicans are now trying to extend the Hyde restrictions to private insurance beneficiaries. In other words: they want to ban now private Funds should also no longer be used for abortions – and not just public funds.
So now Democrats are faced with a dilemma of their own making: when the The insurance issue will be up for a vote again in DecemberDo they oppose the subsidies they demanded to end the shutdown, or will they accept a nationwide rollback of abortion coverage?
The latter would pose a clear problem for states that require insurers to offer abortion coverage. Colorado, for example, constitutionally requires this. Other states, including California and New Yorkrequired by state law.
If Republicans succeed in banning the ACA’s plans from covering abortion, these states would have limited options. They could comply with state laws and risk losing ACA subsidies; ignore state law and eliminate abortion coverage; or try subsidize abortion coverage in insuranceif insurance companies are even willing to offer such benefits. (There are indications that this is not the case.)
The offer is a ‘nonstarter’, according to Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), one of seven Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans to reopen the government. She argued that the ACA already has guardrails against abortion funding.
But you know what else was seemingly a nonstarter? Reopening the government without securing an extension of ACA subsidies.
And I’m not convinced that Democrats won’t find a way to make this situation worse in the name of saving face in 2026 — especially if influential ‘liberal’ voices like Ezra Klein wants the party to lead “pro-life Democrats” in states like Kansas, Missouri and Ohio, where voters literally just passed pro-choice ballot initiatives.
Republicans have the power
The Democrats continue to fiddle with the bag. And the best-case scenario in the fight over subsidy extension is a Republican victory, because Democrats wasted six weeks on a shutdown before voting against the very thing they claimed was non-negotiable, to protect abortion coverage.
It’s yet another unforced error by Democrats who continue to pretend that Republicans will negotiate in good faith, even though they never do.
Republicans see shutdowns as opportunities.
Democrats view shutdowns as catastrophes.
Republicans are willing to break government to achieve ideological victories.
Democrats are terrified of being blamed for disruption.
And that difference in attitude and determination is why we do that again watch the Democrats surrender their power – the very power that the Republicans will now use to force the Democrats to give in to reproductive rights.
Republicans love to legislate abortion through appropriations bill. That’s why the Hyde Amendment has been a thorn in the side of abortion advocates since Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) first added it to an appropriations bill in 1976. Republicans realize that the easiest way to ban something is to put a condition on a portion of federal dollars that people can’t live without.
For Republicans in Congress, each continuing resolution is an opportunity to add a new restriction on yet another right. Every funding deadline is a point of pressure to exploit. Every potential shutdown is a bargaining chip in their relentless pursuit of the Christian theocracy.
And it’s not like the Democrats don’t know this: More than forty Democrats in the Senate sent a letter last year urged the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop packaging “must-pass” bills with discriminatory anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ riders.
It turns out that Republicans don’t need 60 votes to pass a federal abortion restriction. They just need Democrats to keep giving in — or start shutdowns they can’t see through.
So here we are: six weeks after their pointless shutdown, Republicans are dictating the terms of the negotiations, while Democrats are scrambling to prevent another shutdown and protect insurance coverage for millions.
But at this point, how can Democrats expect Republicans — or anyone else — to take them seriously?
Time to draw the line – and stick to it
Democrats continue to govern as if Republicans still care about governance.
For example, Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) said, “To think that they would use this as a demand that they know will never get Democratic support – what it tells me is that they are not serious about extending these tax credits.” according to the Washingtonpost.
Of course, they are not serious about helping Americans pay for health care. Republicans have tried to weaken or repeal the ACA for more than a decade.
They are serious about using every procedural bottleneck to secure policy victories that will outlive them. They seriously intend to turn every funding fight into another opportunity to grab rights. They are serious about embedding their agenda in the fine print of federal budgets because they know Democrats will blink first.
That’s the part I can’t get past. The Republicans are not holding back in their plans. They do this out loud! And Democrats—whether out of fear, caution, or the delusion that Republicans will negotiate in good faith—continue to allow this, while making bland statements on social media about how they’ll “keep fighting.”
Keep fighting who? How?
Democrats were already using the only weapon they had to defend both affordable health care and abortion rights. That was the shutdown, and they relented. The ACA subsidies expire at the end of this year. At this point, there’s nothing Democrats can do to stop this.
The best we can hope for now is that they will not allow Republicans to dismantle coverage of abortion the way they have dismantled so many other protections of reproductive rights.
It’s a low bar. And I don’t know if they’ll make it through.
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