So some senators looked at Tuesday's election results and said hey, this would be a really good time to cave on the shutdown in exchange for "promises" of a vote on ACA subsidies. Dear sweet Jesus. Via CNN:
There is still no official agreement within a group of Senate centrists that have been privately meeting to discuss a shutdown exit ramp. But multiple sources involved in discussions told CNN that a deal could be reached as soon as this week to pass a temporary stopgap bill to reopen the government alongside several full-year spending bills — with a promise of a future vote to extend billions in enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
Roughly a dozen Senate Democrats have privately signaled that they are willing to support a stopgap funding deal to reopen the government in exchange for a future vote on health care, two Democratic sources familiar with the discussions told CNN Tuesday.
Negotiations are still ongoing on exactly what kind of stopgap funding bill the Senate would take up and how it would pass the House, the sources familiar said, but that level of party support in the Senate would be more than enough for Congress to end the funding standoff that has ground Washington to a halt for more than a month.
It’s a reflection of the mounting frustration of many Democratic senators who can’t stomach any more shutdown pain, after this week’s partial cut-off in food aid, with the shutdown set to break the 35-day record on Wednesday.
Still, it won’t appease the scores of liberal senators now warning that the party will lose its leverage, and alienate voters, if it accepts such an offer.
“If the Democrats cave on this, I think it would be a betrayal to millions and millions of working families who want them to stand up and protect their health care benefits,” a furious Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent told reporters on Tuesday when asked what message the centrist-led talks would send to voters.
“I think we’re suckers to believe that a party that is opposed to extending the subsidies now is all of a sudden going to be supportive of that a month from now,” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut put it plainly, referring to the billions of dollars in enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire next month.
Surprisingly, John Fetterman is not one of those senators!
