Just as Senate Democrats started to contemplate a deal with Republicans to end the government shutdown this week, their big Election Day wins gave them new fuel to stand firm on their health care demands.
“That did not take rocket science to figure out who’s on the right side to lower health care costs,” Vermont Sen. Peter Welch told NOTUS about Tuesday night’s results. “It should be a message to our Republican colleagues that the affordability agenda is what the Democrats won on.”
Democrats had started to feel the mounting pressure of expiring Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding and missed air traffic controller paychecks as the shutdown hit the record for longest of all time on Wednesday. After a nearly three hour meeting on Tuesday, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Democrats had a difference of opinion over whether to accept a vote to extend Affordable Care Act tax subsidies, but were making “progress” toward a consensus to swiftly resolve the shutdown.