Since the democrats are not the ones in power at the moment, don't they have the bigger obligation towards the position of the people who voted for them. Which would be exactly the demand they are making right now.

The party who is running the country does in theory have an obligation to all Americans, the opposition has an obligation to their own block.

Both parties are to blame.

About a decade ago, Tea Party Republicans were in the minority, they refused to approve the budget as the Democrats are doing now.

At that time, Democrats accused the Republicans of ‘holding the government hostage’. Now the roles are exactly reversed.

It’s games as usual.

Democrats refuse to vote the budget because the GOP removed almost all healthcare funding from it and won't compromise on that. If this budget passes as is, millions will die of preventable diseases. How is it on democrats?

Isn’t it true that the healthcare part only involves credits that were supposed to be temporary during COVID?

Also, isn’t it true that the expiring credits are for people who earn more money than ACA allowed? ( In other words, the poor still get assistance.)

Please provide receipts if there are other aspects to be considered.

Yes it’s true that those provisions expired, the Republicans are not changing or removing anything, and it’s the Democrats that are demanding additional funding to replace the Covid era funding that is expiring.

> Isn’t it true that the healthcare part only involves credits that were supposed to be temporary during COVID?

So? There's no rule that temporary things can't later become permanent.

For example the Trump tax cuts from 2017 were supposed to temporary, expiring this year. The "Big Beautiful Bill" made them permanent.

Also the healthcare part is not just letting temporary COVID era credits expire. It also includes cuts to Medicaid.

The rules of the game have changed. The President has declared that it doesn’t matter what is in the bill - he won’t spend on anything in it he doesn’t like.

Why negotiate with that?

The Republicans set the agenda and the rules in both the House and the Senate. They knew, before the shutdown started, that the bills they crafted would have to get 60 votes in the Senate to be enacted. And they also knew, before it started, what would need to be in the bills for them to get to 60 votes.

And yet they chose to pass a bill which would fail to get 60 votes. And when that vote failed to get 60 votes, they chose not to enter into any discussions to alter the bill to get it to win more votes, but rather to try to pass the same bill again and again to get 60 votes. Indeed, some have even called for passing a larger bill that includes Democrats' aims and simply ignoring the enacted law, for adherence to the rule of the law is already absent in this administration.

To blame this situation on the party with the least power at the moment is pure lunacy.

22 million Americans benefit from the Affordable Care Act subsidies. I hardly think it is just some small number of socialists who care about this.

42 million on SNAP as well.

It’s tempting to assume they have a plan because we project rationality but I don’t think they do beyond chaos and hurt the people they don’t like.

At some point it won't even matter if they have a plan. I'm comparing it to throwing a stone off a mountain. You might not achieve much, or you might start an avalanche and good luck trying to control that once it gets going. Then it's just gravity and mass and until that has run it's course you're along for the ride.

The plan is to make the midterms a Republican offer you can’t refuse, so to speak. One thing on the menu or the count, at least. Or something to similar effect. Why swear in any democrat in the house at all?

They are antifa, that’s terrorists you know.