Following eight Democratic senators siding with Republican senators on an agreement to fund the government and end the shutdown, three went on a media tour to explain their votes.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday.
Kaine notably voted against funding the government, which extended the shutdown through Virginia’s election earlier this month. The weekend after Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) won the governor’s office and her Democratic ticket also won the lieutenant governor and attorney general seats, Kaine voted with his Republican colleagues.
“I was voting with the Democrats for about 40 days as I was campaigning around Virginia, trying to help engineer a big electoral win last Tuesday that went well. But when I got here after that election, it’s like, okay, we’re near 40 days in and where are we?” Kaine said. “No path to an ACA fix, SNAP recipients suffering, and a whole lot of other problems.”
Kaine noted that he “demanded” protections for federal employees as some 320,000 live in Virginia, according to the senator. As a result, Republicans agreed to reverse thousands of planned layoffs the White House has announced since Oct. 1, when the shutdown first began, and prevent more from happening through January.
“All the furloughed employees come back with back pay. All the recently riffed employees come back with back pay,” Kaine added. “That was a big win for Virginia. And that’s what got me to vote ‘yes.’”
Sen. Angus King (I-ME) also appeared on Morning Joe to suggest that it was time Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) changed his strategy.
“It’s a question of: at some point there’s diminishing returns. And as I say, the strategy was: let’s bring the Republicans to the table. It didn’t happen. It wasn’t going to happen,” King said of the shutdown fight. “But, Joe, there’s tremendous collateral damage from this.”
“Any good general, if the strategy isn’t working, you change tactics, and particularly you change tactics if your own troops are at risk. And that’s really what’s happening here. You know, there was collateral damage to the American people. At the same time, the goal wasn’t being achieved,” King added.
King noted that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) “promised” the Democratic coalition to bring the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies to a vote on the Senate floor.
The premium tax credits initially drafted under the ACA were enhanced under the Biden administration amid the coronavirus pandemic. A Congressional Budget Office report said that permanently extending the enhanced credits would cost the government $383 billion. However, if they permanently expire, the number of Americans without health insurance would rise by an average of 3.8 million annually by 2034.
Later on the same program, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) projected that a bill on the ACA credit deadline, meant to expire at the end of this year, could be expected in “mid-December.”
“But unfortunately, … after 40 days, we’ve got, as you pointed out, air traffic control that’s a mess. We’ve got government workers who are not getting paid,” Shaheen said. “We’ve got people who can’t get food. We’ve got mothers and children who can’t get their WIC benefits. And so we need to end that suffering.”
Shaheen teased bipartisan support on extending ACA credits while on Fox News’s Fox and Friends Monday.
“We’re going to have a vote, and I believe there are a number of Republicans who are going to join us in trying to address healthcare costs for Americans,” Shaheen said. “We believe there are a lot of Republicans, including a lot of Trump supporters, who want to see us do something about this because their costs are going up.”
KHANNA AND MOULTON CHANNEL PROGRESSIVE ANGER WITH SCHUMER AFTER SENATE DEMOCRATS CAVE ON SHUTDOWN
However, Schumer voted against the continuing resolution because it failed to address what he referred to as the “healthcare crisis.” Shaheen said the defecting senators “kept leadership informed throughout” negotiations.
The last time this continuing resolution was up for a vote was in March, when Schumer voted for it to keep the government open. This continuing resolution has a deadline of Jan. 31.
