Looking For A Pony
Expanding on a comment posted earlier this morning
By now most of you reading this know that enough Democratic Senators have indicated they’ll vote for the Republican Senate budget bill to break the filibuster and end the shutdown. The issue Democrats were holding out for was a one year extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, without which health insurance rates for many Americans—eventually most Americans—will soar. Those Democrats (and one Independent) say they'll vote to end the shutdown on the promise from Republican Senate leadership that the Senate will vote in December on extending the ACA tax credits. Additionally, the Senate GOP leadership agreed to fully fund bills for Agriculture, FDA, Military Construction-VA, and the Legislative Branch; pass a continuing resolution through January 30, 2026 for everything else; and ensure back pay and reinstatement guarantees for furloughed federal workers.
The outcry from most Democrats is that the break-away Senators, castigated as the sell-out caucus, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory; that Democrats should capitalize on their November 4th victory at the polls by holding firm on extending the ACA subsidy for at least a year, and that Trump and the Congressional GOP were on the ropes.
On the other hand, the shutdown has been ruinous. The air traffic system is nearing collapse. The machinery of government is breaking, with employees either not at work of working for IOUs. Those who defend the break-away Senators will doubtless assert it is time for the grown-ups to step in and place the well-being of the country over partisan brawling, regardless of who is more to blame for it.
I confess I don’t like the decision by Democrats who bolted. That said, I am now looking for this pony in this pile of horse crap. I see two possibilities:
First, for the vote to happen and the shutdown to end, the House of Representatives must return to business, which means Speaker Mike Johnson has no reason to not swear in Adelita Grijalva, unleashing Epstein files hell on Donald Trump. I don’t doubt Johnson will try to find a path to screwing over the Epstein survivors, but his job (covering Trump’s backside) will be a lot harder.
Second, if the Senate votes on a Democratic bill to extend ACA tax credits, Republicans will have to 1) go on record voting against something almost 75% of Americans favor, including a majority of Republicans. The issue is causing stress fractures in the Republican Party already, exemplified by Marjorie Taylor Greene breaking ranks. That’s a bad look just before an election year gets underway. Alternatively, Republicans can pass the extension and give the Democrats a win, which will set off a Truth Social spasm. It will also leave hanging the question of why Republicans dragged their heels and caused Americans so much pain for over a month.
As always—it seems—in Donald Trump’s America, we chew our fingernails, reach for the Tums or Alka-Seltzer, grab a Rosary, or a shot, light up social media, hopefully call our Representatives, and wait and see.