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Democratic leaders have acknowledged their intention to extend the government shutdown into November, potentially surpassing the record of 35 days, in an effort to sway voters as Americans prepare to enroll in health insurance plans.
“Shutdowns are terrible and, of course, there will be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously,” stated House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) in an interview with Fox News reporter Chad Pergram. “But it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
The shutdown has now reached its fourth week, significantly affecting resources for millions of Americans.
The Trump White House, the Republican National Committee, and various popular accounts on the social media platform X quickly shared Clark’s remarks, amplifying the discussion.
“HOLY SMOKES! In a SHOCKING MOVE, the number two House Democrat Katherine Clark said the quiet part out loud regarding the shutdown…SUFFERING is their tool,” tweeted Eric Daugherty, sharing a clip of Clark’s comments.
Obamacare exchanges are scheduled to open for enrollment on November 1 and continue through mid-December, coinciding with notifications to millions of Americans about rising premiums.
The ongoing shutdown could also threaten funding for food stamps and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs, impacting many low-income families struggling to make ends meet.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote an op-ed for the New York Post, warning that air traffic controllers would miss their first full paycheck if the shutdown persists beyond October 28.
If the situation continues past October and into November 6, Congress will set a new record for the longest shutdown, surpassing the 35-day mark established during President Donald Trump’s first term in January 2019.
Political analysts have pointed to a lack of bipartisanship, particularly the Senate Democrats’ refusal to support a GOP-backed stopgap measure aimed at reopening the government until November 21, as a significant barrier to reaching an agreement.
Democrats are pushing for Republicans to reverse Medicaid reforms implemented over the summer and to extend Obamacare tax subsidies, which are set to expire by the end of 2025.
“The longer this shutdown goes on, the more apparent it is that Democrats never wanted to solve a problem — they wanted to exploit one and drag it out for political cover,” a senior Republican aide remarked to The Post. “There’s been no meaningful outreach to committees or leadership staff, as far as anyone can tell. If they were serious about lowering costs, wouldn’t there have been staff-level conversations at some point this year?”
According to the NY Post, while public polling shows that most Americans blame both parties for the impasse, Democrats believe they will gain public support once 24 million Affordable Care Act Marketplace health plan enrollees are informed of impending premium increases.
“It’s still not possible to stop the full impact of the rate increases after November 1,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in an interview with Punchbowl News last week. “If we don’t deal with this before November 1, it becomes trickier to solve legislatively, but the heat gets turned way up by the public to do something,” he added.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expressed his frustration during a Wednesday press conference, stating that Democrats “can’t even articulate what they want.”
“This was never about a solution on healthcare or anything else; this was about a spectacle, about a political distraction so that they could show a fight to the Marxist left of the Democratic Party,” Johnson told reporters.
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