Senate Dems Ready to Deny Funding Bill 10/16 06:09

   Senate Democrats are poised for the 10th time Thursday to reject a stopgap 
spending bill that would reopen the government, insisting they won't back away 
from demands that Congress take up health care benefits.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats are poised for the 10th time Thursday to 
reject a stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government, insisting they 
won't back away from demands that Congress take up health care benefits.

   The repetition of votes on the funding bill has become a daily drumbeat in 
Congress, underscoring how intractable the situation has become as it has been 
at times the only item on the agenda for the Senate floor. House Republicans 
have left Washington altogether. The standoff has lasted over two weeks, 
leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, even more without 
a guaranteed payday and Congress essentially paralyzed.

   "Every day that goes by, there are more and more Americans who are getting 
smaller and smaller paychecks," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, adding 
that there have been thousands of flight delays across the country as well.

   Thune, a South Dakota Republican, again and again has tried to pressure 
Democrats to break from their strategy of voting against the stopgap funding 
bill. It hasn't worked. And while some bipartisan talks have been ongoing about 
potential compromises on health care, they haven't produced any meaningful 
progress toward reopening the government.

   Democrats say they won't budge until they get a guarantee on extending 
subsidies for health plans offered under Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They 
warned that millions of Americans who buy their own health insurance -- such as 
small business owners, farmers and contractors -- will see large increases when 
premium prices go out in the coming weeks. Looking ahead to a Nov. 1 deadline 
in most states, they think voters will demand that Republicans enter into 
serious negotiations.

   "We have to do something, and right now, Republicans are letting these tax 
credits expire," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

   Still, Thune was also trying a different tack Thursday with a vote to 
proceed to appropriations bills -- a move that could grease the Senate's wheels 
into some action or just deepen the divide between the two parties.

   A deadline for subsidies on health plans

   Democrats have rallied around their priorities on health care as they hold 
out against voting for a Republican bill that would reopen the government. Yet 
they also warn that the time to strike a deal to prevent large increases for 
many health plans is drawing short.

   When they controlled Congress during the pandemic, Democrats boosted 
subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans. It pushed enrollment under 
President Barack Obama's signature health care law to new levels and drove the 
rate of uninsured people to a historic low. Nearly 24 million people currently 
get their health insurance from subsidized marketplaces, according to health 
care research nonprofit KFF.

   Democrats -- and some Republicans -- are worried that many of those people 
will forgo insurance if the price rises dramatically. While the tax credits 
don't expire until next year, health insurers will soon send out notices of the 
price increases. In most states, they go out Nov. 1.

   Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, 
said she has heard from "families who are absolutely panicking about their 
premiums that are doubling."

   "They are small business owners who are having to think about abandoning the 
job they love to get employer-sponsored health care elsewhere or just forgoing 
coverage altogether," she added.

   Murray also said that if many people decide to leave their health plan, it 
could have an effect across medical insurance because the pool of people under 
health plans will shrink. That could result in higher prices across the board, 
she said.

   Some Republicans have acknowledged that the expiration of the tax credits 
could be a problem and floated potential compromises to address it, but there 
is hardly a consensus among the GOP.

   House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., this week called the COVID-era subsidies 
a "boondoggle," adding that "when you subsidize the health care system and you 
pay insurance companies more, the prices increase."

   President Donald Trump has said he would "like to see a deal done for great 
health care," but has not meaningfully weighed into the debate. And Thune has 
insisted that Democrats first vote to reopen the government before entering any 
negotiations on health care.

   If Congress were to engage in negotiations on significant changes to health 
care, it would likely take weeks, if not longer, to work out a compromise.

   Votes on appropriations bills

   Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are setting up a vote Thursday to proceed to a 
bill to fund the Defense Department and several other areas of government. This 
would turn the Senate to Thune's priority of working through spending bills and 
potentially pave the way to paying salaries for troops, though the House would 
eventually need to come back to Washington to vote for a final bill negotiated 
between the two chambers.

   Thune said it would be a step toward getting "the government funded in the 
traditional way, which is through the annual appropriations process."

   It wasn't clear whether Democrats would give the support needed to advance 
the bills. They discussed the idea at their luncheon Wednesday and emerged 
saying they wanted to review the Republican proposal and make sure it included 
appropriations that are priorities for them.

   While the votes will not bring the Senate any closer to an immediate fix for 
the government shutdown, it could at least turn their attention to issues where 
there is some bipartisan agreement.