The newly emboldened far-left wing of congressional Democrats sent a public message to their leadership as it negotiated a bipartisan off-ramp from the longest government shutdown in history: Don’t give an inch.
The most liberal members of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses have seized on their party’s sweeping election wins Tuesday as an endorsement from voters to keep the government shut down until they get what they want: billions of dollars in enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were meant to expire after the pandemic.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, at the front of the House Progressive Caucus, gathered liberal organizations in front of the Capitol to send a collective order to her party’s leaders.
“The people have spoken,” the Washington Democrat said. “Do not cave.”
The liberal wing is leveraging this week’s election results to try to thwart a bipartisan deal in the Senate that would fully fund some government agencies, include a stopgap measure to temporarily fund the others, and rehire some of the federal workers fired by the Trump administration. The proposal does not appear to include an extension of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which, if made permanent, would cost nearly half a trillion dollars over the next decade.
The bipartisan deal could include a separate vote on restoring the subsidies, but that is not good enough, Ms. Jayapal said.
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“A date certain on a vote that is deemed to fail is not the answer,” Ms. Jayapal said.
Liberals in Congress were invigorated in the shutdown fight by Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City’s mayoral race and the party’s victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races, among many other lower-ballot triumphs.
“They told us with their votes to keep standing up and to keep fighting for them,” Ms. Jayapal said. “They did their part, and we have to do ours now. We have to save health care.”
Making her case that the election should empower all Democrats, Ms. Jayapal invited Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat who hails from a swing district in Pennsylvania, to join liberals in front of the Capitol.
A day earlier, Ms. Houlahan crashed Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s press conference, demanding he negotiate a deal to extend the subsidies.
“Each day of this shutdown has been brutal for our country, but Democrats have been here all along, and we’re still here. We’re still here to protect the health care for every American, and we’re still here to protect our very democracy itself,” she said.
Democratic leaders are under pressure from factions in their party as they continue to block a stopgap funding bill that would reopen the government.
Ms. Jayapal staged her press conference at the same time House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, held his own press event with reporters inside the Capitol, where he tiptoed around the exact terms of a deal his party would accept.
Mr. Jeffries and other top Democrats are looking for an off-ramp from the shutdown, which has dragged into a second month and threatens to cancel flights across 40 airports beginning Friday.
House Democrats, Mr. Jeffries said, “will consider anything in good faith that is sent over from the Senate in a bipartisan way.”
Such a deal, he said, “has to have a path forward to decisively address” the expiring health care subsidies.
Premiums are set to rise for some Obamacare enrollees unless the extra subsidies are extended.
President Joseph R. Biden signed them into law to help people who earn more than 400% of the poverty level cover the cost of health insurance during the pandemic.
The law lifted the existing 400% income cap on subsidies and limited payments to 8.5% of household income. Critics point out it has resulted in Obamacare enrollment surging among well-off households taking advantage of the subsidies.
Democrats say the looming subsidy cut-off is a crisis that must be resolved before the government is reopened.
“We require a deal that actually addresses the health care crisis, not that promises to think about addressing it down the road in two weeks with concepts of a plan,” Ms. Houlahan said.
