What the Heck Was That??
We aren’t Democrats if we don’t go from being an eternal optimist to what the heck was that!
As we all know, last Sunday night, seven Democrats and one Independent Democratic senator voted with the Republicans (except for Rand Paul) to end the government shutdown.
So what does that mean and where are we now? We can always count on our 7th Grade President to weigh in on Truth Social and give us a rational take:
Donald J. Trump Truth Social Post 07:11 AM EST 11/09/25:
OBAMACARE “SUCKS.” THE WORST HEALTHCARE FOR THE HIGHEST PRICE.
It was clear that the Republicans were not going to negotiate. They were okay with people going hungry and going broke because of the healthcare fight. Just like they are okay with Trump tearing down the East Wing and blowing up ships in the Caribbean. That is who they are.
According to Jonathan Cohn in The Bulwark, “The real hangup for Trump and the Republicans: They promise a better, cheaper way to provide health care, then put forward plans that leave more people without insurance and leave those with insurance on the hook for bigger out-of-pocket medical costs. They keep saying Obamacare is terrible and that they have an alternative—which sounds great until they have to provide one.”
We all know health insurance is a very complicated and an expensive issue. Here in Ozaukee County, we are especially vulnerable because we, along with Washington, Waukesha and Milwaukee, counties have the HIGHEST provider rates in the state. If you go north into Sheboygan county, insurance rates are cheaper.
To make things worse, a new Trump administration rule issued late last month would override state laws that prevent consumers’ credit reports from including medical debt, potentially weakening financial protections for millions of Americans.
According to States Newsroom, “‘Medical debt is a tremendous weight keeping so many families from financial security, and, unlike most other forms of debt, it’s not a choice,’ North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said last month in a statement announcing that a new state program had wiped out more than $6.5 billion in medical debt for more than 25 million North Carolinians.”
If Trump’s rule sticks, the 14 states (Wisconsin is not one of them) who have laws that protect credit reports would be gone.
Back to Jonathan Cohn discussing what the Democrats need to do: ”The first will be in December, when Democrats get to hold a vote on extending the Obamacare subsidies. That vote was one of the few concessions the eight Democrats wrung from Senate GOP leaders as a part of the deal to reopen the government. It will force yet another high-profile debate over the subsidy policy, at a time when even some GOP lawmakers say they want to do something. And that might just be enough to sway House Speaker Mike Johnson, who so far has refused to say whether he’d allow a vote in his chamber.”
This comes as we roll into 2026, where another shutdown could be in sight. The end of this budget deal ends in January 2026. To loosely translate the Chinese symbol for crisis, we have both danger and opportunity at our doorstep.
We have to take this opportunity to talk about the fact that Democrats will continue to fight to make our healthcare more affordable and not punitive. I agree with Chris Hayes on Bluesky: “Maybe Senate Dems should say ‘the Republicans were going to kill people by starving them to death, and because we aren’t monsters, we decided to let this fight go. We’ll keep fighting. Stop electing monsters.’"
See you next week at our monthly meeting. Keep showing up and our protests and please continue to be loud.