Election Results and Ending the Shut Down
The government shut down can be readily ended by extending the tax credits for low-, moderate-, and middle-income persons purchasing coverage through the Exchanges. These are US Citizens and Legal Permanent Residents who cannot otherwise get affordable health coverage. These are workers and small business owners, and their families. These include the poor (incomes between 100 and 133% of the federal poverty level) in the mostly deep south states like Georgia, Texas and Florida that have adamantly refused to expand Medicaid to the working poor. These are not undocumented workers who simply do not qualify for the program. See my earlier blog at https://www.luciensblog.com/blog/2025/9/18/premium-assistance-in-the-state-and-federal-exchanges-in-serious-jeopardy for more details. Strong majorities of voters in both parties favor extending the tax credits to help people afford their premiums. https://www.kff.org/quick-take/public-support-for-extending-the-enhanced-aca-tax-credits-reflects-broader-concerns-about-health-care-affordability/
The election results last night were a massive repudiation of Trump policies and Trump personally. https://www.npr.org/2025/11/05/nx-s1-5599185/2025-election-results-georgia-pennsylvania-democrats-win and https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/03/trump-approval-rating They should lead to a mid-course correction if the Administration and GOP leaders have any sense whatsoever.
The Trump Administration and the GOP Congress have put themselves in an untenable bind. Cutting food stamps for 42 million Americans and massively increasing health insurance premiums for 24 million Americans, while the President tears down the East Wing of the White House and parties like there’s no tomorrow with his billionaire cronies at Mar a Lago in a hark back to the Gilded Age of the 1920’s. https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1234940403/trump-gatsby-party-snap-cutoff-backlash/
What’s stopping them? A sizable majority of the GOP elected representatives in both the House and Senate still loathe the Affordable Care Act. https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5589189/republicans-still-dont-like-obamacare-but-some-want-its-subsidies-extended The Congressional opponents of the ACA are at odds with the overall electorate, but not necessarily their Republican base voters, who are the ones who elect them. https://www.kff.org/interactive/kff-health-tracking-poll-the-publics-views-on-the-aca/#?response=Favorable--Unfavorable In other words, the American people are in favor of a compromise that extends the tax credits and opens up government, but a sizable number of Republican elected officials are not.
This leaves Democrats in tune with the large majority of Americans, but unable to translate that into a legislative compromise with the GOP controlled Congress and the executive. The GOP needs to listen carefully to the American people or risk decimation in the 2026 mid terms.
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