Why Did Democrats Fight So Long - Before Caving
Byron York
The government shutdown lasted 40 days before Senate Democrats abandoned the filibuster that closed offices, left workers without paychecks, threatened supplemental food benefits for millions, saw the beginning of a gradual shutdown of the commercial aviation system, and much more. The question is: Why did those Democrats hold out for so long? Why did they stubbornly play a losing hand even as millions of Americans suffered?
The short answer: because Obamacare was at stake. The Affordable Care Act is the Democratic Party's premier policy achievement of the last half-century, and it is gradually sinking beneath rising costs, making "affordable" health coverage increasingly unaffordable. Without more taxpayer-paid subsidies for recipients, fewer and fewer people will be able to purchase coverage that Democrats once promised would be within everyone's reach.
So many Democrats have invested so much of their political identity on health care, and on their health care achievement -- remember that Obamacare passed the Senate in 2010 without a single Republican vote -- that the prospect of its failure is unthinkable for the Democratic Party.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/byronyork/2025/11/11/columnistsbyronyork20251111why-did-democrats-fight-so-long-before-caving-n2666292
