What Democrats say they won in the 43-day government shutdown
Emotions are raw after eight senators voted to end the shutdown, but Democrats say they demonstrated an ability to take on Trump and shifted the conversation to health care.
Nov. 12, 2025, 4:00 AM CST
By Scott Wong, Ryan Nobles and Lillie Boudreaux
WASHINGTON — Democrats shut down the federal government to secure a key demand: extending health care subsidies for millions of Americans.
After a more than 40-day standoff, they threw in the towel — with no guarantee from Republicans that they would agree to renew the expiring Obamacare tax credits.
Progressive activists and their Democratic allies in Congress, who had wanted the party to fight on longer, decried it as a monumental “cave” to an authoritarian in Donald Trump.
But others in the party see a silver lining in the six-week standoff. The eight Senate Democrats who bucked their own leadership and negotiated an end to the longest shutdown in American history said the bipartisan deal protects federal workers who had been laid off during the shutdown — at least temporarily.
More importantly, they said, the grueling shutdown that is expected to end in the coming days has “crystallized” the battle lines in the next major political fight over health care that is sure to spill into the 2026 midterm election year. It also underscored Trump’s cruelty, Democratic leaders said, as the White House fought to halt food stamp payments to states during the shutdown.
more
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-wins-shutdown-fight-health-care-obamacare-subsidies-trump-rcna243211?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
