House Dems’ Problem Children Who Ended the Shutdown

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

By now you’ve read the news the shut down ended thanks to a few House Democrats caving and crossing the aisle to vote with the GOP.

These are the problem children:

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) – running for re-election, district rated R+2
Jared Golden (ME-02) – NOT running for re-election
Adam Gray (CA-13) – running for re-election, toss-up district
Don Davis (NC-01) – running for re-election, district rated R+1
Henry Cuellar (TX-28) – running for re-election, district rated R+2
Tom Suozzi (NY-03) – running for re-election, toss-up district

Some are the usual suspects, like Golden and Cuellar and Suozzi.

All of these races are gettable by a Democrat firmly left of these boneheads given the current dissatisfaction with the Trump administration and his party of enablers. As Charles Gaba pointed out, “Dems have overperformed an avg of 15 pts across 55 Special Elections so far, winning 36 of them including *flipping* 6 GOP seats!” Democrats running on affordability have done very well.

Golden apparently can read the weather and is bailing out. But the rest of these reps need to be primaried — even Cuellar who has been primaried in the past and survived. Suozzi must think affordability is a NYC thing and doesn’t affect his district.

Gluesenkamp Perez is particularly annoying because of her bullshit party bashing about the shutdown. She posted this on the Nazi bar site:

Tonight, I voted to end this partisan car crash of a shutdown. Nobody likes paying even more money to insurance companies – and the fight to stop runaway health insurance premiums won’t be won by holding hungry Americans hostage. Americans can’t afford for their Representatives to get so caught up in landing a partisan win that they abandon their obligation to come together to solve the urgent problems that our nation faces.

The last several weeks have been a case study in why most Americans can’t stand Congress. None of my friends who rely on SNAP would want to trade their dinner for an ambiguous D.C. beltway “messaging victory” and I’m glad this ugly scene is in the rearview mirror.

Now, it’s time for Congress to get back to work and build an economy where people aren’t yanked around by partisan interests, where we understand national health doesn’t come from insurance coverage – and reestablish a truly deliberative democracy. I’ll work with whoever is necessary to reach those goals – and I don’t give a damn which side of the aisle they sit on.
8:28 PM · Nov 12, 2025

Emphasis mine.

Bet she wouldn’t turn down money from the DCCC for her re-election campaign. Biting the hand, much?

Apparently Gluesenkamp Perez is pretty dense as are these other Dems. What leverage does the Democratic Party have now to negotiate a reinstatement of healthcare subsidies? Because if she knows of any, she can’t be arsed to offer it.

Here’s a snapshot of the problem, offered in a joking manner:

Shoshana @[email protected]
Rent: $3,200
Health Insurance: $2,600
Avocado Toast: $8

Someone who is good at the economy, please help me with my avocado toast budget

Nov 10, 2025, 04:09 PM

AltText for image above: Screenshot of healthcare plans without the ACA subsidies. 2025 plan was $45, 2026 plan will be $2,620. The deductible will increase from $800 to $6,000, primary care visits increase from $5 to $40, ER costs go from $0 to 40% co-insurance

The poster may offer this in a lighthearted fashion but the looming threat is real: a sizeable number of Americans will have to choose between paying for rent/mortgage/food and healthcare insurance. For many of these folks this will be a matter of life or death.

Trying to protect more than 20 million Americans who rely on the ACA marketplace and healthcare subsidies isn’t a partisan stunt for “messaging victory.” It’s about saving the lives of Americans who will otherwise be unable to afford healthcare insurance.

Assuming the GOP will act in good faith to address this country’s problematic for-profit healthcare system is insanely naive or ignorant. I assume Gluesenkamp Perez stuck her head in the sand every time Trump said he wanted to kill ACA, and missed Sen. John McCain’s going against his party and Trump in 2017 to vote to protect the ACA.

John McCain is dead. There’s no maverick to save Gluesenkamp Perez’s butt when her constituents lose their homes to pay for their healthcare because she didn’t want to appear to be too partisan.

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Open Thread: Generational Change Continues, Nancy Pelosi to Retire

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I am biting my tongue, resisting the urge to be extremely blunt. What I will say is already rather pointed.

Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker, announced her plan to retire from Congress at the end of her term.

Did it take the death this week of a warmongering former vice president nine months younger than her to clue her in?

Or was it the ages of Tuesday’s three election winners?

Abigail Spanberger, at 46, is old enough to be Pelosi’s kid as is Mikie Sherrill at 53.

But Zohran Mamdani at 34 is of an age to be Pelosi’s grandchild.

There are now four generations of voters — Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z — who are of voting age, and two of those generations are retired or approaching retirement. It’s time the youngest generations of voters had representation that understood their society and their needs.

The number of solid primary candidates in the wings should have encouraged this announcment some time ago.

This is an open thread, but let’s try to discuss what the future of the Democratic Party will look like as the oldest electeds exit the stage.

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Open Thread: The Morning After Election Day 2025

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With the election yesterday of Millennial Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s mayor, generational change in Democratic Party politics has shifted more firmly away from Boomers.


(source)

With the youngest Boomers in their mid-60s, it’s time — not to mention other reasons like a lifetime of baggage impeding effective governance.

This is an open thread with an emphasis on state and local elections. More details about elections across the country will be published here as updates throughout the day. In the mean time, discuss election results in your state and municipality here; what are the implications of the elections’ results, and what blowback might we expect? What effects may these elections have on the 2026 mid-term elections?

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Trump’s GOP Death Panel in Progress

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There’s been an uptick this week in reporting on the role of health care subsidies in congressional budget negotiations.

Most Americans worry about health care costs: AP-NORC poll
By ALI SWENSON and LINLEY SANDERS | Updated 1:22 PM EDT, October 21, 2025
https://apnews.com/article/poll-shutdown-health-care-insurance-costs-trump-f0282a0f5bedf3f01172ed3fa0ba4fd2

Health insurance sticker shock begins as shutdown battle over subsidies rages
Many states have shown rising premiums ahead of open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans. Congress is deadlocked over extending covid-era subsidies that bring costs down.
By Paige Winfield Cunningham | October 22, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/10/22/obamacare-aca-enrollment-price-increases/

Some Americans fear high health insurance premiums if ACA enhanced subsidies expire: ‘Very much a worry’
ACA enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year.
ByMary Kekatos | October 21, 2025, 10:51 AM
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/americans-fear-high-premiums-aca-enhanced-subsidies-expire/story?id=126613026

News media are finally telling us what many of us have already known: Trump’s GOP congressional caucus wants to kill Americans.

There are some GOP moderates who are pressing for some, well, moderation on health care subsidies because their constituents need the assistance.

Republican moderates press leadership on health credit extension
Millions of Americans in red states rely on subsidies to keep insurance costs down
By Sandhya Raman and Jessie Hellmann | October 22, 2025 at 12:36pm
https://rollcall.com/2025/10/22/republican-moderates-press-leadership-on-health-credit-extension/

And these moderates need their seats. Check the last graf of that RollCall article — it’s a who’s who of GOP seats in districts that are flippable.

In other words, the state of health care subsidies may mean control of the House.

Trump refuses to negotiate unless the government shutdown ends, but that means giving up the only leverage Democrats have since the moderate GOP reps have been unable to persuade Trump and the rest of the GOP House caucus to budge.

Meanwhile, reality is doing a number on Americans who rely on health care subsidies, including small business owners:



These kinds of rate increases mean households will be making choices between going without health care insurance or going without paying mortgages, skipping car payments, not making the rent, cutting back on groceries they haven’t already cut because of inflation.

Do the math:

— Median weekly earnings for wage and salary workers = $1196 / week
— Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the U.S. = $1631 / month
— “The USDA estimates $297–558 for a monthly food budget for one person, $614–963 for a couple, and $996–1,603 for a family of four.” (This number was reported in May 2025 and has surely risen since the underlying source report.)
— Average transportation cost per U.S. household = $819 / month

That’s just the basics and doesn’t include out-of-pocket health care expenses, or any other necessities like clothing. It’s extremely grim for minimum wage workers, and for those whose work fluctuates like freelance writers or seasonal contractors.

There’s almost nothing left or worse after rent and/or health care, and it will be worse in rural areas.

Imagine having to choose between feeding your kids and getting any necessary medication including insulin. Imagine trying to pay for prenatal care let alone delivery of a healthy child, and making the rent. Heaven help you if either you or the child suffer complications before/during/after birth.

For many of us this isn’t a thought experiment. It’s a painful reality. Some of us will have to work even longer to pay for health care, well beyond age 65; some of us are already dealing with this challenge, as Business Insider reports in these slice-of-life stories that tend to blame the victim (ex. Faber shouldn’t have been a farmer).

I’m 82 and earn $16 an hour working at a boat store. I don’t have much saved and can’t retire, but everything will work out.
https://www.businessinsider.com/cant-retire-working-at-80-social-security-minimum-wage-2025-10

A trucker in his late 70s who can’t afford to retire shares the big regret he made decades ago that may have changed his circumstances
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/a-trucker-in-his-late-70s-who-can-t-afford-to-retire-shares-the-big-regret-he-made-decades-ago-that-may-have-changed-his-circumstances/ar-AA1HKHOP

These folks couldn’t save enough for retirement when health care costs were much lower. Today’s younger workers aren’t able to save much at all, not with inflation chipping away at all their expenses. We’ll be reading bleak stories of elderly who can’t retire for decades.

In essence, Trump and his GOP minions’ death panel have become Dickensian: “If they would rather die, …they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

One might think this is the Trump-GOP’s approach to housing policy; if enough people go bankrupt, into foreclosure, or die, there will be more housing available.

It’s as destructive and thoughtless as taking a wrecking ball without a plan to the East Wing of the White House.

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