Johnson, R-La., huddled behind closed doors in the morning - as he did days earlier this week - working to assemble the package for consideration as the House focuses the final days of its 2025 work on health care. "House Republicans are tackling the real drivers of health care costs to provide affordable care," Johnson said in a statement announcing the package. He said it would be voted on next week.
Well, I say that if you don't have a better plan, then get on board with ours, he said. But doing nothing is not an option, right? He continued: I mean, I've heard so many people in the Republican conference rail on the Affordable Care Act, rail on Obamacare, rail on the premium tax credits. And if you want to criticize something, that's okay as long as you have a better alternative. They have never offered a better alternative.
In the final segment of the show, I will discuss the book They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer, a 1955 study of a small German community where people had to come to terms with the terrible things that were done by them, by their neighbors, and by their government during the Third Reich. It's a book full of historical interest, but also with implications for any society trying to come to terms with its past to build a better and more honorable future.
Schumer, who has led the Democratic caucus in the Senate since 2017, voted against the resolution. However, the group of Senate Democrats who voted for the deal had conferred with Schumer through the negotiation process, and thus had his tacit approval. The deal, which many other Democrats have denounced as "terrible" and a betrayal, was advanced in a vote on Sunday evening, in one of the first steps to reopen the government after a historic shutdown.
Senators in the United States have voted to move forward with a stopgap funding package aimed at ending the longest government shutdown in the country's history. In a procedural vote on Sunday, some eight Democrats broke rank and voted in favour of advancing a Republican measure that will keep the government reopen into January 30. The measure would also fund some parts of the government, including food aid and the legislative branch, for the next year.
The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1, after the Senate could not agree on a bill to keep the government funded beyond September. While the GOP controls the chamber 53-47, 60 votes are necessary to invoke cloture to break filibusters and advance legislation. In exchange for the requisite votes, Democrats are demanding that Republicans agree to extend healthcare premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans have refused.