The GOP Must Stand Firm During Shutdown

The frustration from the nearly three-week government shutdown is building. More government employees are missing paychecks, and many are starting to refuse to work, even though they know they will receive backpay once the shutdown ends. When will it end?

Right now, it looks like both sides are standing firm. As American frustration mounts because the courts can’t open or thousands of flights are cancelled daily, one side will blink. Almost regardless of the consequences the GOP must stand firm.

Understand that the stalemate is just about the level of government spending on healthcare for those who cannot afford to fully pay themselves. This includes people on one of the Obamacare plans that are heavily subsidized by American taxpayers.

Either directly or indirectly it also includes paying for healthcare for people who have no legal right to be in the country. That part bothers a lot of Americans.

Unless the law changes, Obamacare recipients will see their premiums increase on January 1. They will increase to the level where they were before the COVID shutdown in 2020.

In 2021, the government passed extended subsidies for Medicaid recipients, which were extended to 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act. The subsidies were implemented to help Americans that may have suffered financial loss due to the COVID shutdown and the resulting years long recovery.

By mid-2024, the unemployment rate had fallen to 4%. Wages were increasing and economic growth was near 3%. It appeared that anyone financially harmed by the COVID shutdown had pretty much recovered and no longer needed the additional subsidy.

In the big bill passed by Congress and signed into law by the president earlier this year, the subsidies were allowed to expire at the end of 2025, exactly as the current law says and exactly the way Congress intended it.

Whether directly or not, much of the healthcare that people who have no legal right to be in the country, is paid by the taxpayer. My polls show that a significant majority of taxpayers do not want this to continue.

The reason that the Democrats will not vote to end the current government shutdown is they want these benefits restored. The normal procedure to do this is to propose a bill in Congress that re-instates the subsidies and, when passed and signed into law, the subsidies will be restored.

They can’t do that because they can’t convince majorities in both houses to vote for it or for the president to sign it. The majorities in both houses voted to end the subsidies and reduce healthcare spending by as much as $1.5 trillion over the next ten years.

The Dems felt their only chance is to negotiate this when the Dems feel that they are in a position of strength. They feel that now.

Even though the obvious political facade is to clearly plant the blame on the Republicans, it was no slip of the tongue when Democratic Leader Chuck Shumer said that the Dems were getting stronger the longer the shutdown goes on.

The GOP must hold firm. The annual deficits have been in the $2 trillion or more range for the last six years. The public debt is approaching $38 trillion. The annual interest payments are approaching $1 trillion. Economists say this can’t be sustained and must stop.

This massive debt is simply a burden that we cannot pass onto the next generation. The bleeding must be stopped immediately.

Tax revenue is not the problem. Almost every year the federal government has taken in more revenue than the year before. The problem is spending. This must be reduced immediately.

This year, even with the current administration’s efforts, the federal government will spend over $7 trillion. In 2019 they spent $4.3 trillion.

The shutdown is not just a battle of wills about spending; it is the greatly needed GOP effort to permanently reduce government spending. The Big Bill was the start. Reducing government spending is contingent upon sticking to their principles to restore fiscal sanity and provide a burdenless future for our children and grandchildren.

This will be difficult. As Milton Friedman once noted, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program”.

Agree/Disagree with the author(s)? Let them know in the comments below and be heard by 10’s of thousands of CDN readers each day!