Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized Senate Democrats for striking a deal to begin the process of reopening the government, warning of the consequences of not extending health care subsidies.
“Tonight was a very bad night,” Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, wrote in a post Sunday night on the social platform X, attaching a video in which he castigated eight Senate Democrats for their votes on the continuing resolution.
Only three Senate Democrats had voted previously for a GOP proposal to fund the government, while most Democrats had opposed the legislation until they could negotiate an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year and expected to raise premiums for millions of Americans.
But on Sunday, five more Democrats joined the three of their colleagues from the caucus in voting for a House-passed bill to reopen federal departments and agencies.
Sanders warned about the consequences of supporting legislation that does not include an extension of the enhanced health care subsidies, which has been Democrats’ central demand since the start of the shutdown.
“To my mind, this was a very, very bad vote,” Sanders said in the video. “What it does, first of all, is it raises health care premiums for over 20 million Americans by doubling, in some cases, tripling or quadrupling. People can’t afford that when we are already paying the highest prices of the world for health care.”
“Number two, it paves the way for 15 million people to be thrown off of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,” he continued.
Sanders also criticized Senate Democrats for appearing to cave to GOP demands after many Democrats felt emboldened in their position in the ongoing shutdown standoff after their sweeping victories in last week’s elections.
“As everybody knows, just on Tuesday, we had an election all over this country, and what the election showed is that the American people want us to stand up to Trumpism, to his war against working class people, to his authoritarianism,” Sanders said.
“That is what the American people wanted,” he continued. “But tonight, that is not what happened.”
Sanders pledged to keep fighting for working-class Americans, despite this setback.
“So we’ve got to go forward, do the best that we can to try to protect working class people, to make sure that the United States not only does not throw people off of health care, but ends the absurdity of being the only major country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people,” he said.
“We have a lot of work to do, but to be honest with you, tonight was not a good night.”
