Editorial: Congress has learned nothing as another shutdown looms

It s understandable that members of Congress try to remain in office for as long as they can if they worked in the private sector they d be fired by now As the Hill revealed senators in both parties are bracing for another administration shutdown next year after Republicans blocked a proposal to extend expiring strength insurance subsidies This is the same issue that triggered a -day administration closure earlier this fall The shutdown completely ended when eight Democrats mostly centrists voted to reopen the ruling body in hopes that Republicans might agree to a bipartisan compromise But bipartisan compromise has become an oxymoron in Washington and the talks are foundering If lawmakers learned anything from the shutdown it should have been the level of pain it inflicted on the American people Majority of egregious A halt in SNAP benefits which had food assistance recipients panicked and scrambling Keeping American families in need fed should have been Congress lodestar What did they learn Nothing The concept of funding-as-leverage is back among Democrats with the Jan executive funding deadline the target to force Republicans to make major concessions on federal vitality care spending The fight is not over commented Sen Elizabeth Warren Can lawmakers please leave American families out of this fight Surely they read the news stories of worried families straining food banks and citizens organizing help for locality members We the people doesn t mean that ordinary Americans step up as our representatives in-fighting lays waste to federal assistance We re in this together unless you re a Capitol Hill elitist protected by the shortages you impose on voters Sen Bernie Sanders I-Vt called the Republican vote against extending the enhanced subsidies an outrage What s outrageous is that these enhanced subsidies passed as part of a COVID relief package under the Biden administration were set to expire at the end of this year They went into effect under the American Rescue Plan Act of and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act of That s three to four years that could have been spent coming up with a forward-thinking plan Three to four years to reach particular sort of compromise come up with another way to ease wellbeing care costs Does no one have a calendar in Washington But the kick-the-can-down-the road mentality brought us here on the heels of a executive shutdown and staring down the barrel of another Now the focus is on playing keep-away with leverage Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D is pushing hard to get a package of five appropriations bills passed next month to take away leverage from Senate Democratic progressives who want to threaten another shutdown to squeeze Republicans to back another Obamacare subsidy extension according to The Hill Sen John Cornyn R-Texas warned that if greater part of those bills are left in limbo by the end of January Democrats could replay the shutdown strategy They may be tempted to do it as disastrous as the last one was he stated Voters deserve better than this Editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel Creators Syndicate