(A)Political - November 8th

Good morning everyone,

I hope I catch my flight this weekend! Let’s get into why!

The U.S. government shutdown is the longest it’s ever been in history, and there are no immediate signs of it stopping. Zohran Mamdani, the 34 year old junior politician, has won against establishment figures on both sides of the aisle, and now aims to implement drastic socialist reforms as he moves through the ‘Mayor-Elect’ period. The State Department under Rubio has now revoked tens of thousands of non immigrant visas.

• Enter Day 40: Longest Shutdown In U.S. History Continues

• A New Face For NYC

• U.S. State Department Revokes 80K Non-Immigrant Visas

Enter Day 38: Longest Shutdown In U.S. History Continues

_{By: Atlas}

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered Senate Republicans a package he said could reopen the federal government “within a few hours” if GOP leaders agreed to attach a one-year extension of expiring Affordable Care Act premium tax credits to the stopgap funding bill. He framed it as a limited, procedural step: reopen the government, keep current ACA help in place for 2026, and then keep talking about longer-term health care changes. Schumer told reporters and senators that Democrats had the votes in their caucus to move the plan quickly.

The proposal arrived on Day 38 of the shutdown, which has already set a record for length. Schumer argued that because insurance carriers were finalizing 2026 rates, Congress needed to act now, not after the government reopened. He also proposed adding the trio of already bipartisan appropriations bills—covering the VA, FDA, and the legislative branch—to give agencies more certainty through the fiscal year.

Democrats presented the offer as a response to Republicans’ stated preference to debate ACA issues after reopening. Schumer’s move basically flipped that sequence, saying Democrats would reopen at the same time as Congress locked in a one-year ACA extension, not afterward.

Why Democrats tied ACA subsidies to funding

Democrats said the expiring ACA subsidies were their central leverage point during the shutdown. Several in the caucus, including Sen. Gary Peters, argued that people shopping for 2026 plans were already seeing higher prices and that waiting until later in the year would be too late to stop premium increases. For them, attaching the extension to the continuing resolution was the only way to guarantee the help actually went into law.

Schumer also said the proposal merely continued “current law,” since the enhanced tax credits were first expanded during the pandemic and had been carried forward several times. In his telling, a one-year extension was not a new spending program but a bridge to a broader, bipartisan negotiation on health costs he wants to launch through a special Senate committee.

House Democratic leaders, including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, signaled they viewed Schumer’s offer as an “acceptable off-ramp,” even though some progressives would still prefer to make the subsidies permanent. Their calculation was that securing one more year during the shutdown was better than trusting the House to take it up later, especially with a skeptical Republican speaker.

Republican rejection

Senate Majority Leader John Thune rejected the offer almost immediately, calling it a “nonstarter” and saying it did “not get close” to what Republicans needed to support reopening the government. Thune restated the GOP position: first reopen the government by clearing the 60-vote hurdle, then negotiate on ACA, not the other way around. He added that Democrats were trying to use the shutdown to win on health policy, something Republicans said they would not reward.

Other Senate Republicans echoed that line. They noted that the Democratic offer lacked new language on abortion-related restrictions in ACA plans and did not address what they see as excessive federal outlays to insurers. Some senators described the move as Democrats “feeling the heat” after nearly six weeks of closed agencies and travel disruptions, and trying to convert that pressure into a win on subsidies.

House Republicans also opposed the offer, with members of the Republican Study Committee and Freedom Caucus calling it “absurd” and “hostage-taking.” Because any Senate agreement would still have to clear the House, their opposition made it highly unlikely Schumer’s package could reach President Trump’s desk in its current form.

Stalemate in a long shutdown

The exchange showed how fragile the talks had become. Senators in both parties said earlier in the week that they were close to a narrow deal: a short-term funding bill, a small appropriations “minibus,” and a promise to hold votes on ACA later. After Democrats’ strong off-year election results, however, their caucus hardened, and Schumer arrived on the floor with a higher opening demand. Republicans said that shift “unraveled” days of work.

Democrats then blocked a GOP attempt to pass a stand-alone bill to pay federal workers and troops during the shutdown, arguing it gave the administration too much discretion over who got paid and when. Republicans said that vote proved Democrats wanted to keep pressure on rather than ease the impact of the closure on federal employees. The Senate remained in session into the weekend to allow further talks, but no immediate vote on Schumer’s plan was scheduled.

President Trump, for his part, told Republicans to stay in Washington until they had a deal and again raised the idea of ending the filibuster if Democrats would not provide votes to reopen. Senate GOP leaders did not embrace that suggestion, keeping the 60-vote rule in place and leaving negotiations to leadership and the bipartisan group that had been meeting throughout the shutdown.

What it means going forward

In practical terms, Schumer’s offer clarified the two sides’ order of operations but did not close the gap. Democrats are now on record saying they will reopen the government immediately if the ACA extension is included. Republicans are now on record saying they will not discuss the extension until the government is reopened. That is the core dispute.

The longer the shutdown continues, the more individual measures—such as paying workers, or passing the already bipartisan VA and FDA bills—will attract support. But Democrats have shown they will block those one-off fixes if they believe doing so preserves leverage for the subsidies. Republicans, meanwhile, believe that accepting Schumer’s terms would set a precedent that any future shutdown can be used to extract unrelated policy concessions.

So, as of Day 38, the factual position is straightforward: Schumer offered to reopen the government in return for a one-year ACA subsidy extension and a small bundle of full-year appropriations; Senate Republicans rejected the offer immediately; the House GOP signaled it would not take it up; and Congress is remaining in session to look for another path that can reach the president.

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