Democrat demands caused the shutdown
To the editor:
The shutdown may be over although the agreement is very unsatisfactory to the Democratic Party. The Democrats are feeling strong and enthusiastic thanks to a confessed “democratic socialist,” winning the mayor’s race in the bluest of blue NYC, the governor’s race in blue New Jersey and the governor’s race in Virginia, home of many left-leaning swamp creatures working in America’s capital.
Why did this shutdown happen? The Democrats want to rewrite the Big Beautiful Bill passed a couple months earlier. Medical cost has grown from $2.56 trillion in 2010 to almost $5 trillion in 2025. The total additional cost required by the Democrats to end the shutdown is $1.5 trillion increasing our budget by over 20% and returning us to the accelerated debt path of the autopen.
Democrats want Medicaid for many who should not get it renewed; the major increase in Medicaid because of the pandemic three years ago to continue; and ObamaCare to grow in its inflationary state. The Democrats fought to extend these items but the autopen legislation expires Dec. 31 of 2025. The Republicans will never approve the healthcare extension sought by Democrats. That is a huge cost and not constitutional.
The sins of ObamaCare have matured with pandemic subsidies accelerating that growth, doubling from 12 million in 2021 to 24.32 million in 2024. Incredibly enrollees that exceed 400% of the federal poverty level has quadrupled to more than 1.5 million households negating the argument for Obamacare per a Nerdwallet article by AnneMarie Schieber.
Pandemic subsidies during the pandemic were incredibly generous. Instead of just helping the poor, the subsidies allowed households earning as much as $600,000 to qualify for subsidy support.
Democrats also want tax credits, a part of the gift package for the pandemic period to continue as well. ObamaCare started as a bill to make health insurance more reasonable for those with little money. In 2010, the average annual premium for a family employer-sponsored plan was $13,770. By 2023, it had risen to $22,463. Obamacare insurance has multiplied as well.
Insurance companies have become as fat as the pharmaceutical companies. Obamacare premiums are as high in some instances as $1,000 per month. The Congressional Budget Office estimates extending the enhanced subsidies from the pandemic increases the budget deficit along the autopen path hundreds of billions over 10 years, not including additional billions of dollars in debt interest costs.
What needs to be done? All the pandemic subsidies and tax credits need to be stopped. Obamacare must be eliminated or returned to something other than a gift to the insurance companies. Our enormous climbing debt must be checked for the future of America. Debt affects everything we do, already taking $1.2 trillion of our budget to pay the interest.
We must not ignore the rising cost of a medical system out of control. Hospitals, doctors, testing labs and insurance companies are basking in a fat non-competitive market place.
Ignore debt now? Give up a comfortable life in the future.
John Benedict
Cape Coral