The government shutdown is hurting Massachusetts. Some 45,000 federal jobs are on the line; the state is losing $18.6 million in tourism weekly; infrastructure projects are being delayed; veterans are waiting for essential services; and families that rely on SNAP and EBT benefits are wondering where their next meal will come from.
The state’s 5th District — a hub for research, medicine, and academia — is bracing for cuts to research contracts, and labs are having to scale back hiring, with ripple effects for the entire economy.
For Rep. Katherine Clark, the second-highest-ranking House Democrat, this carnage is a political pawn. “Shutdowns are terrible, and, of course, there will be families that are going to suffer,” she said on Fox News. “But it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
Her words are callous, but in a sense, we should be grateful for her honesty, because it means Democrats are saying the quiet part out loud: The party is holding the government hostage to stick it to political enemies, not caring whether the victims who get caught in the crossfire are veterans or single moms or cancer researchers or any other constituents they are charged with representing.
And what are Democrats holding the government hostage over? Obamacare subsidies from the COVID era that Democrats claimed were temporary four years ago.
The American Rescue Plan, signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2021, expanded the eligibility criteria for enhanced premium tax credits. These were never intended to be permanent, and if allowed to continue beyond their current duration, they would become fiscally unsustainable. The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation found that these credits would increase federal deficits by $34.2 billion over a decade.
Worse yet, these subsidies have had a distorting effect: providers have been able to charge higher and higher rates because they know the government will pay them bigger and bigger subsidies, regardless of how much they charge. That means the overall cost increases, and tax dollars go into the pockets of health insurance executives while doctors and nurses are burdened by growing layers of bureaucracy.
While it’s near impossible to justify keeping the government shut down for this long for any reason, it is downright absurd to shut the government down over subsidies that Democrats wrote to expire for a deceptively named piece of legislation that has not given Americans more affordable health care.
Democrats have tried to convince the public that letting these subsidies expire is tantamount to “Republicans taking away your healthcare.” Still, the truth is that the so-called Affordable Care Act has precluded efficiency and transparency in the healthcare market, especially with subsidies like these.
This is what people in my Massachusetts district are being used as “leverage” for: a system that isn’t even serving them, and that has made healthcare less accessible and less affordable for them. Especially in an area with numerous doctors, medical schools, biotech and pharmaceutical firms, and research centers, Rep. Clark should be concerned about how much the ACA has hindered healthcare rather than mindlessly defending a piece of legislation that has served neither patients nor doctors.
I see Republican lawmakers going to their districts and ensuring that their constituents are heard. But where is Clark? On news channels, apparently, talking about how little regard she has for those she is supposed to serve.
It is unconscionable that a congresswoman, especially given her position as the Democratic Whip, is sitting around playing political games in Washington while throwing Massachusetts — and the country — under the bus.
Republicans have rightly held their ground — if they didn’t, the failures in American healthcare would only continue to compound. Now it’s on Democrats to keep their word that temporary subsidies will be temporary, and end this shutdown once and for all before more families needlessly suffer.
Jennifer Nassour is a former chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party and is the host of the PoliticalContessa podcast.
Reprinted with Permission from DC Journal – By Jennifer Nassour
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Democrats – listening to their constituents? How blind can they be when the Democrats openly deny their welfare for their own personal agenda/vendetta against President Trump. If this past minor election is any hint of what forthcoming in the 2026 midterm election, then our nation is in real deep trouble. Either wake up to what is happening or lose your freedoms that military and veterans have wasted their service in defending for you. Those who paid the ultimate sacrifice are rolling in their graves at this travesty.
Plain and simple, the democrats don’t care, in the least, about the American public.
Well, we shall see which side “blinks” first.
I’m not holding my breath as historically the Democrats never take “No” for an answer and the Republicans usually cave in or compromise heavily in the Demcrats’ favor. I have zero faith in Senate Majority leader John Thune (and those of his ilk) who is virtually worthless and has done nothing of note for almost a year.
This same state that elected Elizabeth Warren over and over again. She is Democrat (Communist) nasty girl and Senate’s finest hypocrite. It seems this Senator is catching up to LIzzie. A state that would vote Democrat despite a candidate’s outrageous and hurtful policies needs to experience what that gets them.
Massachusetts has the greatest collection of shameless corrupt politicians–Markey– Pocahontas Warren-Clark.
Pure lying scumbags, out for themselve$
“…families that rely on SNAP and EBT benefits are wondering where their next meal will come from.” I was surprised the author is a Republican! SNAP is supplemental, no one is missing a meal. The list of welfare programs for the “poor and low income” seems endless. AMAC had another article which was quite good about the rampant fraud with SNAP. We need term limits so that politicians on both sides stop trying to buy votes by taking money from responsible taxpayers and giving it to people who need to learn to live on their own income. I get that there are hard working people who may be low income and doing the best they can. However, 1 in 8 people on SNAP is unacceptable. If Massachusetts is suffering, then maybe the constituents should complain to their representatives.
Democratic politicians are evil
I am going to tell all of you one more time, Joe Biden was NEVER President. Democrats cheated on the Presidential election AND had Biden killed before the election ever occurred. When will Democrats be held accountable for those crimes?
If you break the law you should be prosecuted, why isn’t schummer being called out for his actions, why aren’t some of these people who are holding society hostage to their stupid political games being charged with the same laws that are governing the public. Something about this whole idea of shutting down the Government SMELLS BAD. When it is all said and done, and, the truth comes out, there is something and someone heavily powerful and really crooked, dishonest and self serving, behind it all, shame on this person(s). It really smells like the dishonesty behind covid19, someone is trying to hijack our government and turn it socialistic/communistic. INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE AND FIND THESE INDIVIDUALS AND HOLED THEM ACCOUNTABLE.
Massachusetts voters have no Republican representatives and they vote and support the Shumers and the new NYC mayor types. Their state flourishes on Gov money thorough the universities. They are not hurting.
The Bay State brought this upon itself. The state votes indigo every election. Normally the masses would see the enormity of their mistake and self-correct. But not Taxachusetts. They’ll continue to shoot themselves in the foot and wonder why they walk about in bloody socks. Clark and her reprobates know they are safe from voter accountability so they will continue to push the Bolshevik party line and laugh all the way to the bank.
The whole country is under attack from all sides.
Democrats don’t care about Americans! They only care about their own power!
No pity for Massachusetts. Healy and her gang of woke grifters have wasted money. No Republicans of significance have any power in the state or federal legislatures. If you want the TRUTH about the Doomocrat cesspool go to Howie Carr’s website.
If House democrats are so upset, why aren’t they extolling their Senate counterparts to end the filibuster?
Massachusetts? Cry me a River.
The voters gave the White House, the Senate and the House Of Representatives to the Republican Party. Did it not occur to these imbeciles that the reason they are hard up with “leverage” is because the voters don’t want them to have any? One just has to look at the four years of the Biden Administration to see why! But then, when has the Democrat Party ever really cared what the voters want?