The government shutdown has dragged on for another week, as Democrats continue to hold out over the expiring ACA subsidies. In last Friday’s CNBC interview with Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, anchor Becky Quick asked Jeffries about the idea that “this is a setup, kind of, of your own creation.” Looking back at the history of the subsidies, that isn’t an unfair conclusion.
Below is a short timeline of events about the subsidies leading to the shutdown, based on David’s recent Roll Call column The shutdown: how did we get here?
ACA 2009-2010: The bill passed the Senate in December 2009, at a time when Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats, so passage was all but guaranteed. In the end, it passed on a strictly partisan vote without a single Republican on board and included a subsidy structure for low- income users but not the enhanced subsidies at issue today.
Shortly after that, Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts special election for the Senate, and Democrats dropped to 59 seats, losing the ability to end a filibuster on a partisan vote. That effectively forced House Democrats, many who had reservations about its design, implementation and impact, to vote for the Senate bill as-is. The loss of the Senate seat in Massachusetts unsettled Democrats about the impact of the Affordable Care Act on their party. The House eventually passed the Senate version in March 2010 with 219 votes, again with all Republicans voting no, along with 34 Democrats. President Obama signed it a couple of days later.
American Rescue Plan 2021: The temporary enhanced premiums at issue today are the result of COVID-19, and were added as part of the American Rescue Plan, which was proposed by President Joe Biden and passed by the Democrats in March 2021. This time, Democrats had the White House and majorities in the Senate and the House, but did not have a filibuster-proof Senate, so the American Rescue Plan was legislated as a reconciliation bill. Democrats included language that the enhanced premiums, meant to be temporary, would expire at the end of 2022. Like the ACA, no Republican voted for it, although there were additional reasons Republicans did not support the bill.
Inflation Reduction Act 2022: Then came the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. This started out as the Build Back Better Act in the House in 2021 to support Biden’s broader agenda. But when it became apparent virtually none of it would get Republican support, parts of it were spun off as a reconciliation bill so it could pass with just Democratic votes. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin became the fly in the ointment for Schumer, who faced an uphill battle getting the bill through the Senate. Manchin was concerned in part because of the bill’s huge price tag for Biden’s Green New Deal proposals. Those costs, combined with the cost of extending the temporary enhanced health insurance premiums, as well as other Biden priorities, made it even more difficult to pass the bill.The Inflation Reduction Act eventually passed and was signed by Biden in August 2022. Again, as expected, this reconciliation bill got no Republican votes, requiring Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaking vote for passage. The bill extended the temporary enhanced premiums through 2025.
As the column points out, Schumer and the Democrats expect, with Republicans having the White House, Senate and House, to accomplish what Democrats could not do when they had the White House, Senate and House.
For more of our thoughts on the shutdown, see this week’s Roll Call column Democrats say the quiet part out loud: shutdown is leverage.
