With Shutdown Ahead, DeLauro Blames Republican-Made “Health Care Crisis”

by Jonathan D. Salant

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro tried to make a singular effort to keep the federal government open past midnight, but wasn’t even allowed to speak on Tuesday.

DeLauro, Democrat of New Haven, attempted to offer legislation to temporarily continue funding federal operations while allowing bipartisan negotiations on a year-long spending bill. But before she could offer her motion during an abbreviated House session, presiding officer U.S. Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, Republican of Virginia, adjourned the meeting.

“At every step of the way, we are met with Republican opposition to sit down and negotiate in a bipartisan way,” DeLauro said afterwards on a Zoom conference call with reporters.

Without an agreement in place, the federal government will shut down for a third time under President Donald Trump, including a record 35 days beginning in December 2018 — the last time Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress.

While both parties attempt to blame the other for the looming shutdown, a NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll released Tuesday said that a plurality of Americans would hold the Republicans, who control the White House and both houses of Congress, responsible.

In the poll, 38 percent said they would pin the blame on the Republicans, compared with 27 percent who would blame the Democrats and 31 percent who would hold both parties responsible. Another 4 percent wouldn’t blame either party.

Not that the American public is firmly for or against a shutdown. In fact, the electorate is evenly divided, with 50 percent saying they want a bipartisan compromise and 49 percent telling lawmakers to hold their ground, even if the government shuts down. A small majority of Democrats, 52 percent, want a deal to keep the government running, as do 52 percent of independents, while a small majority of Republicans, 53 percent, say it should be their way or the highway.

The poll of 1,477 U.S. adults was conducted Sept. 22-26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1-percentage points.

Republicans have presented their Democratic colleagues with a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution and told them to support it or be blamed for shutting down the government. 

Democrats instead insisted that any bill reflect the priorities of both parties, and their priorities included reversing the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s massive tax bill and avoiding upcoming increases in health care premiums.

“The issue is what’s at stake,” DeLauro said. “We’re in this position because there are the issues that we really need to hammer out in a bipartisan way and the Republicans are refusing to address the health care crisis that they created.”

According to DeLauro’s office, a family of four earning $129,800 a year in Connecticut’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes New Haven, would see annual health care premiums rising by $18,170, a 180 percent increase. For the same family earning $64,000, premiums would increase by $2, 571, a 530 percent boost.

While the House passed the short-term bill largely along party lines, the measure failed to receive the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate due to Democratic opposition.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, accused Democrats of wanting “to reinstate free health care for illegal aliens paid by American taxpayers.”

But both CNN and the New York Times called those charges false, saying that current law makes unauthorized immigrants ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid and government subsidies to buy health insurance.

On the Senate floor on Tuesday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, called such charges “utter bull” and criticized Republicans for making them.

“Undocumented immigrants cannot receive premium tax credits by law,” said Schumer. “So, they should stop these lies and address the real issue, which ,of course, they’re afraid to do, a standard Republican M.O.”

Even if the Democrats agreed to pass the Republican measure, there are no guarantees that Trump will spend that money on the programs Congress said he needed to, but rather continue to withhold funding or ask lawmakers to rescind expenditures he disagrees with, DeLauro said.

Trump already has refused to spend more than $400 billion in congressionally approved funding, which the Government Accountability Office, the investigative and watchdog arm of Congress, has called illegal.

Such guarantees need to be part of any legislation if Democrats are going to vote for it, he said.

“There have to be assurances,” DeLauro said. “It tells you something about how trustworthy they are and how good their word is. I don’t trust them.”