A crack in the facade

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next, the deal to end the government shutdown.

Eight Democrats joined Republicans to back a bipartisan plan to fund the government through the end of January. Sixty senators voted to move the deal forward, breaking a Democratic filibuster, and sending it to the House and ultimately the president for approval.

NICK EICHER, HOST: From WORLD’s Washington Bureau, Carolina Lumetta reports.

SPEHAR :They say ‘oh, it’s red versus blue.’ It’s not. It’s blue versus blue right now…

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Within hours of Senate Democrats agreeing to a deal to fund the government, media personalities like “Under the Desk News” took to social media to call them out.

SPEHAR: The Democrats who made a 40-day shutdown completely: Durbin, Rosen, Cortez Masto, King, Kaine, Fetterman, Shaheen, and Hassan…

The test vote on Sunday night was over a similar deal that Senate Majority Leader John Thune offered last month. It includes a new continuing resolution to fund the government through January, hold a future vote on enhanced healthcare subsidies, and guarantee back pay for furloughed federal employees. But no new concessions for Democrats.

Kate DeGruyter, a senior communications director with the centrist think tank Third Way, says the deal falls short of what Democrats have been demanding.

DEGRUYTER: The outcome that Democrats were seeking was: we need to have something tangible for the American people about how we are going to help address skyrocketing health care costs. And right now, this deal doesn't deliver anything on that priority.

Since the start of the shutdown, Senate Democrats said they would hold the line until they get an extension of the expiring subsidies. But now some within the party have backtracked. That’s not a winning play for others in the caucus, including Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin:

BALDWIN: I believe strongly that we need to both reopen the government and lower healthcare costs simultaneously. And my concern is even if we do get 60 votes in the Senate on a vote in December, that we have no guarantee that the House will take up such a freestanding measure.

Baldwin also opposes the CR extension. She says with open enrollment already in motion, many Americans could drop insurance coverage well before the issue is resolved in Congress.

Meanwhile, members of the House are rushing back to Washington.

JOHNSON: To all my colleagues uh Republicans and Democrats in the House. You you need to begin right now returning to the Hill. We have to do this as quickly as possible.

House Speaker Mike Johnson says the chamber could start considering the funding deal as early as Wednesday. Once the Rules Committee checks it out, the bill will need 218 votes to pass.

Even if Democrats delay, the deal is all but guaranteed to land on President Trump’s desk soon. Meaning the Democrats could leave the historically long government shutdown with nothing. Colorado Senator Michael Bennet reckoned with this on the Senate floor yesterday.

BENNET: Apparently, President Trump is going to get his way, and those tax credits are not going to be extended by the majority here.

Once the CR passes, Congress will have just over two months to pass nine more appropriations bills. Or else, another shutdown awaits in February.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

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