What the shutdown is about

When Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in Congress backed down and agreed to the spending bill in March 2025, the result was a $1.2 billion cut in services to veterans. Many Democrats were angry at Schumer for agreeing to the bill. And after the spending bill was signed, Elon Musk and DOGE continued freezing federal funds and firing workers anyway.

This time, the Democrats are not backing down. This spending bill would end ACA health insurance premium subsidies to millions of Americans. People who get their insurance on the ACA exchange include farmers, self-employed people and many others who cannot get good insurance through their employers. They are our friends and neighbors; they are us (Democrats have NOT proposed extending the program to unauthorized immigrants, despite Vance’s lie about that.) Most people cannot afford the full cost of those premiums, and if the subsidies end, they will lose their health insurance and access to preventive care and care for chronic conditions. Our hospitals will have to cover their emergency care anyway, continuing the pressure on rural hospitals to close.

It’s unfortunate that our national health care policy has to be maintained by annual threats and implementation of government shutdowns, but it isn’t the Democrats who set it up that way. It started in 2013 when Tea Party Republicans caused a 17-day government shutdown by trying to defund the Affordable Care Act, and it goes on every year. If you know anyone who has health insurance under an Affordable Health Care policy, now is the time for them to contact their Congressman. Even if this shutdown ends and the health insurance tax credits are temporarily saved by the time this letter is published, the same thing could happen next year.