The Week: Democrats Flirt with Shutdown Politics

• Before endorsing Zohran Mamdani, Governor Hochul should have read up on the Mensheviks.

• Struggling to find a winning message against President Trump, Democrats seem to have settled on starting a government shutdown over expanding Obamacare. The national health care law, you may recall, issued a raft of regulations that spiked the cost of insurance. When Democrats gained power in 2021, rather than confront the underlying cause of higher premiums, they used the Covid emergency to make taxpayers pick up the tab by offering more generous subsidies. What was supposed to be a temporary measure during the pandemic was extended again in 2022 through this year. Now Democrats are using the threat of a shutdown as a way to twist Republicans into extending them further. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that “Republicans have to come to meet with us in a true bipartisan negotiation.” A true bipartisan negotiation, however, would involve Democrats’ actually opening themselves up to deregulation and free market reforms, something that they have consistently opposed in lockstep. Instead of caving in, Republicans should call Schumer’s bluff. If he is willing to shut the government down to funnel tens of billions more dollars each year to insurance companies, that’s a fight worth having.

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• Before endorsing Zohran Mamdani, Governor Hochul should have read up on the Mensheviks.

• Struggling to find a winning message against President Trump, Democrats seem to have settled on starting a government shutdown over expanding Obamacare. The national health care law, you may recall, issued a raft of regulations that spiked the cost of insurance. When Democrats gained power in 2021, rather than confront the underlying cause of higher premiums, they used the Covid emergency to make taxpayers pick up the tab by offering more generous subsidies. What was supposed to be a temporary measure during the pandemic was extended again in 2022 through this year. Now Democrats are using the threat of a shutdown as a way to twist Republicans into extending them further. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that “Republicans have to come to meet with us in a true bipartisan negotiation.” A true bipartisan negotiation, however, would involve Democrats’ actually opening themselves up to deregulation and free market reforms, something that they have consistently opposed in lockstep. Instead of caving in, Republicans should call Schumer’s bluff. If he is willing to shut the government down to funnel tens of billions more dollars each year to insurance companies, that’s a fight worth having.