Democrats Aren't Going to Unconditionally Surrender on Shutdown

"Nearly three weeks into the current federal-government shutdown, Democrats have made it clear that their principal - and, perhaps, their sole - demand for cooperating to end it is a commitment to move some sort of bipartisan extension of the Obamacare premium subsidies, due to expire at the end of the year."

"Hassett said on CNBC that he has heard from the Senate that Democrats thought it would be "bad optics" to vote to reopen the government before this weekend's massive nationwide "No Kings" protests against President Donald Trump. "Now there's a shot that this week, things will come together, and very quickly," Hassett said. "The moderate Democrats will move forward and get us an open government, at which point we could negotiate whatever policies they want to negotiate with regular order.""

"There are two very questionable assumptions Hassett articulated in his happy talk about an end to the shutdown. The first is that "Democratic moderates" will split with the rest of their party (presumably in the Senate, where a Democratic filibuster is the obstacle to a reopening vote) to give Donald Trump and the GOP exactly what they want."

Nearly three weeks into the federal-government shutdown, Democrats insist that reopening requires a commitment to move a bipartisan extension of Obamacare premium subsidies that expire at year-end. Democrats may accept an ironclad commitment for a vote or a presidential pledge to address an impending health-insurance-price spike. Republicans and White House officials repeatedly predict Democratic surrender. Kevin Hassett forecast that moderate Democrats would break to reopen government, enabling later negotiations. That forecast rests on questionable assumptions: that moderates will abandon a filibuster and that public protests shaped Democratic timing. Three Democratic senators already backed the Republican funding measure.

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