Did Eight Democratic Senators Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory in Ending the Government Shutdown? It Depends

This is a case when Democrats did something and one person can conceivably react “Damn” and “Thank God” at the same time.

In case you missed it, eight Democratic Senators, two of whom are retiring and six others who are not up for re-election in 2026, secured a deal with Senate Republicans to vote to end the government shutdown and fund federal operations and programs until January 31, 2026.

In doing this, these eight Senate Democrats (Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, Jacky Rosen, Jeanne Shaheen, Dick Durbin, John Fetterman, Tim Kaine, and Angus King) justified their position by stating:

• Getting “Let Them Starve” Donald Trump and MAGA Project 2025 Fascist Republicans to back down and abandon their cruel and ugly positions on cutting airline flights across the country, furloughing and not paying essential workers like Air Traffic Controllers, gladly starving children, and willingly spiking families health insurance rates on the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare Marketplaces was not working after shutting down the government for 41 days.
• They were able to achieve a deal to fund food stamp/SNAP payments until September 2026, bring back the furloughed federal workforce, make sure everyone in that workforce gets backpay, and gain a promise to put a bill on the Senate floor that would consider extending the Biden/Harris Affordable Care tax subsidies.

Listening to some of the eight Democratic Senators justifying what they did, one can honestly understand their position. They truly care about the country and the American People and what they did is very probably very welcome to the Air Traffic Controller and TSA agents that are entrusted with ensuring safety at the nation’s airports and air traffic. It is probably very comforting to the people flying in the planes too.

What they did is also probably very welcome and a relief to the SNAP recipients who probably will receive full benefits so they will not starve this holiday season.

I say probably because, based on American Duce Wannabe-“Let Them Starve” Donald Trump and Project 2025 Demon Russel Vought behavior in holding back Congressionally approved expenditures, one can not be sure of what these billionaires first-screw everyone else “people” will do.

Then again, one can make the case that Democrats were winning the public opinion war. As partly evidenced by last weeks elections where Democrats trounced Republicans in every region of the country, people knew who was to blame for the government shutdown and the misery directed at them in rising grocery prices, skyrocketing health care premiums, increased child starvation and poverty rates, and larger electric bills.

That public relations victory should make excellent campaign and issue ads for the Democrats from now until Election Day in November, 2026.

Trump and Project 2025 MAGA Republicans in Congress showed they were ugly and vicious animals who would rather make sure ICE-Gestapo Secret Police who rip innocent people off the streets are well paid during the shutdown and go to the Supreme Court to ask for permission to starve poor and vulnerable children.

To their credit, the eight Democratic Senators, in securing the consideration of a bill to extend the Obamacare subsidies, will force Trump and MAGA Republicans to take a public stand in both houses of Congress.

If several of them join Democrats in passing the extension of the subsidies, great.

If they evade, vote against, and bolt from Washington D.C. without helping reduce health care costs for millions of people, Democrats, Independents, and like minded Republicans, including many soon to be former Trump voters, will know who screwed them.

But the question is should the eight Democrats have given in and agreed to end the shutdown when the public was rightfully blaming Trump and the Republicans for creating the problem in the first place.

Should they have held out until Thanksgiving to really drive home the pain Project 2025 MAGA was inflicting on the American People?

Should they have given up the fight?

All of Arizona’s Democratic Congressional Delegation voiced their displeasure with the deal the eight Senate Democrats forged with the Senate Republicans.

Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari posted on social media:

“This “deal” would force 370,000 Arizonans to pay more for the same or worse healthcare coverage. I refuse to make life harder for the people I serve. I’m absolutely a NO.”

Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva, who will now, after close to 50 days, finally be sworn in, wrote in a press release:

“I am planning to travel to Washington, D.C. after hearing through Leader Jeffries and media reports that Speaker Johnson finally intends to swear me in. This delay never should have happened in the first place. For seven weeks, 813,000 Arizonans have been denied a voice and access to basic constituent services. This is an abuse of power that no Speaker should have.”

“During those same seven weeks, Republicans have kept the government shut down while intentionally inflicting economic strain on the American people as leverage to advance this administration’s cruel agenda. For people working paycheck to paycheck, paying double for healthcare is not an option. A promise for a vote is no guarantee that relief will come, and means little coming from leaders who blocked my swearing in and continue to protect Trump at any cost.”

“While I am eager to get to work, I am disappointed that one of my first votes will be on a bill that does nothing to protect working people from skyrocketing premiums, loss of health coverage, or do anything significant to rein in Trump’s abuse of power.”

Representative Greg Stanton posted:

“Arizonans are suffering from an affordability crisis, driven by Trump’s tariffs and failed economic policies. Grocery prices are up. Electricity prices are up. Now AZ families and small business owners are set to see their out-of-pocket health insurance premiums go up by thousands of dollars. This proposal fails to reduce costs for Arizonans. Because of this, I cannot support it.”

“Congressional Republicans’ refusal to negotiate with Democrats is why the government shut down and why, more than 40 days later, it remains shut down.”

“I’ve been in Washington working toward a bipartisan, bicameral solution that lowers costs, protects health care and reopens the government. That will remain my north star.”

Senator Mark Kelly wrote in a statement:

“In the richest country in the world, families shouldn’t have to choose between putting food on the table and their health care. But that’s exactly what Donald Trump has done to Americans with this shutdown.  

“There should’ve never been a shutdown in the first place, and I worked to find a solution with Republicans and this administration. But Donald Trump has proven he doesn’t care about rising costs, skyrocketing health care premiums, or working families struggling to put food on the table. He has spent more time working on his ballroom than working to open the government. He sued to block food assistance for hungry families.   

“I’ve spent the last month hearing from Arizonans worried they can’t afford health care and families who were going broke and hungry because the government was shut down. That’s who I’m fighting for. But Donald Trump rejected a straightforward compromise that would have best served all Americans by reopening the government and keeping health care from becoming unaffordable and out of reach for millions, including thousands of Arizonans. If he’s ready to get serious on a solution to keep health care premiums from spiking, I’m ready to work, but everything he’s done suggests he just doesn’t care.”  

Senator Ruben Gallego said in a statement:

“I have been clear on this from the beginning: I will not turn my back on the 24 million Americans who will see their premiums more than double if we don’t extend these tax credits. 

“At a time when prices are already too high, Americans are shopping for health insurance and experiencing such sticker shock that they are being forced to sign up for a crappy, overpriced plan or not signing up for insurance at all. 

“It means a mom will have to make the decision of whether to put her family hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in order to pay for her cancer treatment. 

“It is disgusting that Republicans have put the country in the place, where they are pitting working people against each other—a family at a food bank versus a family that relies on the premium tax credits to get good medical care. We can and must care about both.

“There’s a phrase in Spanish, “Con salud, lo hay todo; sin salud, no hay nada.” It means “With good health you have it all; without your health, you have nothing.” It’s with that phrase in mind that I stand firm in my decision to vote no so that families across the country can get the health care they need.”

Jonathan Cowan, the President of Third Way issued a statement that sides with the position of the whole Arizona Democratic Congressional Delegation, writing:

“We oppose the agreement in the Senate to end the government shutdown.

“For the last 40 days—and for the first time in the Trump presidency—Democrats have driven the debate and put Republicans on their heels. All factions of the party were unified around defending the Affordable Care Act. Republicans, led by Trump, seem hellbent on taking away the tax credits that allow millions of Americans to have health care without going broke. This was a battle worth fighting, and it was worth fighting longer.

“Ultimately, Democrats may not have succeeded in extending the ACA subsidies, but now we will never know. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, one of America’s most pugnacious Democratic centrists, we should have been ready to fight ‘until the last dog dies.’ We should not have surrendered until we received at least something tangible on lowering health care costs.

“But regardless of today’s votes, there is one clear political loser from this fight: Donald Trump. He inflicted 40 days of pain on Americans just to prolong the health care crisis that he created. Heading into 2026, every American will know one thing: it was Donald Trump and congressional Republicans who robbed them of their health care and jacked up prices.”

Taking a nuanced approach, Democratic Political Consultant Dr. Rachel Bitecofer commented to Blog for Arizona:

“I never supported a shutdown because I understood, whether it lasted one day or 100 days, Republicans would never cave in destroying the Obamacare subsidies and now Democrats are seen as caving when they actually walked away with a huge intangible with the promised vote on the subsidies. America needs to see clearly what Republican policies for the working class look like. Now they will.”

Bulwark Podcaster and MSNBC analyst Tim Miller posted:

“Ready for my most controversial takes yet?

The Dems won the shutdown fight!

• This “fold” won’t matter at all in next years midterms but making the GOP own the dogshit BBB/tariff/health care policies will
• This is not an example of Dems “not fighting like Republicans” it’s a longer shutdown than anything the kamikaze Tea Party ever did!
• The people who are mad about this are a small subset of the electorate that treat politics like sports and its possible that their crying about the fold will contribute to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
• There was no path to getting the Obamacare subsidies back because the GOP controls everything and was never going to do it and they are fake populists. Dems should run against them on that topic and they have a great case study now. MTG helps with that.
• The fact that there was no getting Obamacare subsidy extension endgame was obvious at the start and anyone setting that expectation was lying to people.”

On Morning Joe this morning, Joe Scarborough echoed Bitecofers and Miller’s analysis, saying “The shutdown will end but what Trump and GOP stand for will stick with voters for years.”

Unless the House can not pass what was agreed to in the Senate (A possibility) and an agreement on extending the funding will not occur by January 31, 2026 (A stronger possibility. What happened yesterday may be nothing more than a truce/armistice to get everyone through the holiday season,) it is up to the people now in 2026.

Do not forget what “Let Them Starve” Trump and Project 2025 MAGA Republicans did to you and the country.