SNAP benefits are drying up for 40 million Americans. Border Patrol agents, air traffic controllers, and federal law enforcement have worked without pay for over a month. Critical federal assistance—from rural development programs to small business loans—are in jeopardy.

Across the country, Americans are suffering from the Schumer Shutdown. But according to the Senate Democrat Leader, “every day gets better for” Democrats. Over the last month, his party has voted 14 times to keep the government shut down. In their appalling view, the more hardship Americans face, the more leverage they have to force through their radical agenda as the price for reopening the government.

At the heart of their demands is the permanent extension of President Biden’s COVID credits under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, at a cost of $450 billion to the American taxpayer. Before Democrats signed these credits into law in 2021, only individuals with incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level could benefit from the taxpayer-funded program. Biden’s COVID credits blew up that income cap, allowing people who make over $500,000 to receive the taxpayer-funded subsidies to help cover their Obamacare premiums.

While the Biden COVID credits are set to expire at the end of the year, the original Obamacare subsidies are permanent and cannot expire. In fact, for the lowest cost Obamacare plan in 2026, the average premium after tax credits is projected to be $50 a month—$20 less than the average monthly premium in 2020. For the lowest income individuals, their premiums under the program can never exceed two percent of their total household income.

In short, Democrats are creating a shutdown crisis to ensure that anybody at any income level can enroll in government health care, no matter the cost to taxpayers. For them, it’s just one step closer toward socialized medicine where the government controls which doctor you see, which health insurance you use, and what kind of care you receive.

Tennesseans reject this radical agenda. The more people learn about Obamacare, the more they learn about all the waste and fraud in the program. As I’ve noted before, Biden’s COVID credits enabled 6.4 million individuals to improperly report their income level so that they could enroll in fully funded Obamacare plans—costing taxpayers $27 billion in 2025 alone.

Last year, nearly 12 million enrollees never filed a claim, yet taxpayers sent money directly to insurance companies to subsidize their unused plans. In many cases, insurance agents enroll individuals in Obamacare without their knowledge because they have their name, address, phone number, and contact information.

At the same time, Americans are also learning that the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable. When Democrats enacted the law in 2010, they claimed that it would lower premiums. The opposite has happened. Since 2013, the ACA benchmark plan premium has increased by 237 percent, more than three-times the rate for employer-sponsored plans. As these premiums go up, taxpayers are on the hook to subsidize the insurance companies. 

While Democrats desperately attempt to prop up this broken program, Republicans are fighting for policy solutions that expand health care freedom. We want to empower Americans to benefit from health savings accounts and association health plans and use health insurance across state lines. We want to build on the integrity measures secured in the One Big Beautiful Bill that ensure that health care subsidies only go to those who deserve them. We want Americans to have options so they can receive the care that best fits their needs.

We can’t address any of these issues, however, until Democrats come to the table and join Republicans in reopening the government. It’s time to get back to work for the American people.