On House Democrats’ approach to stopping a shutdown and averting the Republican-caused health care crisis: “We should be working on a deal. That’s why we’re going back to DC to try to work on a deal. We’ve always been trying to get to the table to make sure we have policies that support our families across the country.”
DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene stopped by CNN’s ‘Political Briefing’ podcast this week to lay out how Democrats are fighting to stop the Republican assault on affordable health care and avert the Republican shutdown.
DelBene laid out how Republicans’ refusal to negotiate or do a single thing to lower costs for working families is the clearest example of Republicans steering the country towards a shutdown and their lack of interest in helping the American people.
During the conversation, DelBene also discussed how Republicans’ broken promise to lower costs on ‘day one’ would be a defining issue for the midterms and how Democratic overperformance in special elections since Trump took office was an indicator of the public anger towards Republicans, who are ready for a change.
“Republicans aren’t even interested in coming to the table. Donald Trump said that he would meet with the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Leader in the Senate, Senator Schumer. And then he canceled that and said, there’s no need to talk. Republicans are not even calling members of Congress back to Washington, D.C. to focus on making sure there’s a path forward.
“We’re coming back to D.C. because we know it’s important to continue to fight for the American people. But Republicans seem like they’re happy to lead us into a shutdown right now.”
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“This is work that should have been happening months ago […]. Republicans ignored that, walked to the end, and now they’re not even interested in being in Washington D.C. to have a conversation about what we can do to make sure we have that bipartisan support. […] They’re uninterested. It’s do whatever we say or we’re not going to talk.
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“We should be working on a deal. That’s why we’re going back to D.C. to try to work on a deal. We’ve always been trying to get to the table to make sure we have policies that support families across the country. Republicans aren’t interested in coming to the table. To them, it’s blind loyalty to Donald Trump, whatever he says goes.
“If Republicans talked to people in their communities, they would hear from folks that they are scared about health care costs going up, that they are scared about food and housing, that Republicans promised to lower costs and they’ve broken that promise over and over again.
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“In battleground districts across the country, recent data showed that 72% of voters support making sure the premium tax credits that help keep costs low for folks who buy their health insurance on the exchange, 72% percent of voters want to see those continued.
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“People are upset, they are angry about what’s happening. The focus of Republicans on the wealthy and the well-connected, when their number one issue, and why folks voted for Republicans and voted for Donald Trump last time, the number one issue was they thought he promised to lower costs on day one. That is a big, big broken promise. Costs are rising. Between the Big, Ugly Bill, tariffs, ripping away health care, nothing to help families, only to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest and the well-connected.
“So that’s why when you look at the generic ballot out there right now, when you talk to folks across the country, why in the special elections we’ve seen since November of 2024, Democrats are running 15 points ahead. People want those strong representatives who are going to stand up for them. And we’re going to fight for that in these districts across the country. And remember in the House, these are very local elections. These are individual districts across the country, we have great candidates, we win.”
