By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD — Democrats are firm in their resolve to protect tax credits in the Affordable Care Act as the government shutdown heads toward its fourth week.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal said higher bills for health insurance — costs the tax credits are meant to counteract for working Americans making too much money for Medicaid —that will end the impasse.
“The premium notices are going out,” Neal, D-Springfield, said in an interview Friday. “Between now and November, those higher bills will go out.”
Neal’s office estimates that in the 1st District, cuts will mean higher premiums for 29,000 residents, with more than a 185% increase for a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 a year.
Neal said Democrats have no interest in a one-year fix, if one is offered by Republicans.
“That gets them through the next election,” he said.
It’ll be President Donald Trump who will decide when Republican lawmakers are ready to make a deal and end the government shutdown now in its third week, he said.
Trump holds sway over the Republicans, Neal said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., probably has more leeway than House Speaker Mike Johnson, Neal said.
Neal said Friday that he and his fellow Democrats have been in D.C. this week, ready to make a deal. A higher number of Republicans were not in town.
Johnson, of Louisiana, faces dissension in his own Republican caucus which can vote to remove him.
Thune yesterday said Trump is “ready to weigh in and sit down with the Democrats or whomever, once the government opens up.”
Thune said he’d also be willing to talk, but only after the shutdown ends.
“I am willing to sit down with Democrats,” Thune posted on social media Friday.
Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Democrats must first vote to reopen the government, “then we can have serious conversations about health care.”
The shutdown means 8,744 federal workers in the 1st District are either working without pay or are furloughed. And cuts to WIC and SNAP will mean 23,816 residents in the district will lose access to affordable food.
Federal agencies are also not responding to congressional offices of both parties, Neal said.
About half the IRS staff have been furloughed and it is no longer taking congressional inquiries
And at the Small Business Administration, about 30% of staff are furloughed and Neal’s office has received out-of- office emails to our inquiries.
Associated Press reports were included.
