Let’s be clear what the current government shutdown is about. Republicans have slim majorities in the House and Senate and control the White House. The way our system of government works is that the House can pass legislation with a simple majority, but the U.S. Senate requires 60 votes. Because Republicans have 53 seats in the Senate, if they got all of their caucus to support the proposed budget resolution, they would still need 7 votes from Democrats to pass the proposal.

Failing that, the process is to compromise with the other party to reach agreement. The reason is so all Americans are represented by the legislation passed, not just those represented by the party in power.

Republicans have not compromised. In fact, the budget resolution they are trying to push through had no input from Democrats. They were left out of that process entirely, and Republicans have met only once with Democrats (just last week), but refused to accept any of the Democrats requests.

The budget resolution, remember, is a budget based on Trump’s “big, ugly bill” that gives more than $1 trillion in tax breaks to the richest 1% of Americans, while also making the harshest cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in history. 

Democrats are requesting the GOP’s ruthless cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act be rescinded. That is, to leave the health care benefits intact for the lower- and middle-income families who receive them. 

It’s that simple. 

What’s not so simple to understand is why Republicans want to cut health care benefits to over 24 million Americans, give outlandish tax cuts to the richest few, and why the American public — the majority of whom will be negatively impacted — doesn’t rebel over a budget proposal that will severely raise health care costs for years to come.

Specifically, here’s who will be harmed: 

• If the Republican budget passes, 15 million Americans, including 45,000 Vermonters, will lose their health care as a result of the largest cut to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in American history.  

• In addition, the price of health care premiums will more than double for 24 million Americans, including some 30,000 Vermonters who get their health care through the Affordable Care Act.  

• The Trump administration will continue to restrict access to vaccines that have saved tens of millions of lives. In short, the budget undermines and restricts the distribution of safe and effective vaccines to infants, school children and adults.

• Democrats are also standing up to Trump’s increasingly authoritarian acts, such as sending federal troops into cities and states against the wishes of Democratic governors and mayors. It’s a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878, which for the past 150 years has established a national viewpoint that military interference in civilian affairs is a threat to both democracy and personal liberty. Trump’s misuse of the military in this manner is trying to disguise an overreach of power, typical of dictators in rogue states.

• Democrats are also trying to restrict ICE agents, who have maliciously and carelessly arrested, handcuffed and detained Americans with full citizenship — while also breaking doors down and busting into homes with no cause, as the recent incident in Chicago showed on video. Republicans shrug their shoulders and suggest mistakes happen, but Democrats in the House and Senate want ICE to do a better job of fully knowing who they are targeting before they break into someone’s house and arrest them. Arresting innocent Americans, even if only for a few hours, simply should not be tolerated.

Republicans are ignoring these valid points and sticking to a meaningless retort: that it is a “clean” bill that does what the public wanted Trump to do when he was elected. But that assumes the public wanted Trump to kill all efforts to combat climate change (over 70% disagree), wanted Trump to lavish tax cuts on billionaires while cutting health care benefits to millions (no poll would reflect numbers anywhere close to Trump’s position), not to mention decimate our national parks, gut government agencies, turn the military into an anti-American force that attacks its own citizens, and on and on.

What Republicans are calling “clean” stinks as bad as a feedlot with 10,000 cattle.

On the contrary, the comprises proposed by Democrats are far from radical. Their bottom line is to preserve a semblance of health care coverage for more than 24 million Americans who will lose coverage or see health care premiums more than double — and in some cases in Vermont, go up by over $30,000 in a year. They are also trying to protect all Americans from the trauma caused by military-style arrests of legal residents due to careless and callous acts by ICE. It’s what elected representatives are supposed to do — Democrats and Republicans.

During this government shutdown, Democrats should hold firm and keep that message front and center. They are the voices of reason, the voices of a more equitable and just society. 

Angelo Lynn

PS: We launched a nonprofit to help bolster our ability to sustain the Addison Independent’s strong news team, and develop new ways to reach local readers — including digitally through apps, newsletters and social media, as well as promote civic engagement. Read more about this effort here. More info about how to get involved will appear next week in this column.