![\"Sen.](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2242081502.jpg?c=original&q=w_1280,c_fill\/f_avif\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, one of three Democrats who has voted 13 times with Republicans to fund the government, argued that federal workers missing paychecks and people losing food assistance is not a necessary cost of addressing the looming deadline to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.\n <\/p>\n
\n Cortez Masto told CNN that while she understands her colleagues have their own reasons behind their votes, acknowledging her fears of a \u201clooming healthcare crisis,\u201d she doesn\u2019t think \u201cwe should swap the pain of some Americans for others.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe should be lifting all of them up and helping them,\u201d she said, later adding, \u201cwe can keep the government open and address this looming crisis of the health care cliff that we are seeing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The Nevada Democrat said that federal workers in her state are \u201csuffering\u201d as they miss paychecks and worry about the safety of their jobs and the tourism and travel industry is at risk of further decline after already being hit by tariffs.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo yes, I am concerned, and we see it playing out,\u201d she told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n Pressed on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2019s previous comment suggesting that the shutdown plays better politically for Democrats \u201cevery day,\u201d Cortez Masto retorted, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in using federal workers, state workers, as political pawns.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe can do both. We can actually do our jobs with the government open, appropriate, solve problems and address this looming healthcare crisis,\u201d she said, adding that she\u2019s been talking with people in her state who are very concerned about the status of ACA tax credits, as well as SNAP and WIC benefits running out.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, one of three Democrats who has voted 13 times with Republicans to fund the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[44887,44886,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-536064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-hnk","9":"tag-intl","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115459122526586787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}