{"id":379947,"date":"2025-11-15T04:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T04:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379947\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T04:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T04:48:13","slug":"durbin-says-shutdown-vote-could-highlight-divisions-on-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379947\/","title":{"rendered":"Durbin says shutdown vote could highlight divisions on health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin acknowledged Friday that his vote, along with a small number of Democrats<\/a>, to back a Republican-led measure ending the nation\u2019s longest government shutdown last week could exacerbate divisions between party progressives and moderates.<\/p>\n

But the chamber\u2019s No. 2 Democrat and the state\u2019s retiring senior senator also said the agreement includes an expectation that Senate GOP leader John Thune will bring a Democratic plan to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies to a vote by mid-December, a debate that he said will provide a highly visible forum on the two parties\u2019 contrasting health care agendas.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a news conference at Care for Real, an Edgewater food pantry that saw a sharp increase in need partly caused by the Trump administration using the shutdown to block funding for the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program<\/a>, Durbin said, \u201cWe can have our political debates in Washington, but it shouldn\u2019t be at the expense of families receiving paychecks and feeding their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re going to use a political strategy, you\u2019ve got to carefully measure the impact it\u2019s going to have on innocent people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Durbin, along with seven other senators<\/a> who voted with Republicans on the agreement to end the shutdown, as well as six House members, have received scathing criticism from elements within the Democratic Party who think the shutdown-ending vote cost them momentum in challenging President Donald Trump and GOP allies on the health insurance subsidy issue, as shown iin balloting earlier this month across the country.<\/p>\n

Gov. JB Pritzker<\/a>, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, has been among party leaders critical of the vote and its lack of a commitment to extend ACA subsidies. And on Friday, the Young Democrats of Illinois said in a statement that votes for the agreement \u201cundermined party unity and weakened our leverage at a time when working families, especially in Illinois, can\u2019t afford increased costs to their health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin visits Care for Real to discuss recent disruptions to the SNAP program in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago on Nov. 14, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Asked by a reporter if his vote would only add to a schism between younger progressives and older Democrats, Durbin said, \u201cIt can, but I hope it doesn\u2019t. I hope that we can close ranks now \u2014 even though we have that fundamental disagreement \u2014 and work toward a common goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people want a party elected that\u2019s sensitive to the reality of Iife in American families today and that sensitivity relates directly to affordability and when people can have the basics,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re still dedicated as a party. Through the course of the shutdown, we have defined (ACA health insurance subsidies) as a major issue. It was very helpful in the last election we had a couple of weeks ago. I think it will be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durbin, a five-term senator with a dedication to the chamber\u2019s institutional rules, said he believed Thune would bring the Democrats\u2019 ACA plan to the Senate floor \u201cso we\u2019ll see, for those who are skeptical, in a few weeks whether he keeps his word. I think he will.\u201d He also said he was trying to \u201cround up Republican support\u201d to extend the subsidies.<\/p>\n

Durbin also said there was never a guarantee a subsidy extension would pass the Republican-led Senate or GOP-run House.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d he said, \u201cto have an opportunity to debate this before the American people and let them see the stark differences between the parties \u2014 that\u2019s what a democracy does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid increasing calls primarily from House Democrats in Washington for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to step down in the wake of the shutdown-ending vote, Durbin gave his colleague a vote of confidence, even though he and Schumer were on opposite sides of the roll call.<\/p>\n

\u201cChuck does an excellent job and I believe he\u2019s in a solid position with the caucus,\u201d Durbin said. \u201cDoes he have every vote every day? No, hardly anyone would. But I think he\u2019s led us well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin acknowledged Friday that his vote, along with a small number of Democrats, to back…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":379948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[182200,69,279,49089,210,1141,1142,67,132,68,13235],"class_list":{"0":"post-379947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-dick-durbin","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-gop","11":"tag-government-shutdown","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-health-care","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-vote"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115551909437266448","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}