Senate Votes to End Shutdown, But the Fight for Affordable Healthcare Continues
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate has voted to end the government shutdown by moving to pass a continuing resolution, which now goes to the House in the coming days to reopen the government. In response, Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:
“The budget fight over the past six weeks has revealed how far Republicans will go to demonstrate subservience to their authoritarian leader, even at the expense of the most basic needs of ordinary Americans. Republicans have destroyed affordable healthcare access for millions of Americans, and have allowed the President to weaponize hunger against millions more of our most vulnerable people, all so that they can bully through a budget that’s catapulting us towards a dystopian future of stark inequality.
“It is thoroughly disappointing that, while most Americans overwhelmingly oppose Republicans’ horrific budget, support the fight to curtail Trump’s authoritarianism, and want to protect healthcare, some Democrats failed to hold the line, and squandered an opportunity to score a popular and decisive win for the American people.
“While the government shutdown may soon be coming to an end without achieving immediate progress on the Republican-created healthcare crisis that we so desperately need to fix, it remains necessary for everyone who cares about the wellbeing of Americans to use all the leverage they have to pushback on Trump’s authoritarianism and his cannibalizing of the basic needs of Americans for the benefit of his corporate donors and billionaire friends.
“As the fight now returns to the House, we urge House Democrats to reject this resolution, and to keep up the fight for healthcare access for the American people. No matter the setbacks, this is a fight we must continue. The lives of millions of people depend on it.”