| Hello John, Democrats in Congress are preventing the government from reopening as they push to extend Covid-era Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. Here is the Democrats’ position according to left-wing comic Jon Stewart: “We’ve shut down the government to protect subsidies for an insurance marketplace that funnels $800 billion a year into the pockets of all these insurance companies.” I never thought I’d say this, but Stewart is spot on. First, a quick recap of how we got here: - In 2021, to help Americans through the Covid pandemic, Congress increased the amount of Obamacare subsidies and expanded the number of enrollees who qualified for subsidies.
- In 2022, as part of the ironically named Inflation Reduction Act, Congress extended the more generous subsidies until the end of this year.
These overly generous subsidies were always supposed to be temporary Covid measures. As then-President Joe Biden said, the higher subsidies were needed to “change the course of the COVID-19 pandemic” and provide “an economic bridge through the crisis.” Now, of course, Democrats want to make them permanent. But Covid is long over. The masks are gone. Kids are back at school, and Americans are back to work. Letting these Covid subsidies expire would simply revert back to the Obamacare subsidy levels that existed before Covid. To hear the Democrats tell it, that would be a catastrophe, which tells you all you need to know about what they really think of the program they’ve lauded for the past 15 years. It may be news to the Democrats, but we’ve known all along that Obamacare was a disaster. As Paragon Health Institute puts it: Supporters of Obamacare promised that the legislation would cut family premiums by $2,500. Instead, its mix of mandates and pricing restrictions sharply increased individual market premiums. From 2013 to 2014 — the first year that Obamacare’s key provisions took effect — individual market premiums increased nearly 50 percent. Obamacare plans carried high deductibles and narrow networks, often excluding top hospitals and doctors. The fact is, Obamacare hasn’t lived up to the lofty promises of its architects. In fact, it’s made things worse. So, my friends, here is the issue in a nutshell. The Democrats designed and passed a health care plan that President Obama promised would reduce health insurance premiums. Instead, premiums skyrocketed. Then along comes Covid, and in response, the Democrats raised Obamacare premium subsidies and expanded who is eligible for assistance. They told us it was a temporary Covid measure, but now they want to make these subsidies permanent to save their lousy program. If Republicans acquiesce, soon these higher subsidies won’t be enough, and the cycle will repeat. Former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once told Democrats, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Democrats see the government shutdown as just such a crisis, and they want to use it to permanently extend subsidies they were not able or willing to before. So don’t be fooled, and don’t let them get away with it. Please sign the petition to let Washington know that you oppose extending Joe Biden’s inflated Obamacare subsidies! | 
