Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, said on “CBS Mornings” that a guaranteed vote on Democrats’ health care priorities would not be enough to reopen the government, and he expressed concern about the “broken” and “dysfunctional” health care system.
Along with health insurance premiums expected to rise without an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits, Sanders cited the toll imposed on low-income Americans by Medicaid restrictions in President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” that became law earlier this year, arguing it will lead to thousands of deaths.
Sanders said Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s offer to hold a vote on tax credits is “not good” because even if it passed the Senate, the president could veto the legislation, or the House could simply choose not to pass it.
“You know what’s happening right now in the House? The Speaker of the House, Mr. Johnson, gave his people a five-week vacation. They’re not even in Washington, D.C.,” Sanders said. “Before we vote on a bill that will, right now, allow 50,000 people to die needlessly, yes, I want to make it absolutely clear that that’s not going to happen, period.”
Sanders argued that what Senate Republicans are doing by refusing to negotiate until the government reopens is “unprecedented.” He said that because the Republican Party needs the support of a number of Democrats to move forward on legislation to fund the government, “they have to negotiate.”
“You know how many negotiations they did? Zero,” Sanders said. “Our way or the highway.”
