By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
There appears to be no end in sight as we approach week two of a federal government shutdown that means, every day it drags on, the likelihood of people losing crucial food and healthcare benefits grows ever higher.
At a news conference on Oct. 9, State Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Marilyn Strickland, and Adam Smith outlined the situation, and said that they and other Democrats would continue to “hold the line.”
The representatives said that Republicans are not interested in negotiating the funding bills that would end the government shutdown, and won’t agree to remove provisions from those bills that will, if passed, take healthcare away from 15 million people across the country and food assistance away from at least 4 million.
State Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Jayapal said that while the Democrats are doing “everything we can” to mitigate the immediate impacts of the shutdown, such as preparing to issue one-time vouchers to people who rely on the Women, Infants, and Children program, there isn’t much they can do.
“The pain that people are going to feel is coming directly from Republicans who refuse to govern,” Jayapal said. “I have a lot of respect for the federal workers who have been calling me … many of them who are the most vulnerable are actually telling us to please hold the line, the ones that are going to lose their jobs who are not being paid right now.”
“Part of the reason that they’re telling us that is because they know that the Trump administration has already cut 150,000 federal workers jobs in the nine months that’s already passed,” she continued. “And these workers are saying to us, ‘Listen, if premiums rise as they are projected to, and with the cuts to Medicaid, we cannot afford health care. If you end the shutdown without negotiating this very critical issue for us, we’re going to be in terrible, dire straits.’”
She also said that these same federal workers are afraid the Trump administration will continue to slash their jobs, if the government reopens.
State Rep. Marilyn Strickland
While most of the people who will lose healthcare are in Republican-controlled states, due to sharp Medicaid cuts and Affordable Care Act (ACA) cuts—cuts that funnel that money into permanent tax cuts for the wealthy—this doesn’t mean that people in Democratic states will fare any better. In Washington state alone, at least 300,000 people will lose health coverage, and 288,000 would see their premiums more than double.
Strickland highlighted that it’s not just overall healthcare that’s in peril. It’s the ability for people to live in nursing homes, too. Between 60%—70% of people currently living in nursing homes rely on Medicaid to pay for that coverage, which runs upwards of $9,000 per month.
“If we cut Medicaid by this amount, where are these folks going to go?” Strickland said. “A lot of families do not have $12,000 or more per month out of pocket to pay for that service. Some families cannot accommodate bringing someone into their home if they don’t have the proper medical care or facilities. And so this creates such a huge crisis in the United States that it’s hard to fathom that this is what [the Republicans are] willing to do.”
Jayapal said that the Democrats are planning to continue to try to negotiate with Republicans.
“I think it’s really important that Republicans actually call their members back—that [Republican House Speaker] Mike Johnson calls us back, that we have those negotiations so that there is the opportunity for us to save healthcare for the American people, to cancel the cuts, to lower costs and to reopen government,” she said.
Johnson has repeatedly refused to bring members back for a vote, ignoring calls even from within his own party to do so. Just yesterday, bills that could end the federal shutdown failed for the seventh time in the Senate. While Republicans are attempting to construe the situation as one of the Democrats’ making, this doesn’t hold water, Strickland said.
“The Republicans control the House, they control the Senate, and they control the White House,” she said. “If there is a shutdown because of this Republican health care crisis, it is 100% on them. They are the ones who need to come to the table to say, ‘Here’s what we’re willing to concede.’ … So much about what we discuss in Congress, especially over the last nine months or so, often feels as though we’re losing the plot.”
Jayapal said that Republicans on a media tour this week are pretending that the impacts of their proposed cuts won’t be seen for years.
“That is just not true. Notices have already started going out showing that premiums have more than doubled in some cases,” Jayapal said. “Millions of Americans are going to lose coverage or face skyrocketing costs now, starting in October, even as premiums have already been consistently rising across the country.”
She also said that they are touting another lie: That undocumented immigrants can access healthcare through the ACA or receive Medicaid, and that Democrats are stalling any negotiations to give $1 trillion in medical coverage to undocumented immigrants.
“This one is just absurd, especially as the Republicans’ … bill actually took health care away from hundreds of thousands of people with lawful status in this country, including refugees and trafficking survivors,” Jayapal said. “Undocumented immigrants have never actually been permitted to use even their hard-earned money to purchase coverage through the ACA or to receive comprehensive Medicare or Medicaid coverage, even as their labor supports those benefits for the rest of us. The Democratic bill does not change any of that in any way, shape, or form.”
Strickland said that the Republicans are doing “what they always do: whenever they’re losing an argument, they press their undocumented immigrants panic button.”
She noted, too, that Trump sending the National Guard to cities is a stunt. She said that, by deploying troops to Democratic cities, Trump is deliberately trying to stoke unrest so that he can declare martial law and render it impossible to hold elections in 2026.
Her comments follow Trump’s statement on Monday, in which he threatened to use the Insurrection Act—a rarely invoked law that allows the president to deploy the military domestically under certain circumstances without requiring state consent.
However, invoking the act alone does not mean that Trump can cancel any elections. He is also unable to declare martial law, and it is debatable whether Congress could confer that power onto him.
Strickland also urged calm and said that people need to keep any demonstrations peaceful, to make this scenario less likely.
“Go about your business, stay safe, protest peacefully, but do not give the administration the made-for-TV riot moment that they so desperately want,” she said.
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