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OPINION

By Changing Senate Rules, Republicans Can End Shutdown

By Changing Senate Rules, Republicans Can End Shutdown

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Robert Zapesochny By Tuesday, 21 October 2025 03:45 PM EDT Current | Bio | Archive

The current shutdown over Obamacare subsidies is less about healthcare than about America's broken budgeting process. These subsidies were billed as temporary emergency measures.

In the Affordable Care Act, these subsidies helped people earning under 400 percent of the poverty line. Then, under the Biden administration, these income caps were removed.

As Matthew Continetti wrote in his column, emergency subsidies introduced during the pandemic have gradually morphed into a long-term entitlement, with an estimated $350 billion price tag over the next decade.

Even that $350 billion is just a fraction of the larger fiscal crisis.

Continetti also highlighted that subsidies now total roughly $91 billion a year, which is a small fraction of the $1.6 trillion the federal government spent on health care in 2023.

Republicans lost the House in the 2018 midterms largely because they tried to repeal Obamacare without building a consensus around a credible replacement.

According to CNN's 2018 exit polls, 41 percent of voters named healthcare as their top issue and 75 percent of them voted for the Democrats.

Republicans can't afford to repeat the mistake of looking heartless.

But neither can Congress afford to keep ignoring the nation's deepening fiscal crisis.

In FY 2024, Washington spent about $4.1 trillion on mandatory programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, $1.8 trillion on discretionary programs funded through annual appropriations, and $881 billion just on interest payments for the national debt.

The deficit for FY 2024 was $1.8 trillion, or 6.4 percent of GDP. From 1975 to 2024, the average deficit was 3.8 percent of GDP.

In FY 2025, which ended October 1, the deficit again hit $1.8 trillion. Our national debt now stands at $37.6 trillion.

We can cut spending elsewhere to make room for the subsidies. If subsidies vanish overnight, working families will suffer.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress are weighing compromises that are worthy of consideration, including restoring income caps, requiring modest out-of-pocket premiums, or grandfathering current beneficiaries while limiting new enrollments.

But any extension must be offset with spending cuts. If Republicans want to be a majority party, they must show voters that their priority is helping working families.

The modern federal budget process was created under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

That law established the House and Senate Budget Committees, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the reconciliation process.

Reconciliation was designed so that tax and spending bills could pass the Senate with a simple majority.

But since 1977, Congress has passed all appropriations bills on time only four times: 1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997.

Every other year has ended in continuing resolutions, stopgaps, or bloated omnibus bills.

As of today, this shutdown has tied the 21-day record set under President Clinton in 1995–96 for the second-longest in U.S. history.

If it continues past midnight, it will become the second-longest outright, trailing only the 35-day standoff under President Trump in 2018–19.

While the earlier shutdowns were driven by divided government, this one can be ended by Republicans alone.

The Republicans can end the shutdown right now by invoking the nuclear option.

If reconciliation can be used for trillion-dollar tax cuts and stimulus bills, it should also apply to continuing resolutions and appropriations.

Continuing resolutions and budgets should never again be held hostage to the filibuster.

While changing Senate rules can end the current crisis, we must also have a broader conversation about a constitutional amendment that will make shutdowns less likely in the future, even under divided government.

Both Presidents Reagan and Clinton spoke of the need for a line-item veto. I think this would help keep spending under control, but it would require amending the Constitution.

We also need an amendment to reform the way congressional districts are drawn. According to the Cook Political Report’s 2026 House race ratings, only 18 seats are considered true toss-ups, with another 21 that are competitive but lean toward one party.

In most states, politicians draw their own districts to protect incumbents and reduce competition. Instead of voters choosing their politicians, politicians are choosing their voters.

Guaranteeing at least 100 competitive seats through independent commissions would restore a critical mass of moderates and make on-time budgets possible again.

As former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has argued, every state should have an independent commission.

Republicans must be flexible on subsidies, but they must be firm on one thing: invoke the nuclear option and end the shutdown now.

Even if some Republican senators resist ending the filibuster for appropriations, they should at least accept ending it for continuing resolutions.

The two highest-ranking Senate Republicans, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., oppose this idea, but there may no longer be a realistic alternative.

Robert Zapesochny is a researcher and writer. His work focuses on foreign affairs, national security, and presidential history. He's been published in numerous outlets, including The American Spectator, The Washington Times, and The American Conservative. When he's not writing, Robert works for a medical research company in New York. Read Robert Zapesochny's Reports — More Here.

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RobertZapesochny
Republicans can't afford to look heartless. But neither can Congress afford to keep ignoring the nation's deepening fiscal crisis. Republicans must be flexible on subsidies, but they must be firm on one thing: invoke the nuclear option and end the shutdown now.
nuclear, option
844
2025-45-21
Tuesday, 21 October 2025 03:45 PM
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