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Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss went on Fox’s Big Weekend Show this week and tried to put a brave face on his party’s collapse, pledging to “disrupt the status quo” and touting piecemeal fixes for America’s broken healthcare market. His words came after a humiliating shutdown spectacle that left millions of Americans scrambling and the Democratic brand bruised beyond repair.
The shutdown that Auchincloss was asked to defend wasn’t a minor skirmish — it became the longest in our nation’s history and only finally ended when Congress moved to reopen the government in mid-November, after weeks of lost paychecks, canceled flights, and real economic pain for ordinary families. Americans watching their neighbors and federal workers suffer deserve more than political theater; they deserve leaders who put country over caucus.
Instead of honest accountability, Democrats responded with internecine bickering and public recrimination, with moderates openly breaking ranks and party leaders facing a stampede of criticism. The fissures are plain: some House Democrats voted to end the shutdown and reopen the government while others clung to intransigent demands, exposing a party more interested in messaging than solving problems.
Auchincloss’s healthcare promises sound familiar — calls to tinker and expand more taxpayer subsidies — but this was the very issue that helped fuel the shutdown fight in the first place, as Democrats dug in over expiring Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. Voters remember that these debates threw coverage costs into chaos and nearly left families paying even higher premiums this fall.
The American people were not impressed when Washington’s gamesmanship dragged on while breadwinners missed paychecks and essential services faltered; thankfully, lawmakers finally passed a funding bill and put an end to the chaos so people could get back to work and Thanksgiving could be salvaged for millions. If Democrats truly care about healthcare affordability, they’ll stop weaponizing an essential program and come to the table with real, market-friendly reforms instead of hollow rhetoric.
Conservative voters should applaud the handful of principled Democrats who put country over party and demanded the government reopen, and they should make clear through the ballot box that Washington’s status quo is unacceptable. The GOP must hold the line on fiscal sanity while offering commonsense healthcare solutions that lower costs through competition and transparency, not more top-down bailouts.
This episode should be a wake-up call to every American who still believes in self-reliance and limited government: the left talks about disruption while delivering dysfunction. Patriots must demand better from both parties, reject career politicians who trade our prosperity for short-term headlines, and elect leaders who will put hardworking families first.
