The government is shut down. Good. The truth is that the Republicans are in the majority in both houses of Congress. They also hold the White House. If they want to fund this government, they should figure out a way. What is this government doing that someone who disagrees with Donald Trump should want to continue?

This fight is not about illegal immigrants getting health care from the government. That is illegal now, and does not happen on any meaningful level. Medicare and Medicaid have plenty of safe guards now against giving a policy to non-citizens. If you wanted to make sure those programs and the VA and ACA had literal zero illegal immigrants on policies, you’d give them more money, not less, so they could enforce it better. This is all just excuses from Donald Trump.

This fight is about the ACA and affordable health care in America. Cutting subsidies for premiums under the ACA simply will raise the amount of money people pay for a plan. If premiums are higher, less people will buy plans. Because less people are buying, plans will become more expensive people who buy plans. It’s a nasty cycle, and the reason most of the 20 million or so on “Obamacare” plans didn’t just buy an insurance plan before. The whole market is cheaper with more people on it. With less people insured, you get more people showing up at hospitals and clinics and receiving care they will never pay for. The hospitals and clinics then make up that money by charging insurers more for the people they are covering. Simply put, health care is cheaper on the micro (household) level with more people insured than less. Cutting subsidies to the ACA is a rate hike even for people like me, who don’t accept the subsidy.

Aside from the multitude of horrific things the current government is doing that Democrats should have no interest in paying for, there’s no point in screwing up the health care market because you don’t like the President who designed it. Keep the government shut down. If the Republicans want to fund it, let them figure it out. If they want Democrats to help, they can cave on health insurance premiums. Otherwise there is no harm in shutting it down and keeping it down. Democrats were voted out, we’re under no obligation to help them.