Bernie Sanders: I Would Not Reopen the Gov’t in Order to Vote for a Standalone ACA Subsidy Vote

HAINES: “Senator, we’re now on day 20 of the government shutdown.”
Sanders: “Yeah.”
HAINES: “And the longer this goes on, it seems to play into the president’s hands as he wants to continue firing federal workers, and he is defunding Democratic priorities and shrinking the government long-term. Now, Majority Leader Thune has offered Democrats a vote to extend ObamaCare subsidies if they just agree to end the shutdown. Are you on board with that just to get this over with?”
Sanders: “No, because that would not get it over with. I want to see the shutdown ended tomorrow, a lot of good, decent, hardworking federal employees not getting their paychecks. That is not right. But I want to explain to everybody really what’s at stake, because I don’t know that people are clear about it. As a result of Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, which to mine one, was one of the worst pieces of legislation passed in modern history, this is what is going to happen. 15 million low income and working-class Americans are going to lose their health insurance. Studies indicate that when you take away health insurance from so many people, you know what happens? Fifty thousand people will die unnecessarily every single year, 50,000 of our fellow Americans. And then on top of that — and people are now in Vermont and around the country getting their notices from insurance companies.”
HAINES: “Right.”
Sanders: “In my state of Vermont, people are getting notices that their premiums, which are now outrageously high, are going to triple, in some cases quadruple, on average nationally double. Why did Trump and the Republicans do this? In order to pay for a one trillion dollar tax break for the 1 percent.”