Bad news and good news: Democrats fold like a soggy tortilla in shutdown fight, but Supremes uphold same-sex marriage

News and views for thoughtful Floridians and other Americans

To paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, this is the way the government shutdown ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

And now that a handful of Senate Democrats have folded like a soggy tortilla, essentially giving Republicans everything they asked for, what did we learn from these 40-plus days of turmoil?

Not much.

Even though President Donald Trump as much as admitted the shutdown and all its hardships were squarely in Republican hands, even though voters resoundingly showed their support for Democrats on election day, it was clear Republicans were unlikely give in.

Cruelty and cynicism were not byproducts of this fiasco, they were the point, and more is to come.

Sure, Democrats “won” a promise that the Senate will tee up the question of extending Affordable Care Act subsidies through next year, but that’s going nowhere. It’s all performative, a show, a way for the eight so-called moderate Democratic Senators to save face.

A straight-up extension of benefits won’t get out of the Senate. And even if it did, it would be dead-on-arrival in the House.

Still, we should see food stamp payments resuming soon despite Trump’s best efforts to starve children. That’s good news for the nearly 3 million Floridians who depend on S.N.A.P. benefits, along with tens of millions more Americans.

And the tens of thousands of federal employees here in the Free State of Florida will soon be back to work—and as a bonus, will get back pay. This, of course, includes air traffic controllers, so, hopefully, Thanksgiving weekend travel will be less disrupted.

In other words, we’ll be right back where we started before the shutdown.

This all assumes the deal goes forward as agreed to last night on a 60-40 vote, and that the House signs off on the changes.

But staggering health insurance price increases are right around the corner, courtesy of a handful of Democrats who didn’t have the stomach for this fight.

I especially like what Substack writer Mary Geddry had to say about this:

Instead of extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies that were the whole reason for the standoff, the Senate produced a deal that could double or triple premiums for working families while handing a trillion dollars in tax relief to the donor class. It’s legislative hostage-taking with better table manners.

To understand why Democrats keep doing this, you have to trace the long arc of compromise that turned a party of organizers into a club of fund-managers.
Once upon a New Deal, Democrats were the party of labor and social justice. Then came the deregulating seventies, the Clintonian “Third Way,” and a parade of consultants promising that free markets would make us free people. The theory was that a rising tide lifts all boats; the practice was that it lifted yachts and drowned the dinghies. By the time Obama and Biden inherited the machinery, “governing responsibly” had become code for don’t spook Wall Street. Every populist impulse was trimmed to fit a spreadsheet.

If there is a political silver lining, it’s that when the Affordable Care Act subsidies do come up for a vote in December, and when Republicans vote them down, it will give Democrats a campaign issue.

Assuming Republicans aren’t clever enough to come up with an alternative proposal of their own, something so repugnant that it will force Democrats to vote “no," which, in turn, could be used against them.

Are we having fun yet, being pawns in this chess game?

I didn’t think so.

What do you think? Share your views by clicking on the COMMENTS link at the end of this newsletter. Thanks!

---

Supremes just say no

There was a bit of good news today. The Supreme Court rejected a petition to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

Per the Associated Press:

The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple denied a marriage license.

---

Thank you

Thank you for reading this, and for subscribing and supporting this initiative. Tropic Press is part of a growing number of independent news sites on Substack, and our goal is to create original commentary on the news with a special focus on Florida and issues of interest to Floridians.

And because this newsletter reaches more than 400,000 readers, we also share excellent journalism from other writers that otherwise might not make its way to everyone’s attention.

I deeply appreciate your support, and I encourage you to share these reports so we can continue to grow our community of like-minded readers.

Thank you.

J.C. Bruce

---

More online

Thank you for reading the Tropic Press newsletter. You also have access to the Tropic Press website for additional and previous posts, an archive of posts from our advice columnist, Miss Mingo, occasional guest commentaries, and information about The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures and other books.

J.C. Bruce, journalist and author, is the founder of Tropic Press. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida. Forward this email to your friends. They will love you for it.

---

---

Thanks to our sponsor

Today’s report is brought to you by Tropic Press Books, home of The Strange Files. Interested in sponsoring these reports? Contact: Advertising@Tropic.Press

---

It’s good to share

Tropic Press is a reader-supported publication. Here’s a big shout-out to all our loyal subscribers. Feel free to forward this email to your friends so they can enjoy it too. The more people we reach, the greater community of like-minded people we build. This is your chance to be part of all that. Thank you.