Hold 'Em

 Catherine Cortez Masto

Dick Durbin

John Fetterman

Maggie Hassan

Tim Kaine

Angus King

Jacky Rosen

Jeanne Shaheen

I am hoping to set up a poker game soon with these folks. I figure I can just sit back and bluff for what seems like a long time but these United States senators will all fold before things get really interesting. I am hoping that I will make enough money to cover my health care once I am retired and Medicare no longer exists. 

These are the eight votes who caved to the Republican "pressure" to reopen the government. They did so just five days after the country as a whole made their voices heard at the ballot box. Democrats across the country scored major victories, pushing back hard on the draconian measures of Project 2025. Progressives, liberals, communists. Whatever you choose to call them in order to make it sound worse, they all came out and voted overwhelmingly against the Orange Beast's referendum. 

Five days later, these senators chose to embolden the beast for the "promise" of a vote sometime in the future on the affordable care tax credits which was the reason they walked out in the first place. 

We all know just how good this regime is at keeping promises. 

Especially when it comes to the huddled masses. 

Back in the early twenty-first century, there was this idea: Affordable Health Care. It took a decade, but once the Affordable Care Act was put into place, the first steps toward coverage for all Americans became a reality. Which was just about the time when Republicans began to try and tear it down. 

Without a replacement. 

Now we stand at the edge of an abyss. 

I'm putting together a poker game. Anyone else want in?