Senator Ricketts’ Weekly Column: The Healthcare Hypocrisy of Chuck Schumer and the Democrats

For the 10th day, the government is shutdown.  Government services have diminished or stopped.  Senate Democrats want to hold rural Nebraskans’ healthcare hostage.  Important programs like telehealth have lapsed.  This is what a Schumer Shutdown looks like. 

The Schumer Shutdown doesn’t have to continue any longer.  Republicans are ready to pass a clean Continuing Resolution.  That means government spending levels continue at the current levels.  The same spending levels President Biden signed into law.  That is the Republican position.  That is the sensible position.  Republicans are offering the only bipartisan bill. 

So far, three Senate Democrats have joined us in voting for it.  Extending current, bipartisan spending levels would secure more time to complete the regular appropriations process.  This isn’t new.  Senate Democrats passed Continuing Resolutions 13 times during the Biden administration.  Nearly 100% of Democrats voted for these specific spending levels four times in the last 18 months.  That includes Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who voted yes—all four times.  This is hypocrisy. 

Schumer and the Democrats are holding government services hostage. They’re playing political games with people’s lives.  This is hypocrisy.  This is a Schumer Shutdown.  It needs to end now. 

Schumer used to say that holding funding bills hostage was wrong.  In 2013, he said: “What if I persuaded my caucus to say: ‘I’m going to shut the government down.  I’m going to not pay our bills unless I get my way.’?  It’s a politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis.” 

By shutting down the government, Schumer and the Democrats are engaged in the very policy that Schumer previously described as idiocy. 

Schumer and his Senate Minority say their “fight” is about healthcare.  That’s not the case.  This is about partisan games. 

The Democrats are not offering a bipartisan bill.  Democrats are demanding radical, far-left policies that will hurt Nebraskans’ healthcare and raise costs.  They’re demanding over $1 trillion of partisan spending in exchange for keeping the government open for four weeks.  They’re demanding free healthcare for illegal aliens.  They’re demanding that we eliminate the $50 billion Rural Healthcare fund that will directly support healthcare for Nebraskans.  They also want to restore a burdensome staffing rule that would force the closing of rural nursing homes in Nebraska. Democrats claim to be fighting for healthcare. The reality is that their policies would harm it. 

Because of this shutdown, veterans’ health services are impacted.  Telehealth programs that rural and elderly Nebraskans rely on have lapsed.  Hospital-at-home and home-based medicine programs have ended.  Women and children can’t apply for WIC.  Without a funding solution, WIC will soon run out of money.  Those are the costs of this Schumer Shutdown.  Services will continue to be impacted until more sensible Democrats reverse course and re-open the government. 

If Chuck Schumer really wanted to improve healthcare for Americans, he would keep the government open.  He wouldn’t delay healthcare and increase wait times for veterans, families, or rural communities.  He wouldn’t cut funding that supports care in rural Nebraska. 

As the Schumer Shutdown continues, services are going to be harder to access.  Schumer and the Democrats need to end the hypocrisy.  They need to stop harming rural healthcare.  They need to open the government. 

Throughout the duration of the shutdown, my team and I are here to serve you.  My offices remain open in Scottsbluff, Kearney, Lincoln, Omaha, and Washington, D.C.  Contact us anytime by phone at 202-224-4224.  You can also view my website at www.ricketts.senate.gov/contact.