DENVER (KDVR) — Friday marked day 24 of the federal government shutdown. Not much has changed on Capitol Hill.
FOX31 is speaking with a Republican member of the state’s congressional delegation for the first time since the first week of the shutdown. The federal government remains in gridlock for now. After speaking with Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, it appears things may stay that way for some time.
“We are not coming back into session until the federal government is open. The democrats’ reckless, partisan government shutdown: This, the perfect example of what happens when you give Washington too much power over your life,” said Boebert.
The congresswoman said she and her Republican colleagues have been using their weeks back in Colorado to tour their districts, meeting with constituents like farmers and business owners and having roundtables to talk about the impacts of the shutdown. She is calling on Senate Democrats to vote on the spending plan already passed by the House.
“This is a continuing resolution that Democrats supported 13 times prior. In fact, it is their spending bill that we are continuing,” Boebert said.
Absent in that spending bill is an extension of the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, healthcare subsidies that help keep premiums low for people on the individual healthcare market, like Connect for Health Colorado.
“Because illegal aliens will no longer receive healthcare benefits from American taxpayers, they want to add $1.5 trillion in pork to a clean spending bill in order to reopen the government,” said the congresswoman.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive enhanced premium tax credits. While an extension of the credits will cost the government, the Congressional Budget Office projects it would cost $350 billion over 10 years. Other Republicans, like Congressman Jeff Hurd of Colorado, have proposed a one-year extension of those credits to get everything back up and running.
Boebert said she wants the government out of healthcare.
“The fact that we are seeing rising healthcare — the costs and premiums, this is not on republicans. This is failed policy. We said it was failed policy from the beginning. Unfortunately, when Republicans had the chance in President Trump’s first term to repeal and replace, they did not; they failed at that. Now we need to have a real conversation about how to actually fix this mess,” Boebert said.
The Kaiser Family Foundation projects people living in the congresswoman’s district will see their health insurance premiums spike 306% if those credits are not extended. Private health insurance premiums are expected to rise, too.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
