David Moisan lives in Richmond.

Once again, Washington has ground to a halt and, once again, Republicans are pretending they
don’t know why.

As federal workers brace for missed paychecks and Americans wonder what services will close next, the cause of this latest government shutdown isn’t some complex budget dispute. It’s something far simpler, and far more cynical: Republicans refuse to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, and they’d rather shut down the government than admit it.

Let’s be clear. The ACA subsidies, first expanded under President Biden, have been a lifeline for
millions of Americans. They lowered premiums, made coverage more affordable for families
squeezed by inflation and strengthened one of the most successful health policy reforms in
modern history.

Extending those subsidies should be a no-brainer, the kind of quiet, bipartisan adjustment Congress has made countless times before to avoid needless pain.

But instead of doing the reasonable thing, House Republicans are holding the entire government hostage. They’ve built their brand on opposing anything tied to the Affordable Care Act, no matter how beneficial, and now they’re weaponizing that obsession.

Their strategy is as old as it is transparent: refuse to govern, then blame Democrats for the fallout. It’s a playbook we’ve seen before.

In 2013, Republicans shut down the government in an attempt to repeal the ACA entirely. That backfired spectacularly. Public opinion turned sharply against them, and Obamacare survived stronger than ever. Yet here we are again, a decade later, watching the same party threaten workers’ livelihoods over the same irrational vendetta against affordable health care.

What makes this moment particularly absurd is that the stakes couldn’t be lower politically, or
higher morally. Extending the subsidies doesn’t require new bureaucracy or sweeping reform.
It’s a simple continuation of existing policy, one that even conservative voters quietly rely on.

Many Republican-led states benefit enormously from these subsidies, but that hasn’t stopped
their representatives in Congress from turning them into a political football.

The truth is, this shutdown isn’t about fiscal responsibility, or runaway spending, or any of the
other buzzwords Republicans like to throw around. It’s about denying Democrats a win, even if that means denying Americans their health care.

At some point, governing requires more than slogans. It requires maturity, empathy and the
humility to accept good ideas, even when they come from the other side. Until Republicans
rediscover those basic virtues, the country will keep paying the price for their political theater.