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Angus King represents Maine in the U.S. Senate.
Here’s why I got to yes on ending the federal government shutdown. The strategy (shut the government down to force the Republicans to do something about the cuts to the Affordable Care Act tax credits) wasn’t working (six weeks and counting) and there is no evidence that a few more days, weeks or months was going to change that result.
In the meantime, millions of Americans — mostly SNAP beneficiaries ( 42 million nationwide with almost 170,000 in Maine) — were being hurt, not to mention 2 million federal employees who haven’t been paid in a month. In other words, millions of people are being seriously hurt in the service of a strategy with pretty much a zero chance of achieving the desired result.
What we did get in the agreement to reopen was three appropriation bills, which protect SNAP for the next year as well as veterans services, and a commitment from the Senate Majority Leader to bring up a health care bill drafted by the Democrats on or before the second week of December. No guarantee of success, but at least a chance to mitigate the impending drastic increases in ACA premiums.
To summarize: We went from no chance on the ACA Sunday morning to some chance (25%, 50%?) after the vote Sunday night and put food in the mouths of a lot of hungry people.
Any good general changes tactics when the battle plan isn’t working, especially if the current plan puts the troops at risk.