There was a caucus meeting right before this, so the bulk of the Senate Democrats were likely OK with giving in, even if not willing to vote for it in public
I don’t understand what the calculation was here. People were hurting, but a whole lot more people are going to hurt without health insurance come next year. They got:
a vote on healthcare extension in December: almost certain to fail and even if succeeding, open enrollment ends 12/15. So you’d potentially be making people gamble thousands of dollars per month that this unlikely vote succeeds and effects them immediately
written into the law that federal employees get back pay - which is already federal law
reverses lay offs that occurred during the shut down - which were illegal
it only funds the government through January. So we’re going to be right back in this situation. And then what - we tell these poor SNAP recipients, “oh sorry, we’re going to need you to go though this whole thing again because we wanted to make sure people could fly home for thanksgiving.”
Hard to imagine a moderate winning a national primary after this. And what the hell is the republican answer for why it was so important that people not get slightly more affordable healthcare that it was worth starving people.
I hope that at the least, the re-establishment of SNAP will be quick.