Volinsky: Betrayed! Orchestrated By New Hampshire Leadership

By ANDRU VOLINSKY, InDepth NH

I was working through a couple of topics for this week?s Substack post, but I can?t get beyond the abject betrayal orchestrated by NH?s Senator Jeanne Shaheen, with an assist by NH?s junior senator, Maggie Hassan.

With hard work and the dedication of a tone deaf bureaucrat, Shaheen managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

And for what? A vote that will not stop the Trump Republicans? Project 2025 plan to deny millions of Americans access to affordable healthcare. Maybe Shaheen and Hassan know something I don?t, and I?ll gladly eat my words if I am wrong, but the US Senate and the Congress will not vote to extend subsidies for Obamacare and 34,000 Granite Staters will lose their health insurance.

Bargaining for a vote that will fail is a useless gesture. Even if Congress passed a continuation of the Obamacare subsidies, the Jay Gatsby wannabe in the White House will veto the extension of benefits.

Shaheen and the Gang of Eight?s timing also couldn?t be worse. Only last Tuesday Democrats and Progressives scored major electoral victories across the country almost wherever they competed. Those wins followed joyous rallies on the second No Kings Day. Shame on Senator Angus King, another member of the Gang of Eight, for going on television to justify his vote by claiming Trump won the battle of the shutdown. As the speaker of the Maine House, Ryan Fecteau said, ?Senator King?s deal is as thin as November ice on a Maine lake ? it?s gonna fall through.?

Where are we now?

A party that was finally rallying together around SNAP recipients is again splintered shouting at each other rather than focusing on our common enemy who rips babies from their mothers, denies food to the hungry and healing to the sick. This is a common enemy that enriches its leaders and enablers and provides puppy dogs to the grossest of human traffickers, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Don?t tell me to shut-up.

The fact that I am complaining is not the problem. The fact that Shaheen and her gang gives me good cause to complain is the problem.

So, what do we do?

The Gang of Eight think they are insulated from the public because these senators are either retiring or not up for re-election anytime soon. Two of the senators, however, have children who are running for office helped by their family names and family connections. While children shouldn?t be punished for the deeds of their parents, they shouldn?t benefit from their lineage when their parents are just plain wrong. They can?t have it both ways.

If Stefany Shaheen and Angus King III don?t want to be tainted by their parents? betrayal of the American people, they need to make clear, unequivocal public statements rejecting their parents? conduct and they must renounce their parents? support. In significant part, this means Stefany?s and Angus III?s list of contributors should not look a lot like that of Senator Shaheen?s and Senator King?s list of contributors.

What else can we do?

We should admit that Obamacare is a band aid on a very broken healthcare system. Subsidies are needed to make it work and can be taken away by a Republican majority. Rather than fighting to keep the band aid, we should take steps to make Obamacare the bridge to Medicare for All. I know this won?t be easy. Trump Republicans hate all safety net programs. Too many Democrats are beholding to health insurers. But we can?t go through this every time the Democrats botch an election.

I?ll be better next week. I promise.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.