Oct. 16, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: The ridiculously named “Inflation Reduction Act” (even President Biden claimed to regret the name) was passed on a party line vote, with all Democrats in Congress voting for it, and all Republicans voting against it. The act called for enhanced subsidies for health insurance to expire at the end of 2025.
As we approach the end of 2025, Congressional Democrats have closed the government, and claim they will not reopen it unless Republicans agree to not follow the Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats passed.
Democrats are hoping that the Republicans will behave as shortsightedly as Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did in his fit of pique regarding Senate approval of judges: “I really do believe that I have set the Senate so when I leave, we’re going to be able to get judges done with a majority.”
Republican Sen. Mitch McConell, regarding Reid’s invocation of the “nuclear option,” said on the Senate floor: “You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.” Now we have a generational conservative majority on the Supreme Court, thanks to Reid (he could not have reasonably thought that his nuclear option would not be extended to Supreme Court nominees).
So, I hope Republican senators do not take the bait and invoke the nuclear option; rather, they should follow the law that Democrats and Democrats alone passed, calling for the enhanced health insurance subsidies to end at the end of 2025. Democrats shutting down the government rather than following the law that they passed should be made, at the ballot box, to regret it. RUSS ORRISON Rockbridge County
