On Friday, the Senate voted 47-45 to reject a Democratic bill to fund the government past the end of the month and avoid a government shutdown on October 1. The rejected bill included health care policy provisions that Republicans are aligned against, including an extension of ACA health insurance subsidies and restoration of nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding cuts that are called for in the reconciliation bill — the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act — that President Trump signed into law in July.
Senate Democrats responded by blocking a Republican-drafted stopgap bill (44-48). Only one Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted for the Republican-drafted proposal, which passed the House earlier Friday by a 217-212 vote.
Fetterman appeared on CNN this weekend to discuss the Democrats’ budget negotiations with Republicans.
Fetterman said: “I would love to restore a lot of those healthcare things. That’s the right outcome, but that’s a dangerous tactic if you are going to shut the government down for one of our policies. I think it’s the right thing to extend those healthcare things, but it is absolutely the wrong reason, the wrong thing for a lot of reasons that we’re going to shut our government down.”
Fetterman added: “I condemned it when the Republicans tried to do the same thing. And it’s entirely wrong for us to do the same thing now.”
Fetterman on Democrats’ budget negotiations: “I would love to restore a lot of those healthcare things. That’s the right outcome, but that’s a dangerous tactic if you are going to shut the government down…I think it’s the right thing to extend those healthcare and things, but… pic.twitter.com/mPrevifCUk
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) September 21, 2025
Several X users objected to Fetterman’s choice of words, singling out “those healthcare things” as curtly dismissive of a major societal safety net and proof that the Senator “doesn’t really care.”
As commenter Mark Concannon replied: “‘Those healthcare things?’ You mean the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are wiped out every year because they don’t have the same health insurance plan that you do, Senator?”
Note: In a statement, Fetterman, who warned Democrats that a shutdown would only hand more power to Trump and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said: “If Democrats truly believe we’re on a rocket sled to autocracy, why would we hand a shuttered government over to Trump and Vought’s woodchipper at the OMB?” He added, “I’m unwilling to vote for mass chaos and run that risk.”