The two U.S. senators from Massachusetts are panning a deal the Senate reached late Sunday night to reopen the federal government without extending health care subsidies. Affordable Care Act premiums are poised to spike for millions of people come January.
“I will not support a deal that does nothing to make health care more affordable,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement. “The fight to lower costs is a righteous fight, and we must not give it up.
“Republicans in Congress extended tax breaks for billionaires and billionaire corporations, but they refused to extend tax credits to lower health insurance premiums for millions of working people,” Warren added. “A simple one-year extension of these tax credits would cost less than Donald Trump’s $40 billion bailout for Argentina.”
Markey, who joined Warren in voting against the deal, also criticized it in a statement. He said he was glad to see the federal workforce returning to work and SNAP benefits restored.
“But this legislation does nothing concrete to lower costs or protect health care for millions of Americans from MAGA Republican attacks, and I cannot support it,” Markey added. “Families in Massachusetts and across the country cannot afford to have their health care coverage double or triple in cost. They will not be able to afford their housing, their grocery bills, their electricity bills, or other day-to-day needs if they have to spend tens of thousands of dollars more because of Republicans’ decision to kill critical Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
Those tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year.
The deal was also condemned by Massachusetts members of the House of Representatives, which will also need to approve it before it becomes law.
“People want their members of Congress to fight for them with everything we’ve got,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Senate Democrats should listen and reject this funding deal that does nothing to stop healthcare costs from skyrocketing.”
Also on X, Rep. Jim McGovern mocked the Senate deal’s provision to hold a vote on extending healthcare subsidies sometime in December.
“I’ll be voting hell no,” McGovern said in his post. “Republicans are giving tax breaks to billionaires while healthcare premiums double & triple for regular people. Accepting a pinky promise to maybe have a vote on lowering healthcare costs is not a compromise. It’s capitulation.”
Rep. Seth Moulton, who is challenging Markey in the 2026 U.S. Senate primary, also decried the deal on X, saying he “won’t support a shutdown deal that fails to extend ACA subsidies … Democrats have fought hard to protect working families — caving now makes no sense.”
In a subsequent post, Moulton also used the Senate deal to reiterate his argument that Democratic politics are in dire need of a new generation of leaders.
“If [Chuck Schumer] were an effective leaders, he would have united his caucus to vote ‘No’ tonight and hold the line on healthcare,” Moulton wrote. “Maybe now [Ed Markey] will finally join me in pledging not to vote for Schumer [as leader]?”
Schumer voted against the compromise, but seven Democratic senators and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, joined Republicans in backing the deal. It will end the longest federal government shutdown in history if subsequent procedural votes unfold as expected.
