The government shutdown is hurting Massachusetts in numerous and significant ways. Some 45,000 federal jobs are at risk, the state is losing $18.6 million in tourism revenue each week, infrastructure projects are being delayed, veterans are waiting for essential services, and families relying on SNAP and EBT benefits are left wondering where their next meal will come from.
Massachusetts’ 5th District—a hub for research, medicine, and academia—is bracing for cuts to research contracts. Laboratories are having to scale back hiring, causing ripple effects throughout the entire state economy.
For Rep. Katherine Clark, the second-highest-ranking House Democrat, this widespread harm has become a political pawn. “Shutdowns are terrible, and, of course, there will be families that are going to suffer,” she said. “But it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
Her words come across as callous, but in a sense, we should be grateful for her honesty. It means Democrats are openly admitting the quiet truth: the party is holding the government hostage to retaliate against political opponents, without concern for the victims caught in the crossfire—whether they are veterans, single mothers, cancer researchers, or any other constituents they are supposed to represent.
And what are Democrats holding the government hostage over? Obamacare subsidies from the COVID era that Democrats claimed were temporary four years ago.
The American Rescue Plan, signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2021, expanded eligibility for enhanced premium tax credits. These subsidies were never intended to be permanent, and allowing them to continue beyond their current scheduled expiration would be fiscally unsustainable.
According to the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation, these credits would increase federal deficits by $34.2 billion over the next decade.
Worse still, these subsidies have had a distorting effect on the healthcare market. Providers have been able to charge increasingly higher rates, knowing the government will cover larger subsidies regardless of cost. This has driven overall healthcare expenses higher, funneling tax dollars into the pockets of health insurance executives rather than providing relief to patients.
While it is near impossible to justify keeping the government shut down for this extended period under any circumstances, it is downright absurd to do so over subsidies that Democrats themselves wrote to expire—under a deceptively named piece of legislation that has failed to make healthcare more affordable or accessible.
This is the real cost to the people of Massachusetts. My district—and countless others—are being used as “leverage” for a system that isn’t even serving them. It has made healthcare less accessible and more expensive, yet political leaders are willing to gamble with families’ livelihoods to advance their agenda.
It is unconscionable that a congresswoman of Clark’s stature, especially as the Democratic Whip, is engaging in political games in Washington while throwing Massachusetts and the entire country under the bus.
Jennifer Nassour is a former chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party and host of the PoliticalContessa podcast.
— InsideSources
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/07/nassour-dcs-games-throw-mass-under-the-bus/