From Sheldon Whitehouse FB page on shutdown

[dweller]

Remember, this began with “Democrats go pound sand” — a total brush-off, but we didn’t budge.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/21/obamacare-insurance-extension-shutdown-00616150

Then they went with their illegals lie, which blew up in their face (because it was completely false) and we didn’t budge.

Then they said, “Okay, we admit Affordable Care credits need to be extended, but we won’t negotiate,” and we didn’t budge.

Then they said, “Okay, we will negotiate, but we won’t start until after the shutdown,” and we didn’t budge.

Then they said, “Okay, we can guarantee a vote on the Affordable Care credits” and we didn’t budge because a show vote is not what families need to afford health care.

Now this: they’re preparing to negotiate. Republicans knew the need for Affordable Care extension weeks ago, so this is late — but welcome.

Enough of the shutdown — let’s get negotiating.



✌🏻

[Walleye]

1. Republicans are just living it up on vacation

And they badmouth Joe Biden whenever he went home to Delaware for the weekend. It’s a 45 minute helicopter ride by the way it’s not Florida.

[underpants]

3. Open enrollment is starting Saturday I think

I saw a Humana booth set inside a Walmart today.


I’ll bet the Republicans are getting calls.

300,000 people in Oklahoma are on the ACA Marketplace. Mullin’s been playing hard ass on Twitter.

I saw Tuberville piping in today. 477,000 Alabamans (10% of the population) are on ACA.

[Walleye]

5. They have become too expert at avoiding their constituents

[johnnyfins]

2. When DEMS re-take power, they will need to

completely kill the filibuster, and repair this country. The MAGA party needs to be crushed(not literally). We need to make a statement to the world that what has transpired over the two TSF terms is 1) An afront to ALL freedom loving people, and 2) Will never happen again.

The MAGA party will whine and stamp their feet like the 2 year olds they are, but the UNIFIED response should always be: YOU did all of this damage. YOU supported a fascist dictatorship. YOU are responsible.

[Walleye]

6. Yes, we should campaign on how many ways we can repair the White House and the presidency

[Magoo48]

10. Yes, after this attempted takeover by an authoritarian regime, we must come back stronger and freer.

Sadly, after Republican administrations are finished some of their liberty restricting laws remain in place. Therefore, every time a conservative government is replaced by Democrats, essentially,, we lose. This time there will probably be more new restrictions upon our personal freedoms as well as our social protections than ever before.

Instead of leaving anything from this authoritarian shit show in place. Our protections must become iron clad and written into our constitution with amendments. We must come back with our freedoms more powerfully constructed, and legally entrenched than ever before.. We can’t just go back to the way it was, because the way it was, perched precariously on the verge of the disaster we’re seeing now, went on for entirely too long.

[MurrayDelph]

9. Rather than kill the filibuster, we need to flip it

It should need 1/3 of voting Senators in the chamber to sustain the filibuster.

[DoBW]

4. the Epstein Shutdown

i hope it's recorded that way

[Sogo]

7. Yes! Tie everything to Epstein!!

Good idea.

[KPN]

17. Yeah. Exactly. How quickly we forget. Avoid and distract.

The Epstein Shutdown, the Epstein Ballroom ... Epstein, Epstein, Epstein!

[littlemissmartypants]

8. I'll see it when I believe it. Meanwhile, I'm not going to hold my breath. ...

Thanks so much for sharing this, dweller! It does give me hope. Love you! Stay encouraged.

❤️ RESIST!! ✊️

[LilElf70]

11. The republicant party

is useless to society. They like dictators? I wish all of em would move to N Korea. Or Russia. They'd fit right in.

[JoseBalow]

12. I like Sheldon Whitehouse

He's sane, focused, and reliable. He speaks for me.

Keep fighting the good fight, Shelly!

[3825-87867]

13. From General McAuliffe...

NUTS!

[BidenRocks]

14. Never Negotiate With A Dictator!

They will lie to your face.

Don't tell me you've reached a 'deal'!

A signed law is a solution, not a deal.

[Crowman2009]

15. I long for the day of an actual fiscal budget, and not an endless series of short-term measures.

Hopefully next time around the Democratic party in congress would get rid of that god damn filibuster.

[Hotler]

16. One minute you're voting with 12 other dem senators to approve fascist judges and the next you're talking all

tough about the shut down negotiations.

The only negotiations we should be having is tell them what we want and then don't budge. Make them come to us.
Stop trying to play nice. These people are not our friends.

[chowder66]

18. The fucking Republicans need to do their fucking jobs and stop ceding their power.