DEMOCRATS DID NOT CAVE!!!



Democrats did not cave. 
They held out on the shutdown for the Dreamers. 
Vile Republicans, desperate to get the gov’t online, took another even larger group of extremely vulnerable hostages — nine million poor children in need of healthcare — in order to try to force Dems to submit. This posed a horrible “Sophie’s choice” for Democrats. 
But the CR which McConnell was dangling was a very short term CR - only three weeks, until Feb 8. 
Democrats took that “deal”, which saved CHIP for six years and put that real and severe, lethal crisis behind us. 
In effect, what McConnell has done is give away a key bargaining chip (one huge set of hostages) in exchange for - nothing. The short CR guarantees that Republicans must come back to the table immediately with only DACA remaining as a bargaining chip. 
Now there is nothing else of the magnitude of millions of sick child hostages that Republicans can cynically field in order to muddy the waters. Democrats can again play hardball and force another humiliating shutdown on Republicans if necessary. 
I hear a lot of blithe statements like "everyone wants kids to have health care, but..."
But what? We're talking about kids who will die without constant health interventions or, like special needs kids, will suffer terribly along with their families if they don't get the daily interventions they need. We're devaluing these kids' lives for the sake of the Dreamer crisis optics. 
This was outstanding performance by Dem leadership under circumstances of extreme crisis against a vile, ruthless enemy. Dems are standing in the way of death and suffering as best they can.

Stand with Democrats who are in the pit fighting to free the hostages, dammit!

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