It was just six months ago that Senate Democrats shut down the government rather than address the failures of ObamaCare. Their rhetoric was dark, warning of disaster for millions of people and families who might be forced to pay more for their own health care unless the GOP agreed to extend subsidies for those who purchased coverage on state exchanges.

“Make no mistake, the blame behind the skyrocketing health care costs millions are facing today is squarely at the feet of House Republicans, and the American people know it,” huffed and puffed Rep. Suzanne Delof, the Washington Democrat who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, back in October.

Politico reported that Democrats “are already moving to turn the expiration of the subsidies into a potent election-year attack on congressional Republicans.”

As part of this scorched earth approach, Democrats closed Washington for six weeks, the longest such stretch in our history, from Oct. 1 through Nov. 12, when a handful of party members in the upper chamber backed off amid public outcry.

A half year later, and that strategy seems particularly misguided. In fact, the much-ballyhooed calamity — millions of Americans forced to go without health insurance coverage — never took place. The most recent report from the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services (CMS) notes that enrollment on the exchanges did indeed drop, from a record 24.3 million in 2025 to 23.1 million in 2026. But this year’s enrollment numbers are still significantly higher than the 16.3 million who signed up in 2024.

But there’s more. Much of the decline can be attributed to more aggressive policing of eligibility requirements, not financial concerns. The Wall Street Journal reported that the “CMS says it canceled subsidies for ‘nearly 1.5 million people found to be ineligible’ — mainly because they were concurrently enrolled in Medicaid or hadn’t submitted income records for previous years — or had been enrolled in plans without their consent.”

The Journal also noted that the massive premium hikes that Democrats warned about never materialized. “For the 90 percent or so of consumers receiving subsidies,” the paper wrote, “the average monthly payment is $73, which is about the same as it was in 2022 ($77).”

It’s little wonder, then, that we’ve heard precious little lately about the evils of the GOP attempting to clean up waste and fraud in Obamacare. Instead, Democrats quickly moved on to their next bit of performative theater: forcing a partial government shutdown over funding for immigration enforcement.

It’s true that government shutdowns are a bipartisan problem. But Senate Democrats in recent months have perfected the strategy of pointlessly running this tactic into the ground. Voters should remember come November.

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