Republicans 'going to cave' on Democrats' health care demand: Marc Short

Marc Short predicted in an interview on Sunday that Republicans will fold under pressure from Democrats to extend ObamaCare subsidies to end the government shutdown.

“I think, sadly, Republicans are going to cave on this in the end. The bottom line is that Democrats were really shrewd when they put the ObamaCare subsidies in the plan,” Short, who served as former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”

“It bought off insurance to support ObamaCare. No surprise the government takes our health care, prices go up. And so here we are, 100 percent increase in prices, and basically you have Democrats and Republicans, and Republicans are opposed to any free market reforms, eventually they’re going to do this.

“But Democrats caused the shutdown.”

The government is in its sixth day of shutdown, with key sticking points on Medicare funding and the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

On Monday, the Senate is scheduled to again vote on a stopgap-funding bill in hopes of reopening the government. If the Democrat-backed bill fails, the Senate will meet to vote on a seven week Republican-supported funding measure that has already passed in the House.

Thirty nine percent of Americans in recent polling blame President Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, while 30 percent blame Democrats.

The shutdown will cost the country’s economy about $15 billion a week, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Monday.