According to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his media echo chamber, America is suddenly facing a full-blown “health care crisis” because enhanced Obamacare subsidies have expired. But there’s a question no one in the press seems interested in asking: why is it only a “crisis” when a Covid-era entitlement expires on Republicans’ watch?
The outrage coming from Senate Democrats today is striking, especially given how quiet they were just a few years ago when a far larger Covid-era program expired under their own control. The same Democrats now wailing about “life and death votes” over Obamacare subsidies allowed the expanded child tax credit to lapse with barely a shrug.
Back in 2021, the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act dramatically expanded the child tax credit. The maximum benefit jumped from $2,000 per child to $3,600 for children under six and $3,000 for those under 18. The credit became fully refundable, even for families with no income tax liability, and payments were sent out monthly. It was a massive expansion—but only authorized for one year.
House Democrats passed a one-year extension in their so-called Build Back Better bill in November 2021. That bill stalled after objections from Sen. Joe Manchin, forcing Schumer into months of negotiations over a smaller package. When that scaled-back bill reached the Senate floor in August 2022 without any child tax credit extension, Sen. Bernie Sanders offered an amendment to extend it for four years, paid for with a corporate tax hike.
Every Senate Democrat present voted against Sanders’ amendment. Not a few. Not some. All of them. Two didn’t vote at all.
Sens. Sherrod Brown and Michael Bennet claimed they supported extending the credit but couldn’t back the amendment because it might endanger the overall bill. Sanders asked the obvious question: how would getting 48 votes on the amendment sink the bill? He got no real answer—just political fog.
The irony is hard to miss. The child tax credit expansion had a much broader reach than the Obamacare subsidies Democrats are now mourning. IRS data shows that nearly 62 million children received child tax credit payments in 2021, compared to about 21 million Americans receiving subsidized Obamacare coverage. The cost difference was just as stark: a permanent child tax credit expansion would have totaled nearly $1.6 trillion over ten years, more than four times the roughly $350 billion cost of extending the Obamacare subsidies.
Yet when the child tax credit expired on Democrats’ watch, there were no hysterical headlines, no shutdown threats, and no breathless speeches about a national emergency. Now, suddenly, the expiration of a smaller program is framed as a catastrophe—conveniently timed for maximum political leverage.
Schumer’s silence speaks volumes. Asked whether he regretted voting against extending the child tax credit, or whether he regretted not shutting down the government in 2021 to force it through, his office offered no response. That’s not surprising. The questions answer themselves.
Democrats may argue that Manchin made the child tax credit extension impossible, or that party unity required shielding moderates from a tough vote. But that excuse only raises a more uncomfortable question—one the press should ask but won’t: if Schumer was “just playing politics” then, what exactly is he doing now?
Americans see the pattern. Manufactured crises, selective outrage, and media allies eager to play along. The good news is that more voters are catching on—and that growing awareness is a healthy sign for accountability, common sense, and a political future grounded more in facts than theatrics.
