Like most gridlock in Washington, D.C., the federal government shutdown has been an absurdist display of partisan showmanship. But what do we expect in an era when politics seems to be driven more by political opportunism than responsible governance?

With a Democratic Party eager to frustrate the ambitions of a GOP trifecta, it would make sense for the minority party to object to a government funding bill if it were chock-full of pet projects or sought to radically overhaul the nation’s budget priorities. But the Republicans’ initial continuing resolution to keep the government funded did neither. 

Instead, despite GOP posturing about fiscal restraint, the proposed resolution would have extended Biden-era spending levels — effectively continuing the fiscal path Democrats themselves had already approved not all that long ago. 

To be sure, that truth frustrates the few remaining spending hawks in D.C., but it also illustrates that Democrats essentially had to look for a reason to throw an otherwise largely uncontroversial budget vote into chaos. And the reason they settled on is a legitimate one: Rising health care costs. 

To be sure, the threat of massively increased insurance premiums in the months ahead is not imaginary — it is an all-too-real Damoclean sword hanging over the heads of the American people. However, as Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) noted after bucking her party and voting to keep the government open, that crisis is also a distinctly separate issue.

“I voted to avoid a costly shutdown that would harm Nevadans and hand power to a reckless administration,” she told reporters last week. “We should be working on bipartisan solutions to address a looming health care crisis, but that doesn’t mean we should be swapping harm to one group of Americans for another.”

Making matters even more frustrating is that the coming crisis Democratic leadership is fretting over is hardly sudden or unexpected. The planned expiration of COVID-era tax credits for health insurance premiums didn’t come out of the blue. Indeed, the subsidies have already been extended once before, and even a handful of Republicans seem willing to go along with doing it again. 

And the truth is, extending such subsidies might just be the only short-term “solution” possible as price hikes will otherwise start hitting consumers in the next couple months. 

But let’s be clear: Further subsidization of insurance companies is far from some long-term “solution” to the problem of unaffordable health insurance. The impending price hike isn’t merely a result of COVID-era provisions sunsetting, it’s an indication that the fundamental drivers of health care costs have clearly not been addressed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or any other subsequent legislation.   

As it turns out, the adoption of “Obamacare” in 2010 wasn’t the cure to rising health prices many thought it would be. In the same way many Americans found out not everyone could actually keep their preferred doctor, many are now realizing that costs have been steadily rising, insurance companies have been raking in massive profits and quality care for many Americans remains far from accessible. Merely extending the same subsidies we currently have isn’t going to change the underlying economic dynamics pushing health care costs ever higher. 

But Republicans aren’t exactly clamoring to introduce their own proposals to address the challenges Americans face while acquiring health coverage. Indeed, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to “repeal and replace” the ACA on Day 1 of his first term, no comprehensive Republican proposal has been passed, nor is there any indication one is imminent.  

Maybe that’s why Republicans, rather than working with Democrats to avert the coming disaster, have instead decided to invent their own controversy by claiming Democrats want the subsidies to fund health care for immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

To be clear, even if certain Democrats wanted to provide such immigrants with subsidized premiums, it’s already against the law to do so. But even if it were possible, and Democrats were sneakily trying to bribe immigrants into supporting their party by handing out subsidized health insurance, Republicans would do well to remember they are currently in the majority. As such, it would be pretty easy for the GOP to expose such Democratic tomfoolery by, say, proposing language that explicitly prohibits people living in the country illegally from taking advantage of such insurance plans. 

Such language would probably be fairly popular among voters and, as previously mentioned, would also reflect current law. 

In other words, yes: A looming health insurance crisis is, indeed, barreling toward the American consumer. However, rather than actually work toward solving the issue, Democrats decided to conflate it with a routine attempt to keep the government open and Republicans decided to throw around conspiratorial nonsense about immigrants mooching off American taxpayers. 

Isn’t politics grand? 

It used to be said that politics is “the art of the possible.” However, nowadays it feels more as if it’s merely an opportunity for ambitious politicians to hold the American public hostage for the sake of cheap political wins. It’s perfectly “possible” to avoid “swapping harm to one group of Americans for another.” It’s apparently just not as politically profitable to the opportunists in Washington who clamor for applause from partisan echo chambers. 

For those who are running much of our government, the theatricality of such chaos is simply more valuable than pragmatic compromise. Shouting matches over shutdowns, fiscal cliffs or health care policy failures aren’t merely unfortunate side effects of our current ideological differences — they almost seem to be the entire point of it all. 

It’s therefore not truly surprising in such an environment that even something as simple as getting Democrats to approve the continuation of Biden-era spending could somehow devolve into a full-blown governmental meltdown. 

After all, the show must go on.

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and founder of Schaus Creative LLC — an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist, and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him on Twitter @schausmichael or on Substack @creativediscourse.