NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized the eight Senate Democrats who joined Republicans in voting to advance a continuing resolution during a procedural vote in the U.S. Senate on Sunday.
Sanders called the measure “a very, very bad vote” in a video posted to his X account.
“Tonight, eight Democrats voted with Republicans to allow them to move forward with this continuing resolution,” Sanders said. “And in my opinion, this was a very, very bad vote.”
The continuing resolution was originally designed to temporarily fund the federal government and avoid a shutdown but, according to Sanders, contained provisions or omissions that would increase health care premiums, set the stage for Medicaid cuts and benefit high-income earners through tax changes.
FLASHBACK: TED CRUZ PREDICT OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES NOW AT THE CENTER OF SHUTDOWN FIGHT
Senator Bernie Sanders, independent from Vermont, during a press conference at the United States Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, on Wednesday, November 5, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sanders argued that the measure “increases health care premiums for more than 20 million Americans by doubling and, in some cases, tripling or quadrupling them.” He continued: “People can’t afford it when we’re already paying the highest prices in the world for healthcare.”
He goes on to say in the video that it “paves the way for 15 million people to be kicked off Medicaid. Studies show that will mean about 50,000 Americans will die unnecessarily each year. And all of that was done to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1%.”
“As everyone knows, just Tuesday we had elections all over this country,” Sanders said. “And what the election showed is that the American people wanted us to oppose Trumpism, his war on the working class, his authoritarianism. That’s what the American people wanted. But tonight, that’s not what happened.”
‘THE PANDEMIC IS OVER’: GOP, DEM SENATORS SHOOT ON CAMERA OVER EXPENSIVE OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES
In Sanders’ video, he frames procedural voting not only as a matter of keeping the government open, but also as a representation of a broader political direction that he believes has undermined health care protections and working-class interests.
“So we have to move forward, do the best we can to secure and protect the working class, to make sure that America not only doesn’t drive people out of health care, but ends the absurdity of being the only major country in the world that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people,” Sanders said. “We have a lot of work to do, but to be honest, tonight was not a good night.”
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), if enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies enacted under the American Rescue Plan are allowed to expire, millions of Americans could face higher market premiums. CBO’s 2023 analysis of health coverage provisions showed that ending expanded subsidies would significantly increase enrollees’ out-of-pocket costs in the ACA markets.
FORMER MSNBC HOST JOY REID Claims ‘illegals’ is the new ‘N-word’ for Republicans
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans are open to negotiating an extension of expiring Obamacare tax credits, but only after the government reopens. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Studies cited by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, chaired by Sanders, have also estimated that large-scale cuts to Medicaid could lead to tens of thousands of preventable deaths annually.
In a 2023 HELP Committee report on Sanders’ website, the committee referenced peer-reviewed research published in Health Affairs and The Lancet Public Health, finding that loss of Medicaid coverage is associated with increased mortality due to reduced access to preventive and emergency care.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The report is also supported by other documents on the site, including findings from a June 2025 letter from researchers at the Yale School of Public Health and the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, who warned that proposed federal cuts to health care “could lead to more than 51,000 preventable deaths annually.”
Sanders’ comments were posted on his official website in many of his press releases dating back to March of this year and echo his long-standing opposition to Republican budget proposals that he claims favor “the 1%” at the expense of American workers.