By Carleen Johnson
The Center Square

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Washington State Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer say it’s not Democrats, but Republicans, who are responsible for keeping the federal government shutdown going.

In a Thursday press conference, Murray and Kuderer also emphasized the need to maintain Affordable Care Act subsidies at the current level, so that tens of thousands of Washingtonians don’t lose their health care coverage.

Thursday marked Day 30 of the second-longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, which could become the most extended such shutdown next week.

A GOP-backed bill to end the shutdown has failed 13 times, while a Democratic bill to fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits failed to pass the Senate on Wednesday.

Without passed legislation, SNAP benefits are set to end on Friday.

Approximately 1 in 8 Americans, or around 42 million people, receive benefits from SNAP.

“Nearly 1 million Washingtonians rely on the federal SNAP program, with approximately $37 million of federal funds going to households across Washington every week,” Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a Tuesday news release.

The Center Square asked both Murray and Kuderer if there is weight to the argument Republicans are making that skyrocketing Obamacare premiums are evidence that that the government-run healthcare program has failed.

“I would say the premise of your question is flawed,” Kuderer answered. “The expansion of healthcare through ACA and our state-based exchange, coupled with the enhanced premium tax credits, has given Washington state the opportunity to lower its uninsured rate from a high of around 15% to under 5%.”

Kuderer said that is the lowest uninsured rate Washington has ever had.

“That has saved us taxpayer money,” she said. “Now we have people who are actually able to access healthcare preventatively, rather than using the emergency room, which we all pay for.”

The commissioner argued that this is the time to invest more in the Affordable Care Act, not less.

“The enhanced premium tax credit has been enormously successful. And why would the federal government stop and say they want to cut that program? It’s actually working. These tax credits have enabled thousands of Washingtonians to access healthcare,” Kuderer said.

Murray pivoted in her response to talk about SNAP benefits.

“There is a contingency fund that [in] every other shutdown we’ve had – or emergency – the administration uses that contingency fund to pay SNAP benefits,” the senator explained. “They’re refusing to do that. President Trump is refusing to use that contingency fund, and a number of our states are suing the president to get access to those funds because legally, he is supposed to provide them.”

Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh, who also serves as a member of the state House of Representatives, doesn’t think much of the ACA.

“Without Kuderer there to lend some sort of knowledge on those press conferences, it would be evident that these senators and congress members are just ignorant about the details of the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “The Affordable Care Act is a failure.”

According to Walsh, the ACA has diluted an already strained benefit system.

“What it does is it gives people a plastic card that says they have health coverage, but a benefit package that’s so weak and so diluted because of overextension that the plastic card is useless. And we’ve known this for years, and Kuderer knows it,” he said. “And that’s why she is more effective in talking about these issues. But she also knows that what she’s saying is wrong. And that must rest very heavily in her heart.”

Washington food banks are getting some additional assistance, Ferguson said in his news release.

“I have directed nearly $2.2 million per week to provide additional support to Washington’s food banks in the wake of the Congressional Republicans’ government shutdown,” the governor said.

Click here for information on resources available to Washington families affected by the government shutdown.