Vermont senator says measure could raise healthcare premiums and pave way for Medicaid cuts
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized the eight Senate Democrats who joined Republicans in voting to advance a continuing resolution during the procedural vote in the U.S. Senate on Sunday.
Sanders called the move “a very, very bad vote” in a video posted to his X account.
“Tonight, 8 Democrats voted with the Republicans to allow them to go forward on this continuing resolution,” Sanders said. “And to my mind, this was a very, very bad vote.”
The continuing resolution was originally designed to temporarily fund the federal government and avert a shutdown but, according to Sanders, it contained provisions or omissions that would raise healthcare premiums, set the stage for Medicaid cuts and benefit high-income earners through tax changes.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sanders argued the measure “raises healthcare premiums for over 20 million Americans by doubling, and in some cases tripling or quadrupling them.” He continued, “People can’t afford that when we are 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 thrown off of Medicaid. Studies show that will mean some 50,000 Americans will die every year unnecessarily. And all of that was done to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1%.”
“As everybody knows, just on Tuesday, we had an election all over this country,” Sanders said. “And what the election showed is that the American people wanted us to stand up to Trumpism — to his war against working-class people, to his authoritarianism. That is what the American people wanted. But tonight, that is not what happened.”
In Sanders’ video, he frames the procedural vote as not only about keeping the government open, but as representing a broader policy direction that, in his view, undermined healthcare protections and working-class interests.
“So we’ve got to go forward, do the best that we can to ensure and protect working-class people, to make sure that the United States not only does not throw people off of healthcare, but ends the absurdity of being the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee healthcare to all people,” Sanders said. “We have a lot of work to do, but to be honest with you, tonight was not a good night.”
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), if the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies enacted under the American Rescue Plan are allowed to expire, millions of Americans could face higher marketplace premiums. The CBO’s 2023 analysis of health coverage provisions showed that ending the expanded subsidies would significantly increase out-of-pocket costs for enrollees in ACA marketplaces.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans are open to negotiating an extension to expiring Obamacare tax credits, but only after the government reopens. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Studies cited by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), 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, determining that a loss of Medicaid coverage is associated with higher mortality due to decreased access to preventive and emergency care.
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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 University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, which warned that proposed federal healthcare cuts “could lead to over 51,000 preventable deaths annually.”
Sanders’ comments were published on his official website in many of his press releases dating back to March of this year and echo his longstanding opposition to Republican budget proposals he says favor “the 1%” at the expense of working Americans.
In Indonesia, a boat carrying hundreds of people caught fire, forcing frightened passengers to jump overboard into the sea, killing at least five people, including a pregnant mother.
Following the tragedy on Sunday, over 280 individuals were rescued, and evacuation operations were still in progress.
According to Vice Admiral Denih Hendrata, commander of the Indonesian Fleet Command, the KM Barcelona 5 caught fire in waters close to Talise while it was traveling from Talaud, an island district in the province, to Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province.
According to the senior commander, 284 passengers and crew members have been evacuated thus far from three navy ships that have been sent.
However, according to Nuriadin Gumeleng, public relations officer for the Manado SAR Office, one terrible victim was a pregnant woman who was sent to Manado from Talaud.
“Currently, only one person has been identified as having died, a pregnant woman. Her body is now on land,” Gumeleng told local news site Harian Jogja.
Local fisherman helped with the rescue effort, saving a few people who were wearing life jackets as they floated to neighboring islands in the rough seas.
The precise number of passengers and staff members on board the boat was unknown, and there were no early reports of injuries.
As plumes of grey smoke rise above the debris, striking video of the tragedy shows the entire ship completely consumed by blazing orange flames.
A recording of the wrecked boat shows several passengers sitting on the side of the ship in orange life vests, driven into the sea, and a woman sobbing uncontrollably.
After swimming away from the boat, the camera suddenly shows several hundred individuals already in the water.
A man recounting his story of the horrific events appears to be saving a toddler from the sea in another video.
As the father talks, he is seen recording the debris from a distance while holding the small infant in his arms while the child coughs.
In one chilling broadcast uploaded to Facebook a passenger named Abdul Rahmad Agu pleaded:
Emergency personnel are rushing to make sure that every passenger is safe as rescue efforts continue.
The three rescue vessels sent to the area were identified as the KM Barcelona III, KM Venecian, and KM Cantika Lestari 9F by a Manado KSOP officer.
According to local publication IDN Times, the boat was supposed to dock at Manado Port when the catastrophe occurred.
Official updates have been requested, and families of those on board have been asked to remain calm.
A tourist boat carrying 53 persons sank in Vietnam a few days prior, killing at least 38 people.
The Wonder Sea boat was hit by strong winds in Halong Bay. Rescue workers rescued 11 people and recovered 37 bodies, while five people are still missing, according to Vn Express.