'Republican’s worst nightmare': Dems winning shutdown war as GOP 'lacks strategy'

"Allowing Obamacare premiums to soar appears to be one step too far" for Americans affected by the government shutdown, which is why the Democrats appear to be winning the "health care shutdown war," according to Salon's Heather Digby Parton.

Despite saying in 2015 that "nobody knows health care better than Donald Trump," the president and Republicans have shown "replacing the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare] wasn't so easy after all," Digby Parton says.

Obamacare is successful, she writes, and that success is "the Republicans' worst nightmare." And shutting down the government over the Democrats' refusal to budge on health care subsidies, she says, is even worse.

"So naturally, drunk with power as they are, they’ve decided to take another stab at ruining it, which is why they decided to let the subsidies that have been in place for the last five years lapse," she writes.

Americans are already starting to feel the burn of the shutdown, Digby Parton says.

"People across the country are just beginning to receive notices in the mail showing their premiums will double, or worse, next year," she writes, and because of this, Republicans are unable to shirk the blame they were unsuccessfully trying to pin on the Democrats," she writes,

"Republicans knew this was coming, but they either thought they could escape blame for it or they are so deluded they actually believe it’s what people want," she continues. "As the shutdown moves into its second week, the consequences of their actions are starting to manifest."

Digby Parton also says that slashing Medicare and raising Obamacare premiums are only the beginning of the Republican decimation of health care. And the proof, she says, is written in , Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought's Project 2025.

"But as nefariously creative as Project 2025 was, at least in the area of health care policy it is nothing more than the same warmed over calls for privatization and deregulation, both of which will make Americans’ lives worse," Digby Parton writes.

The Republican Party's lack of strategy, she notes, "makes it clear the party is as flummoxed on this issue as they’ve always been, and they know it’s a loser for them." She points to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) breaking with the party over health care.

"When you’ve lost Marge, well…" Digby Parton snickers.

Democrats, she says, "have historically been in the driver’s seat when it comes to health care." And "with the government’s shambolic response during the first year of the pandemic and the damage being done every day by the administration to our scientific research community, I suspect a lot of people are feeling insecure about their actual health care these days."

The Trump administration, she writes, has done nothing to assuage Americans' fears over their health care — which is "on the front lines against this massive war of our social safety net."

"If Democrats can find the fortitude to hold out for their demands, they will have taken the first step in reining in this lawless administration and given the American people something to hold onto in these dark days," she says.