ABC senior White House correspondent Selina Wang brought out the emotional heartstrings on Saturday’s Good Morning America to warn that people “could suffer” if Democrats cave on the government shutdown.
Wang teed up a clip of Senate Majority Leader John Thune by declaring Republicans are “refusing to negotiate until Democrats reopen the government.”
In the clip, Thune was shown explaining that, “Democrats need to vote for the clean, non-partisan continuing resolution sitting right there [jump cut] and then we can talk about whatever we need to talk about.”
While Thune was portrayed as a man demanding Democrats vote for a Republican bill, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was portrayed as a man who cares about health care, “Democrats digging in, refusing to cave until Republicans agree to reverse Medicaid cuts and extend Obamacare subsidies to keep premiums from increasing for millions.”
In his soundbite, Schumer claimed, “Failure to act would be devastating, and Republicans know it, even Donald Trump knows it.”
What Wang does not mention is that the Obamacare subsidies being discussed are actually a Biden-era expansion that was supposed to be a temporary COVID-relief measure that Democrats themselves sunset in order to save money to appease former Sen. Joe Manchin.
Democrats like to say that if the subsidies are not extended, people who rely on the exchanges will see their premiums go up an average of 75 percent, but Wang took it a step further as she introduced, “Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons in Maine, who is battling MS, says if the Obamacare subsidies expire her premiums could go up 169 percent and her health could suffer.”
Fuhrmann-Simmons herself added an extra warning, “Having to take away from part of our budget, which is already very slim, and think about risking pieces of my health, including my vision, my mobility, and potentially worse.”
It is unknown where Wang first heard Fuhrmann-Simmons’s story, but one possibility is a recent forum hosted by New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on this topic of Obamacare tax credits.
Here is a transcript for the October 4 show:
ABC Good Morning America
10/4/2025
7:08 AM ET
SELINA WANG: Republicans refusing to negotiate until Democrats reopen the government.
JOHN THUNE: Democrats need to vote for the clean, non-partisan continuing resolution sitting right there [jump cut] and then we can talk about whatever we need to talk about.
WANG: Democrats digging in, refusing to cave until Republicans agree to reverse Medicaid cuts and extend Obamacare subsidies to keep premiums from increasing for millions.
CHUCK SCHUMER: Failure to act would be devastating, and Republicans know it, even Donald Trump knows it.
WANG: Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons in Maine, who is battling MS, says if the Obamacare subsidies expire her premiums could go up 169 percent and her health could suffer.
KRISTIN FUHRMANN-SIMMONS: Having to take away from part of our budget, which is already very slim, and think about risking pieces of my health, including my vision, my mobility, and potentially worse.
