Congress Held the Purse. Who Paid?

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← E2: Tariffs at the Checkout · Watch the whole series · E4: The Refund →

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December 11, 2025. Fifty-one senators voted to extend the enhanced health-insurance subsidies. Forty-eight voted no. The motion failed anyway, because cloture needed sixty. The subsidies expired at the end of 2025.

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Congress holds the power of the purse. Episode 3 follows three ways it held that power and never used it: • The megabill: H.R. 1 passed the House 215 to 214 at 6:54 a.m. on May 22, 2025. The House version cut nearly $700 billion from Medicaid and $300 billion from SNAP. • The expiration date: keeping the subsidies took a vote. Losing them took nothing. • The off switch: a House rule said each day from April 9 through September 30, 2025 "shall not constitute a calendar day," which kept a vote on ending the tariff emergency off the floor.

Short cuts

part · 132s

Fifty-one is a majority. It still lost.

part · 173s

Congress holds the power of the purse. Not the White House.

part · 135s

Two programs. About a trillion dollars.

part · 162s

Fifty-one out of a hundred. That is a majority.

part · 165s

The law put a clock on votes. So the House stopped the clock.

aspire · 30s

Fifty-one is a majority. It still lost.

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