By Dave Mason
The Center Square

Democrats won’t reopen the federal government if America’s health care remains at risk, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, told thousands of people at AIDS Walk Los Angeles.

Waters is the top Democrat on the U.S. House Finance Committee, which deals with health insurance. She told the crowd Sunday on a sunny morning at West Hollywood Park that Democrats are willing to work with Republicans to reopen the government but not as long as the GOP majority in Congress refuses to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits.

But a health care policy expert told The Center Square that taxpayers are paying a $27 billion price tag for tax credits going to people who don’t qualify for them. More about that is later in this story.

On Sunday morning, Waters blasted cuts to health care and said the government would remain closed until Republicans end cuts to health care for Americans in general and the AIDS/HIV community in particular.

“I wanted you to know they have passed something called the Big Beautiful Bill,” Waters said about the major budget legislation. “We call it the Big Ugly Bill.”

The crowd cheered at the description.

“We know how to fight, don’t we?” Waters said, warning about President Donald Trump’s cuts to health care programs. As she mentioned the various cuts for programs she said about essential for the HIV/AIDS community, the crowd booed the Trump administration.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – that’s the CDC – is responsible for HIV prevention, outreach and testing. It received $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2025,” Waters said, often raising her voice passionately for a cause close to the regular AIDS Walk speaker’s heart. “The president’s budget completely eliminates this funding.”

She also noted the budget’s cuts to prevention of diseases such as viral hepatitis, STZ (conditions caused by streptozotocin) and tuberculosis and the elimination of funding for Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS.

Craig Thompson, CEO of APLA Health, which serves the HIV/AIDS community, noted the nation is at a moment of crisis.

“Across the country and here in Los Angeles, devastating cuts are being made to HIV treatment/prevention services, to housing services. In this county [Los Angeles], clinics are likely going to close, and services are shrinking,” Thompson told the crowd at AIDS Walk.

Waters encouraged the audience to work to get government on board with helping with health care and aiding the HIV/AIDS community.

“We have to do what the HIV community has done over years,” Waters said. “It wasn’t the government who got on board. It was the people who got the government to get on board!”

The crowd cheered.

Awareness and efforts for the AIDS/HIV community continued with enthusiastic support Sunday from walkers and volunteers.

Meanwhile, the Center Square looked further into the Affordable Care Act tax credits and found a health care expert, who argued against the issue being used to keep the federal government shut down. Congress can’t pass a measure to keep the government open until five Democrats decide to switch their votes in the Senate, where it requires 60 votes.

“The Democrats in Congress have used the issue of extending the enhanced subsidies permanently or for a year as the main reason for their being responsible for the federal government shutdown,” said Sally Pipes, Pacific Research Institute’s president and CEO. PRI is a Pasadena-based think tank.

“This issue of extending the enhanced premium subsidies should not be central to re-opening the federal government,” said Pipes, who’s also a Thomas W. Smith Fellow in health care policy.

“There are 6.4 million people improperly enrolled in premium-free exchange coverage that their income levels should disqualify them from receiving,” Pipes told The Center Square, answering questions by email. “The cost to taxpayers — more than $27 billion.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office, taxpayers would pay $350 billion to keep the Affordable Care Act subsidies over 10 years.

“The left has framed these subsidies as an act of compassion,” Pipes said. “In reality, they are corporate welfare for insurers and a driver of dependency.”

She warned if the tax credits are extended for another year, they’ll likely be extended permanently, which would bring the nation a step closer to the single-payer, “Medicare for All” system supported by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats.

The Center Square reached out Monday to Republican members of California’s congressional delegation, but did not get an immediate response.