Senate Republicans and Democrats are trying to hammer out a proposal to end the 30-day government shutdown as soon as next week, as some centrist Democrats argue behind the scenes that their party has successfully highlighted rising health care costs and it’s time to end the stalemate.

Shutdown fatigue on Capitol Hill is growing as the government stoppage approaches the one-month mark, and the pain is increasing.

With open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplace set to begin next month, some Democrats say the higher costs are already baked in because Republicans have steadfastly refused to negotiate a deal to extend enhanced subsidies that are due to expire at the end of December.

“My assessment is that we’ve won anything that we can possibly win and the costs of continuing the shutdown are going to be felt by people who are going to food banks and federal employees,” said one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to argue that any political benefit of extending the shutdown is about to be outweighed by the harms inflicted on ordinary Americans.

A huge factor in this thinking is that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are due to expire on Saturday, putting 42 million Americans at risk of not having enough to eat.

The conviction that Americans are now aware that Republicans have declined to extend health insurance subsidies and the fear that consequences of the shutdown are about to get dramatically worse have Democratic senators looking for a face-saving exit from the standoff over the next week.

“The open-enrollment period is beginning on Saturday and tragically the Republicans have won their battle to increase health care costs on the American people. That is the result of the position that they’ve taken in this........

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