So you've gone all this time with many many posts attempting to analyze the situation--yet only NOW you claim

you had NO IDEA what the Democrats actually wanted?

No. I know what they wanted. They wanted an extension of ACA subsidies.

What I don't know is why you believe there was a $1.5 trillion demand out there. To my knowledge, neither Schumer nor leadership has ever said - but somehow, you've been sufficiently convinced that they wanted a $1.5 trillion bill to be passed. Enough that you think Schumer is an "azzhat" for proposing something that isn't anywhere near that large. I'd like to know why you think that the $1.5 trillion proposal is what Democrats were actually trying to hold out for. It's not what Schumer, or anyone from leadership, has ever proposed to my knowledge - which makes sense, because $1.5 trillion is close to 2x what even the Inflation Reduction Act cost, and that barely got past the Democrats. So it beggars belief that Democratic leadership would ever be holding out for something that big.

But you believed it, enough to confidently proclaim that Schumer had "caved" for merely settling for what I (and most Democrats, I think) understood was the Democratic position - an ACA subsidy extension. So I would like to know what proposal led you to believe that the number was really $1.5 trillion, rather than the much more reasonable proposal that (again) Democrats have been asking for this whole time.