By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The air in Washington has grown thick with a familiar tension, the kind that precedes the shuttering of government offices and the silencing of paychecks for thousands of workers. Yet at the heart of this looming shutdown lies something far greater than partisan brinkmanship: a ferocious fight for the soul of America’s healthcare. Democrats have planted themselves firmly in the path of what they call a reckless assault on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. They are not speaking in the language of compromise this time. They are speaking in the cadence of survival—for the poor, the sick, the disabled, and the working families who stand to see their coverage ripped away.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned of what

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