Do you not realize that (especially with the election of Mamdani) Schumer will NEVER provide 60 votes?

I think that's completely wrong.

I think the Democrats opposed the CR because they needed to show their constituents that they were going to try to "fight" for some of their priorities, despite being in the minority. They picked the ACA subsidies because: i) that was one of the most popular "big" things that they could insist that the fight was about; ii)_a lot of GOP districts heavily rely on those subsidies; and iii) it's not anything that Trump particularly cares about fighting.

If the CR is amended to include the ACA subsidies that the Democrats want, they will cheerfully and happily declare how amazingly wonderful their strategy was, call on every Democrat to celebrate how they were able to force the GOP to do something for the benefit of the country that the GOP wasn't going to do, and carry that into the midterms. They will take the win.

They will not keep the government shut down if they get the ACA subsidies. Remember - the Democrats generally want government to be working; they're the party that believes that the government is capable of improving lives and doing good things. It's been hard enough for Schumer to keep another four Senators from crossing over; it would be impossible for him to do that if they had succeeded in getting their biggest ask.