Shumita Basu

Machado has insisted she will return to her home country, but sources told Bergen-Gruen that could be as risky as leaving.

Maduro's government said they would consider her a fugitive if she ever left Venezuela.

For now, Bergen-Gruen told us, Machado has a packed agenda abroad, and she hopes to influence Western opinion.

Machado may have won the Peace Prize, but she is not a pacifist.

She has stayed close to the White House and backed their recent actions.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Machado suggested recent pressure had weakened Maduro and that his days were numbered.

It was a busy day on Capitol Hill as lawmakers scrambled to prevent health care costs from dramatically rising for millions of Americans at the end of the month.

Dueling bills in the Senate to address the issue failed in two separate votes on Thursday.

A plan from Republicans would have expanded health savings accounts.

A deposit of one thousand or fifteen hundred dollars per person would be made into an account that could be used for out of pocket medical costs.

That money would not be eligible to pay premiums.

Democrats put forward a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that were at the heart of the government shutdown.

Those subsidies are used by roughly 22 million people in the U.S., and if they're not extended, premiums for those who get their insurance through the ACA will double on average.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the failed votes yesterday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Republicans called the Democrats' plan dead on arrival.

Here he is speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill yesterday just before the vote about his opposition.

Some lawmakers in search of optimism see the failure of these two bills as a way forward on something new.

Four Republican senators broke with their party to support the Democrats' plan for an extension.

Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan from Alaska, Susan Collins from Maine, and Josh Hawley from Missouri.

Hawley, in fact, voted for both plans.