Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has not had an easy week regarding healthcare legislation.
After nearly a full year of ignoring the problem, now everyone is scrambling to come up with an alternative to Obamacare, but some Republicans are throwing in the towel.
In fact, four of them just crossed over to help House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) with his discharge petition to get the subsidies extended.
Johnson was working with a group to try to get something together that they could put on the floor for a vote, but it more or less fell apart.
Johnson stated, “There’s about a dozen members in the conference that are in these swing districts who are fighting hard to make sure they reduce costs for all of their constituents. And many of them did want to vote on this Obamacare Covid-era subsidy that Democrats created.”
He continued, “We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be. We worked on it all the way through the weekend, in fact. And in the end there was not an agreement — it wasn’t made.”
Little did he know, some Republicans had reached their limit, and they were about to side with Jeffries.
There are Republicans in battleground districts and states who know that if health insurance premiums go up, they are going to lose their seats.
One of those lawmakers is Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who stated, “I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bulls—, and it’s absurd. Everybody has a responsibility to serve their district, to serve their constituents. You know what’s funny?”
He continued, “Three-quarters of people on Obamacare are in states Donald Trump won. So maybe, just maybe, everybody should look at this and say, how do we actually fix the health care system?”
We need big picture thinking on this one, but Republicans are only seeing this as a way to end a Democrat program. And as I have said before, I think Obamacare is a disaster, but the GOP failed to present an alternative during Trump’s first term, and they have yet to put a plan together during this term.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), and Lawler have crossed over to vote with the discharge petition to force a vote by Jeffries. Mackenzie explained, "I've always supported bipartisan solutions that would bring about healthcare affordability in this country."
Mackenzie went on, "Leader Jeffries and the Democrats have refused to sign onto either of those bipartisan solutions. And so at this point, our leadership is not calling up a bill to extend the [Obamacare] tax credits."
The only solace for Johnson at this point is that he was able to get a bill passed late Wednesday that was presented by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA). I have not yet seen the legislation, but on the surface, it seems like smoke and mirrors to me, with Meeks saying that it will lower costs by “forcing transparency” and implementing “common sense solutions.”
Obamacare is unsustainable, of that I have no doubt. But we need a real plan to replace it. I would love for Miller-Meeks’ plan to be it, but until we see the full text, I cannot comment on it any further.
