WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sharply criticized the expiring Obamacare subsidies at the center of the government funding impasse, calling them a “wasteful” as the shutdown approaches two weeks with no end in sight.
“The Covid-era Obamacare subsidy that everyone is talking about and that is supposedly the topic of the day doesn’t expire until the end of December. And, by the way, it’s the Democrats who created that subsidy, who put the expiration date on it,” he told reporters at a press conference on Monday, the 13th day of the shutdown.
“They put an end date on it because they knew it was supposed to be Covid-related, and it’s become a waste,” Johnson added. “When you subsidize the health care system and pay more to insurance companies, prices go up.”
Johnson’s comments intensify the battle a day before the Senate returns to Washington, albeit without a clear path to ending the shutdown. It will test the patience and determination of both sides, as federal employees, including members of law enforcement, air traffic controllers and TSA personnel, will not receive their paychecks.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has maintained that Democrats will not budge and support a short-term Republican funding bill through Nov. 21 unless it includes their priorities, particularly an extension of health care funding. The money in question, first approved in 2021, limits premiums for a benchmark insurance plan to 8.5% of the buyer’s income.
“President Johnson chose the holidays over fixing this health care crisis,” Schumer recently wrote in
Johnson has kept the Republican-led House of Representatives out of session since Sept. 19 and will continue the recess this week, drawing strong criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans who say they want to return to work.
The speaker said Monday that, at a minimum, “if you’re really going to continue the subsidy, you need real reform. But there are a lot of ideas on the table to do that.”
It wasn’t specific, but Republicans have discussed a variety of ideas, such as an income limit for eligibility, a requirement that every Obamacare enrollee contribute something to the system, a phaseout after two or three years and stricter limits on abortion.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., author of a bill to permanently extend funding for Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, said she is open to a negotiation on the details.
“There are a number of changes that can be made to the program to address some of the concerns,” he said. “However, one of the things I think we need to think a lot about is where to start making changes that show a dramatic drop in the number of people getting help. And that needs to be a longer discussion where people really need to look at some data and get the information before they make decisions about it.”
But Shaheen flatly ruled out stricter restrictions on abortion, saying existing law already blocks Obamacare funding for abortion, even though some conservatives want to make it stricter.
“That’s impossible,” he said. “It’s not a problem. We already took care of that problem.”
Shaheen, a longtime critic of the shutdowns who stands with Schumer in opposition to the GOP bill, said it’s not feasible to wait until the end of the year to act on Obamacare funding since insurers are setting rates for 2026 now.
“People are getting premium increases right now, and it’s one more thing on top of the cost of food, electricity, rent, child care and all the other expenses that people incur,” he told NBC News.
Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 margin, but need 60 votes to break a filibuster and pass a funding bill. They are currently five Democratic votes short and have not seen any movement since the shutdown began on October 1.
Responding to Republicans calling it “Schumer’s shutdown,” the Democratic leader responded: “Republicans control the Senate, the House and the White House.”
Implicit in Schumer’s comments is that Republicans can abolish the 60-vote threshold for reopening the government if they refuse to negotiate for Democratic votes. But GOP leaders are deeply reluctant to use the “nuclear option” in the legislative filibuster, since that would permanently upend the Senate and set a precedent that conservatives fear they will regret when Democrats return to power.
“The supermajority requirement is something that makes the Senate the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Friday. “And honestly, if we had done that, the other party could have done a lot of bad things.”
“If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would have tried to end the filibuster, and then there would be four new U.S. senators from Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. There would be a packed Supreme Court,” Thune said. “You would do an abortion on demand.”
Johnson also weighed in on growing calls on the right to repeal Obamacare, a long-standing goal of conservatives, saying in a lengthy response to NBC News that “Obamacare failed the American people” and that the system needs “dramatic reform.” He said he has “PTSD” from the GOP’s 2017 repeal effort and remains frustrated by the failure.
“Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare? A lot of us are skeptical about that now, because the roots run so deep. It was really sinister, in my opinion, the way it was created,” he said Monday. “I think Obamacare was created to implode on itself, to collapse on itself.”
Justin Chermol, a spokesman for the House Democratic campaign arm, responded: “Mike Johnson just admitted that the GOP ‘health care plan’ isn’t just about cutting Medicaid and closing rural hospitals. Republicans are still desperate to repeal the Affordable Care Act and eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions, as he made clear. the president this morning as he relived his trauma after failing to take away their health care in 2017.”
A day earlier, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., posted on X: “House Republicans are now plotting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And take health care away from tens of millions of Americans.”
