Congress

House GOP leaders race to release health care package Friday

Published

10 months ago

December 12, 2025

House Republican leaders are rushing to release a new health care package Friday, but a morning meeting with members of key GOP faction led unsettled whether to allow a floor vote on extending expiring Obamacare tax credits.

Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of his leadership team want to file text of the health care legislation as soon as possible in order to comply with House notice requirements and prepare it to be take up by the House Rules Committee early next week. But the matter has been held up as they negotiate with conservative hard-liners who are wary of teeing up a vote to extend the expiring insurance subsidies.

“This is going to be a great piece of legislation that everyone will be united around,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting.

The core package is expected to include an expansion of health savings accounts and association health plans, as well as funding for cost-sharing reductions that help low-income Obamacare enrollees afford their plans. But moderate House Republicans want an amendment vote to add what is likely to be a two-year extension of the enhanced tax credits that were enacted by Democrats during the Covid pandemic and are set to expire on Dec. 31.

GOP leaders had been planning to let the subsidies expire, but they are now inclined to allow a floor amendment on an extension, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the closed-door Friday morning meeting with Johnson and a swath of senior Republicans.

Conservatives, including Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), have strongly objected to any attempt to continue the tax credits.

“I pity the Republican that has to explain why they would propagate or perpetuate, I should say, a fraud-ridden subsidy from the Covid era to prop up a failed health care program,” Arrington said Friday, saying it would make Republicans “complicit in propping up the very driver” of rising health care costs.

But he suggested a vote on an extension would happen regardless: “I expect people are going to have an opportunity to vote their conscience and then go defend their votes back home like we always do.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the topic was “heavily discussed” in the meeting, which another senior House Republican described as “lively.” Leaving the session, Scalise said leaders would be “making final decisions shortly, because we have to file text later today.”

Benjamin Guggenheim and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

Congress

Elon Musk pours another $76 million into boosting Republicans

Published

47 minutes ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave another $76 million to boost Republicans in the first two weeks of October, bringing his total giving this cycle to more than $442 million.

The additional funds, which Musk gave to his super PAC, America PAC, make the group one of the biggest super PACs this cycle. America PAC has already spent tens of millions of dollars on digital advertising, mailers and text messages as it targets competitive House and Senate races across the country.

Musk — the world’s wealthiest man — is by far the biggest single donor this cycle, with his political giving this year far exceeding even the roughly $290 million he spent in 2024. There is no precedent in modern American history for any donor spending as much as he has.

While the Tesla CEO and former DOGE lead has spent significantly to help Republicans, he has not been joining GOP candidates on the campaign trail this fall like he had in the past. Republicans privately acknowledged Musk could be politically toxic after the party lost a major Wisconsin judicial race in the spring of 2025 where Musk had become both the biggest funder and a campaign issue.

Still, Musk’s money has been instrumental for Republicans this fall. His earlier giving this cycle includes $158 million for Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, which was transferred to a super PAC boosting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is locked in a tight Senate race against Democrat James Talarico. Democrats have looked to make his money a campaign issue: Talarico recently responded to an attack from Musk on the Musk-owned X social media site by saying that there was “deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.”

Musk has also given to House Republicans’ super PAC arm, President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, and a group seeking to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, along with a smattering of GOP candidates.

Congress

Senate Democrats’ campaign arm takes out $15M loan

Published

1 hour ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Democrats have taken out a $15 million loan as they hope to expand their map in the final days before the midterms.

The party’s campaign arm took out the loan earlier this month, according to a report submitted Thursday to the Federal Election Commission.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent $32 million in the first two weeks of October, with half of those funds going toward coordinated expenditures in 10 states. That includes: $4.7 million Ohio; more than $1 million in each of Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Alaska and Maine; and additional funds in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and New Hampshire.

The committee reported just over $20 million cash on hand as of Oct. 14, according to its FEC report.

Its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, previously took out $20 million in loans in September, according to an FEC report filed earlier this week. The DSCC has slightly trailed the NRSC in fundraising for most of the cycle, but Democratic candidates have largely outraised GOP ones across the map — in some cases, several times over.

Democrats’ candidate fundraising advantage has helped offset the GOP’s massive super PAC cash advantage since candidates, and parties working with them, get better rates for broadcast ads.

It’s not unusual for party committees to take out loans late in an election cycle to power last-minute spending. In 2024, the DSCC took out $20 million in loans.

“In the face of being outspent by GOP megadonors, Senate Democrats remain in the best position yet to win the majority, after we strategically and effectively expanded the map and sent Republicans scrambling to play defense in red states everywhere,” DSCC spokesperson Maeve Coyle said in a statement. “We will continue to use every tool at our disposal and we will win in November.”

Congress

Kevin McCarthy predicts GOP will lose House majority

Published

7 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Republicans will lose the House in two weeks, citing historical midterm trends while also criticizing the sitting GOP leadership for how they’ve managed the chamber.

“In the last 100 years, all off-year elections, whoever is the party in power has the White House, has lost seats, and it’s only a few seats for the majority,” McCarthy said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Thursday.

Democrats, he added, will “get a majority” in the House: “I’m not quite sure how big it is, but they will probably win the majority.”

The former speaker, who ushered in the current GOP House majority in 2022 but only led the conference for less than a year before being booted from the speakership, went on to fault his own party for giving the election away.

“It’s not that the Democrats are going to win this election,” he said. “Republicans are going to lose it.”

He pointed to the skimpy House legislative calendar as a factor. Speaker Mike Johnson and his deputies have routinely canceled scheduled session days amid member revolts that have undermined his grip on the razor-thin majority.

“You’re only given 24 months in a majority to manage it. They were in the fewest amount of days. They let the Democrats dictate,” McCarthy said. “You have to give a reason why to win. What are the three things Republicans will do if they win the majority? I can’t tell you what that is.”

Still, McCarthy cautioned that if Democrats win the House, it won’t be because they have laid out their own agenda and warned that he believes that Democrats will face their own hurdles.

“Democrats are not popular. They haven’t laid out an agenda on what they’ll do,” McCarthy said. “So they’ll have a really hard time governing in the next Congress.”