{"id":16793,"date":"2025-12-16T19:02:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mike-johnson-confronted-by-gop-moderates-over-obamacare-subsidies\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T19:02:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:02:25","slug":"mike-johnson-confronted-by-gop-moderates-over-obamacare-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mike-johnson-confronted-by-gop-moderates-over-obamacare-subsidies\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Johnson confronted by GOP moderates over Obamacare subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A group of vulnerable House Republicans confronted Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> inside a closed-door meeting Wednesday about expiring Obamacare health insurance subsidies \u2014 and Johnson\u2019s refusal to allow a vote on extending them.<\/p>\n

Rep. Mike Lawler<\/a> (R-N.Y.) could be heard yelling outside the room where the centrist Republican Governance Group was meeting with Johnson in attendance, sounding off about GOP leaders\u2019 opposition to a vote this week and mocking the assurance from some that Republicans could work on a party-line health care bill next year.<\/p>\n

Lawler \u2014 who earlier in the day publicly accused GOP leaders<\/u><\/a> of \u201cpolitical malpractice\u201d \u2014 shot back that Republicans would \u201cnever\u201d get a second reconciliation bill passed, despite the wishful thinking.<\/p>\n

A stern Rep. Jen Kiggans<\/a> (R-Va.) also pressed Johnson, according to three people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting, asking why he and other leaders didn\u2019t act sooner on the expiring subsides and health care generally.<\/p>\n

The venting session was a remarkable climax to a monthslong debate within the GOP over how to address spiking insurance premiums for millions of Americans starting next year. In the view of many GOP moderates, the Obamacare subsidies are poised to lapse without any comprehensive plan over how to manage the inevitable political fallout ahead of the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n

The moderates are nonetheless making some last-minute moves to try to force the issue.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick<\/a> (R-Pa.) submitted an amendment<\/a> Tuesday to a narrow GOP health package set to hit the House floor this week that would extend the expiring tax credits for two years with anti-fraud and income eligibility restrictions. Kiggans is also expected to file an amendment that would extend the subsidies while cracking down on fraud, and there are efforts to craft a third amendment that Johnson told reporters might be amendable to a wider group of Republicans.<\/p>\n

As Johnson left the meeting with the moderates, he brushed off the intraparty barbs, saying they were \u201ctrying to solve the equation\u201d for everyone and the group had some ideas worth considering.<\/p>\n

House Democrats are championing an alternative \u2014 a straight three-year extension of the expiring subsidies \u2014 and are urging a handful of Republicans to join a discharge petition that would force a floor vote on it.<\/p>\n

The GOP moderates have previously rejected the Democrats\u2019 proposal, arguing the subsidies need new guardrails. But Lawler said Tuesday morning, \u201cAll options are on the table,\u201d while Fitzpatrick said after the Tuesday meeting, \u201cAsk me after today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of vulnerable House Republicans confronted Speaker Mike Johnson inside a closed-door meeting Wednesday about expiring Obamacare health insurance subsidies \u2014 and Johnson\u2019s refusal to allow a vote on extending them. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) could be heard yelling outside the room where the centrist Republican Governance Group was meeting with Johnson in attendance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}