Let no one claim that the deadline sneaked up on policymakers. Congressional Democrats have spent much of the year reminding Republicans that tens of millions of American consumers are poised to face vastly more expensive premiums under the Affordable Care Act unless lawmakers do something. In the coming weeks, families nationwide will have to choose between paying far more or going without.
When the House Republican Conference meets early next week, House Speaker Mike Johnson hopes to present a health care plan for GOP members to rally behind. There’s just one problem standing in the Louisiana congressman’s way: He doesn’t have a health care plan.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, however, the Senate’s top Democrat does have a plan. MS NOW reported:
Senate Democrats have a plan for their long-awaited vote on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies: Put a ‘clean’ three-year extension on the floor next week and dare Republicans to vote ‘no.’ […]
‘Make no mistake,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the Senate chamber on Thursday, ‘our bill is the last chance Republicans will get before Jan. 1 to prevent premiums from skyrocketing.’
The plan certainly has simplicity on its side: Under Schumer’s approach, the status quo would remain in place for another three years. That’s it. That’s the plan.
This is the same approach backed by the entirety of the House Democratic conference, which has linked arms on a discharge petition that still needs four Republican signatories. (It currently has none.)
Schumer intends to force a vote next week, though both sides of the aisle expect the GOP majority to oppose the effort, since most congressional Republicans want the existing subsidies to expire.
To the extent that public attitudes might change lawmakers’ minds, Republican leaders may be interested to know that the latest national survey from KFF, a nonprofit health policy research group, not only found that most Americans would blame GOP officials if the Obamacare subsidies disappear, it also found that many would punish congressional Republicans in the midterm elections if that happened.
As for the president, the White House said it would unveil a plan to address the problem last week, but Donald Trump and his team pulled the plug when congressional Republicans balked at the administration’s solution. Punchbowl News reported earlier this week that lawmakers in both parties “agree that the only path to an extension of some sort relies on heavy involvement from President Donald Trump.” But that poses a series of related problems, since Trump does not appear to know or care much about health care policy, preferring instead to invest time and energy into things he finds more interesting (such as the construction of a giant White House vanity project). A Politico report added soon after, “The White House is providing congressional Republicans with few specific demands on what kind of health care legislation President Donald Trump might support, giving some Republicans heartburn about how they will prevent a dramatic spike in some health premiums next month.” Schumer’s plan, in other words, is the only plan on the table. For GOP officials who believe doing nothing isn’t politically tenable, this reality ought to loom large. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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