As the ongoing government shutdown nears the two-week mark, the basic elements of the partisan dispute haven’t changed at all. Democrats are still fighting to protect the existing Affordable Care Act subsidies that are poised to expire, and Republicans are still responding that they’ll consider health care talks after the government reopens.
But at the heart of the assurances from GOP leaders is that the party is serious about exploring possible solutions related to the ACA before the year’s end. Democrats don’t believe them — and the latest comments from a key member of the House Republican leadership team made clear that Democratic skepticism is warranted.
In relation to the ACA and the Covid-era subsidies that made coverage even more affordable for millions of American families, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon:
It’s not worked for families. You don’t answer that by propping it up with hundreds of billions of dollars of insurance company subsidies. Why would you keep pouring billions more tax dollars into a sinkhole when you can find a better way? We actually are working on better alternatives right now to lower premiums for families. That’s where the focus should be, not propping up a failed product called Obamacare.
The Louisiana Republican added that, from his perspective, 90% of the House Republican conference sees the Affordable Care Act and its enhanced insurance subsidies as a failure.
To the extent that governing realities matter, Scalise has the substance backwards: The reason that the ACA has reached all-time highs in popularity and efficacy is that the Covid-era subsidies approved by Democrats made a good thing better, lowering consumer costs significantly. That’s not a “sinkhole”; it’s the opposite.
As for Scalise’s assurances that he and his party are “working on better alternatives right now,” I’d remind the political world that congressional Republicans have been working on an alternative to the ACA for roughly 16 years. To date, they’ve produced nothing.
But let’s not miss the forest for the trees. House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News over the weekend, “The Republicans have already said we were going to have thoughtful conversations, deliberation and debate about continuing the Covid-era Obamacare subsidies.” But Scalise, his fellow GOP leader, gave away the game two days earlier, explaining on the record that, as far as 90% of House Republicans are concerned, those “thoughtful conversations” will lead nowhere — because the party still opposes the Affordable Care Act.
If Democratic officials were solely interested in politics and electoral tactics, they’d likely just go along with what Republicans intend to do. The parties could reopen the government; the GOP majority would let the ACA tax credits expire; consumers would see their insurance costs soar; the public would rightly blame the Republicans who were responsible; and Democrats would reap the political rewards of a public backlash.
But Democrats aren’t solely interested in politics and electoral tactics. They’re actually trying to help families afford health care coverage.
With this in mind, it’s the majority party that finds itself under pressure. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the Trump White House and a growing number of congressional Republicans “are worried that Democrats’ demand to boost Obamacare as part of any bill to reopen the government is proving salient with voters — including their own. Republican voters will be disproportionately hurt by a spike in health insurance premiums if the measure is not included. And many of them are well aware of what’s at risk.”
Those looking for a way out of this mess, however, will have to look for a while longer: The House speaker’s office announced Friday that Johnson decided to give members yet another week off, even as the House Democratic minority made plans to return to Capitol Hill, eager to work on a solution. Watch this space.
