‘Absolute Bulls–t’: GOP Moderate Nukes Party Leaders As Obamacare Cliff Nears

Rep. Mike Lawler, a moderate New York Republican who backs extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies, unloaded on both Republican and Democratic leaders Tuesday for failing to find a solution as the subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year.

Lawler is among a small group of Republican House members pushing for a vote on a two-year extension as an amendment to the GOP’s healthcare package this week. After Speaker Mike Johnson announced Tuesday that there would be no vote on an extension, Lawler denounced the decision as “political malpractice.”

“I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bullshit,” the New York Republican told reporters as he exited a House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday. “I think it’s idiotic not to have an up-or-down vote on this issue.”

Negotiations between GOP moderates and party leaders took place over the weekend but broke down after leadership insisted that any extension — estimated to add $350 billion to the deficit over the next decade — be paired with spending cuts.

Johnson said Tuesday that talks were conducted “in good faith” but failed to produce an agreement.

Lawler and other moderate Republicans, like Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, have warned that allowing the subsidies to lapse will drive up insurance premiums for their constituents in competitive districts Democrats are targeting in 2026.

Obamacare critics argue that insurer profits have surged since the enhanced subsidies were enacted and note that Obamacare premiums have risen roughly twice as fast as employer-based insurance costs. While Democrats are seeking to pin the blame on Republicans, GOP leaders emphasize that the subsidies were enacted in 2021 without a single Republican vote and that allowing them to expire would return Obamacare to its original structure.

“There’s about a dozen members in the conference that are in these swing districts who are fighting hard to make sure they reduce costs for all of their constituents. And many of them did want to vote on this Obamacare Covid-era subsidy that Democrats created,” Johnson told reporters. “We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be.”

House Republican leadership is moving forward with a Wednesday vote on the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, which does not extend the expiring subsidies. Instead, the bill includes funding for cost-sharing reductions and reforms aimed at price transparency.

“Fitzpatrick and Lawler and the others are fighting tooth-and-nail for their constituents — I understand that as well as anyone, because I’m the one in their districts campaigning with them,” Johnson told reporters, adding that “the solution that is being sought by Democrats would further harm the system.”

Although GOP leadership blocked efforts to attach an extension vote to Wednesday’s bill, bipartisan attempts to force action are continuing.

On Wednesday, Fitzpatrick teamed up with Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine to file a discharge petition to force a House vote on a two-year extension. Roughly a dozen Republicans, including Lawler, have signed on so far.

However, it remains to be seen whether the effort can reach the 218 signatures required. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is separately pushing for a discharge petition on a three-year extension, with no changes to income limits or new anti-fraud measures, which most Republicans have dismissed as a non-starter.

A Democrat proposal in the Senate, which Democrats secured as part of the deal to end the record government shutdown, failed on Dec. 11.

“The Democratic leader will not release his members to sign those two discharge petitions. Why? Because he doesn’t want to actually solve the problem,” Lawler said Tuesday. “He wants the issue, which is precisely why Sen. Schumer put a three-year extension on the Senate floor that was doomed to fail.”

“This place is disgraceful. Everybody wants the upper hand, everybody wants the political advantage, they don’t actually want to do the damn work,” he added.

At the same time, Lawler did not rule out joining the Democratic-led discharge petition to force a vote on a three-year extension, saying, “All options are on the table.”