Speaker Johnson Nixes Vote on Expiring Obamacare

This story reminds one of the Reagan quip about authorities: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.” Obamacare, or at least the COVID-era Obamacare subsidies, is at that final level. Perhaps, though, not for for much longer. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson (LA-4) has now said there might be no vote extending Obamacare subsidies, preferring instead to focus the House on a new Republican-sponsored healthcare package deal.

The Speaker’s determination isn’t without its critics, as you would possibly count on.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said there won’t be an modification vote on extending expiring ObamaCare enhanced subsidies as half of a House Republican health care invoice this week, in a transfer that is infuriating reasonable Republicans who had been pushing to go on the report about the subsidies.

Johnson said at a press convention Tuesday that about a dozen Republican members in aggressive districts are “fighting hard to make sure that they reduce costs for all of their constituents.”

“Many of them did want to vote on this ObamaCare COVID-era subsidy the Democrats created,” Johnson said. “We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be.”

Reducing prices by extending what was supposed to be a momentary subsidy does not look like a great way to promote fiscal accountability. 

Did I point out that the subsidy was momentary?

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of the members who had been pushing for a vote to prolong the subsidies that expire Dec. 31, fumed at the choice as he emerged from a House Republican Conference assembly Tuesday morning.

“I think it’s idiotic not to have an up-or-down vote on this issue,” Lawler said, including: “It is political malpractice.”

Extending a politically-motivated and momentary subsidy on a healthcare package deal that is failing already, one may argue, is likewise political malpractice.

The House GOP is already working on a alternative, or at least, a repair; particulars are still being labored out. One factor we do know is that there had better be assurances that unlawful aliens will not be coated, which can probably trigger consternation for California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is wanting ahead to the 2028 presidential election. He’s been caught out on this issue once already:

Read More: Mike Johnson Drops a ‘Told Ya So’ on Dems, Media After Newsom’s Admission About Healthcare for unlawfuls

Repeal and exchange has been the Republican mantra for Obamacare for some time now, and while I’d somewhat see just “repeal” and have the federal authorities stop and desist its almost-certainly unconstitutional meddling in the availability and financing of healthcare, it appears I am unable to have that. That being the case, whatever the House GOP cooks up has to be better than a package deal handed in the darkish of night time under the Speakership of Nancy Pelosi, who piously intoned that they’d to cross the invoice to discover out what was in it.

Read More: Republicans Unveil Obamacare Alternative As Subsidy Deadline Looms

This subsidy was supposed to be momentary. Temporary, as in, “for a fixed time span, after which it no longer is a drain on the taxpayers.” It’s costing the taxpayers money every second it is in place. Enough is enough; Speaker Johnson is correct to let this factor die, and to focus instead on, at least, fixing the issues in healthcare provision that the Democrats broke.

Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less well-liked as voters reject its globalist agenda.

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