Four House Republicans joined a Democratic discharge petition Wednesday morning to force a floor vote on the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) signed the discharge petition to help Democrats get to the 218 signatures they needed. This effectively forces the Republican House leadership to bring the ACA extension vote to the House floor.
House rules dictate a completed discharge petition is subject to a waiting period. That means the vote could be on hold until next month. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can choose to bring it to the floor sooner.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) demanded Johnson bring the vote to the floor on Wednesday.
“Our bipartisan petition to force a vote on a straightforward extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits now has 218 signatures,” Jeffries wrote on social media Wednesday morning. “Mike Johnson should bring the bill to the floor immediately.”
Even if it passes the House, the bill would face challenges in the upper chamber as the majority of Senate Republicans are against a clean extension.
The Senate already voted on a three-year extension last week. It failed to meet the 60 vote threshold needed on the Senate floor.
Senate Democrats were united in support of their plan to extend the current ACA subsidies. Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) — crossed the aisle to support the Democratic plan.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans largely supported a GOP framework — put forward by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) — that would have created government-funded health savings accounts to replace the enhanced subsidies. That also did not receive enough votes to pass.
The House discharge petition and the Senate vote follow the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, during which Democrats’ pushed to address the expiring subsidies. For months, Democrats asked Republicans to work with them on an extension to the enhanced Obamacare tax credits, among other things, in exchange for their votes on a continuing resolution in the Senate that would reopen the government. Republican leadership refused, saying they would only negotiate on the expiring subsidies as part of a conversation separate from government funding.
After more than 40 days of stalemate, a group of Senate Democrats caved and voted for a stopgap funding bill in exchange for the mere promise that Senate Democrats would get a floor vote on an Obamacare-related bill of their choice before the end of the year. That promise, of course, did not guarantee that the bill would pass the Senate — as last week’s vote proved.
Outside of blatantly starving, not much will drive people to rioting in the streets faster than losing healthcare and loved ones dying, going bankrupt. Then the riots. Then martial law. Then no election.
Mike Johnson is having a bad day.
Anyway, I’m thinking pasta for dinner tonight.
Whoa there cowboy. Slow down.
Mike Johnson has achieved the impossible: making Kevin McCarthy look like a competent Speaker.
Cancelling the Super-Bowl would bring people into the streets. On the verge of unconstitutionally declaring war on a Latin American country while murdering its citizens on the open seas? Not so much.
I wonder if there are enough republicans in endangered districts/states to push this over the age. I can see MTG voting on this to put her thumb in Mike Johnson’s eye, although I think she’d first need to pull Mikey’s head out of trump’s ass.