Mike Johnson criticizes Obamacare money as ‘useless’ as lockdown continues

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, blasted the expiring Obamacare subsidies at the heart of the government funding crisis as “useless” as the shutdown approaches the two-week mark with no end in sight.

“The COVID-era Obamacare subsidy that they’re all talking about, today’s issue supposedly won’t expire until the end of December. And by the way, it’s the Democrats who created that subsidy, and they’re the ones who put the expiration date on it,” he told reporters at a news conference on Monday, the 13th day of the shutdown.

“They put a cut-off date on it because they knew it was supposed to be related to Covid, and it became unhelpful,” Johnson added. “When you subsidize the health care system and pay insurance companies more, prices go up.”

Johnson’s comments escalate the battle a day before the Senate returns to Washington, although there is no clear path to ending the shutdown. It will test the patience and resolve of both parties as federal employees — including members of law enforcement, air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration employees — are scheduled to miss their paychecks.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., confirmed that Democrats will not relent and support a short-term GOP funding bill until November 21 unless it includes their priorities, most notably extending health care funds. The funds in question, which were first passed in 2021, cap standard insurance plan premiums at 8.5% of a buyer’s income.

Recently, Schumer said: “Prime Minister Johnson has chosen to furlough rather than resolve this health care crisis.” Written on X. “In his state, 85,000 Louisianans will lose their health insurance, and thousands will see their premiums skyrocket. But he keeps the government closed instead of fixing that.”

Johnson has kept the Republican-led House of Representatives out of session since September 19, and continues the recess through this week, drawing strong criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans who say they want to return to work.

At the very least, “if the subsidies are really going to continue, they need real reform. But there are a lot of ideas on the table to do that,” the House speaker said Monday.

It wasn’t specific, but Republicans discussed a range of ideas like an income cap for eligibility, requiring every Obamacare enrollee to pay something into the system, phasing out after two or three years, and stricter limits on abortion.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., author of a bill to permanently extend funding for Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, said she is open to negotiating the details.

“There are a number of changes that could be made to the program to address some of the concerns,” she said. “However, I think one of the things we need to think carefully about is where we start to make changes that show a significant decline in the numbers of people getting help. And that needs to be a longer discussion where people need to really look at some data and get informed before making decisions about that.”

But Shaheen flatly ruled out tougher restrictions on abortion, saying current law already defunds Obamacare for abortion — despite some conservatives wanting to make it more stringent.

“This is unacceptable,” she said. “It is not a problem. We have already dealt with this issue.”

Shaheen, a longtime critic of the shutdowns who stands with Schumer in opposition to the GOP bill, said it’s not feasible to wait until the end of the year to act on financing Obamacare, with insurance companies setting interest rates for 2026 now.

“People are getting insurance premium increases right now, and that’s one more thing on top of the cost of food, electricity, rent, child care, and all the other expenses that people have,” she told NBC News.

Republicans control the Senate by a margin of 53 votes to 47, but they need 60 votes to break the filibuster and pass the funding bill. They are currently five Democratic votes behind, and have not seen any movement since the shutdown began on October 1.

In response to Republicans calling him “shut down Schumer,” the Democratic leader said He replied“Republicans control the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House.”

Schumer’s comments implicitly suggest that Republicans could eliminate the 60-vote threshold for reopening the government if they refuse to negotiate for Democratic votes. But GOP party leaders are extremely reluctant to use the “nuclear option” in a legislative filibuster, because that would permanently alter the Senate and set a precedent, which conservatives fear they will regret when Democrats return to power.

“The supermajority requirement is the thing that makes the Senate the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Friday. “And frankly, if we had done that, there would have been a lot of bad things the other side could have done.”

“If Democrats had won the majority, they probably would have tried to filibuster, and then you would have four new U.S. senators from Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. And you would have a packed Supreme Court,” Thune said. “You will have abortion on demand.”

Johnson also spoke about growing calls for the right to repeal Obamacare, a long-standing goal of conservatives, and said in a lengthy response to NBC News that “Obamacare has failed the American people” and that the system needs “radical reform.” He said he suffers from “PTSD” over the GOP’s 2017 repeal effort and remains frustrated by its failure.

“Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare? A lot of us are questioning that now, because the roots are so deep,” he said Monday. “It was really evil, the way it was set up, in my view.” “I think Obamacare was created to implode on itself, to collapse in on itself.”

Justin Chermol, a spokesman for the House Democratic campaign arm, responded: “Mike Johnson just admitted that the GOP health care plan is not just about eliminating Medicaid and closing rural hospitals. Republicans are still desperate to repeal the Affordable Care Act and take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions — as the Speaker of the House made clear this morning while “He is recovering from the trauma he suffered after failing to repeal Medicare in 2017.”

A day earlier, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Posted on X, “House Republicans now plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And deprive tens of millions of Americans of health care.”