Why Republicans are struggling to unify on health care
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Good morning. It's Wednesday, December 17th. I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Coming up on today's show, frustrations mount over the Brown University investigation, what authorities are probing after the Bondi beach shooting, and President Trump calls for a blockade near Venezuela.
But first, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced yesterday that he would not call a vote to extend enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. That means that in all likelihood, millions of Americans who get their coverage under the ACA are going to see premiums go up next year. Now, he explained that many members in his conference, particularly some who might face difficult elections in next year's midterms, had wanted to extend the funding.
Many of them did want to vote on this Obamacare COVID era subsidy the Democrats created. We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be. We worked on it all the way through the weekend, in fact. And in the end, there was not an agreement wasn't made.
One of those lawmakers, Republican Mike Lawler of New York, said that it was, quote, idiotic that Johnson wouldn't pursue the extension. Instead, House Republicans today will focus their attention on their own bill that seeks to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the self-employed, among other things. And this comes after two plans to address health care costs failed in the Senate last week. Politico reports that the internal Republican blame game and disagreements about where and how to proceed are indicative of longer-term challenges the party has had. Congressional reporter Jordan Carney explained their dilemma.
Republicans have sort of continuously struggled to come up with a unifying plan on health care. They've been debating privately for months among themselves what their message should be right now.
Carney also told us the disagreements extend to both chambers.
There's not like a unified plan that gets both House and Senate Republicans. You've got some centrists or moderate Republicans who want to do an extension of the subsidies with income caps or other new restrictions. You've got more conservative Republicans who want to let them lapse.
Part of the challenge for Republicans in supporting anything that extends even parts of the Affordable Care Act is that the party has spent years saying that the ACA is a disaster and that Americans need better options.
What is sort of interesting about this subsidies debate is that to extend the subsidies, you would need to get Republicans who have never voted for Obamacare to essentially vote to continue a piece of that law, which they have made a center of their campaign. Their opposition is like a center of their political messaging for 15 years. So that is sort of the internal debate they've been having.
And so far, President Trump has not helped clarify exactly where he thinks Republicans should go.
President Trump has, he said that he wants kind of broadly to send money to people, not insurance companies. But on Capitol Hill, you had Republicans for decades. months who have really been hoping he would very explicitly say, here is my framework or here is my plan. And, you know, in the hopes that that would rally the disparate parts of the Republican Party around one idea. That has not happened.
A bipartisan group of senators has revived conversations in recent days about a fix to the subsidy issue, but most likely would not move forward on it until the beginning of next year.
Why are Republicans struggling to unify on health care?
Thousands attended vigils at Bondi Beach in Australia Tuesday night to commemorate the victims of this past weekend's shooting at a Hanukkah festival. And some funerals for victims took place today in Sydney. As officials investigate the shooting, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced some of the initial findings.
It would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organization, by ISIS. Now, some of the evidence which is being procured, including the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.
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