The enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies are still expected to expire at the end of this year, however, raising insurance premiums for millions of people.
Rebelling against their leaders, four House Republicans on Wednesday signed onto a “discharge petition,” giving Democrats the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on a three-year extension of the Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire for millions of people on Dec. 31.
If the enhanced premium tax credits expire, as is expected, insurance costs are projected to double, on average, for about 22 million people who get their coverage through Obamacare.
The discharge petition, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has all 214 Democrats on board.
Centrist Republicans? I suppose those are the ones who are still ashamed to hang a swastika in their office.
They’re not centrists. Not a single one.
They just realize this is a political loser and are pretending to buck party leadership because they’re all in districts that they’re almost certain to lose in the midterms. They know the Senate will never approve the subsidy extension. It’s all about publicity for them. I hate that they’re being described everywhere in the media as moderates just because they realized they’re going to lose their next election unless they act like they support the ACA.
They all voted for the Medicaid cuts. Bresnahan in particular put on this big show saying how he’s “a hard no on Medicaid cuts” and that he “told leadership I’m not backing down.”
Then the bill came up for a vote and, surprise surprise, he voted for it without hesitation, then insisted it wasn’t actually Medicaid cuts because it was “only targeting fraud.”
All of this, but also I hate hate hate how the media implicitly equates being a moderate/centrist with being good
Being willing to compromise is one thing but making compromise your whole ideology is really just telling your constituents “If you believe what I campaigned on when I asked for your vote you’re a sucker, the only thing I really believe in is being on the winning side of every fight”
Or not.
All four represent competitive districts that could make or break the GOP’s narrow House majority in November. Democrats have been slamming each of them as complicit in the impending lapse of the funding, which first passed in 2021 under President Joe Biden in a bid to cap premiums for “benchmark” plans at 8.5% of income.
Fuck those Republicans.
Those absolute rancid pieces of shit essentially had this entire year to figure that out and do something about it when there was actually a chance of succeeding. Now they’re doing it simply for optics to save their own asses knowing there’s 0 chance it will succeed. Fuck them. FUCK THEM.
Now that they are certain it won’t pass, now that we’re well over halfway through the open enrollment period, and now that we’re at the point to avoid a gap in coverage they’re making a completely transparent and disingenuous attempt to seem like this is what they want(ed) not because they care about American citizens, only because they want to save themselves. It’s entirely theater and it’s disgusting.
In their defense:
They’re so hopelessly delusional about their own value and intelligence, while in fact being less competent than a learning-disabled chihuahua is at quantum physics, that their politically nihilistic misanthropy could in fact just be a contributing factor behind their staggering incompetence.
No, they’re too good at finding loop holes in campaign finance and insider trading laws to suddenly go this stupid on healthcare laws, they know this is performative and they’re just hoping their voters fall for it
They will be mercilessly targeted by the president for going against his wishes. His sycophantic supporters will send death threats because that’s what’s normal in this country now.
