Senate Democrats could stop the ongoing government shutdown "in minutes" by voting for the House-passed continuing resolution but are refusing to do so while demanding trillions more in new spending, Sen. Ron Johnson told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"It's well past time, and the easy way of doing it is just have the Senate Democrats vote for the House-passed CR," the Wisconsin Republican, who sits on the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees, said on Newsmax's "Newsline."
He added that the Democrats "voted for continuing resolutions time and time and time again when they were in the same situation," but "now, all of a sudden, they don't want to do it."
Johnson said Democrats' counteroffer would keep the government open for only four weeks while rolling back recent GOP spending cuts.
"Rather than keep government open until right before Thanksgiving, they've offered us a four-week continuing resolution," he said.
"And what they're asking in return is $1.5 trillion in additional spending, rolling back some of the savings that we achieved in the one big, beautiful bill. So their counterproposal is completely unreasonable," Johnson added.
Johnson also criticized Democrats for what he called "a big lie" about healthcare subsidies, saying they are misleading the public about the impact of letting temporary COVID-era subsidies expire.
"They're pretending that if we don't extend these enhanced subsidies ... insurance rates are going to skyrocket," he said.
"Well, insurance rates have skyrocketed because of Obamacare, [so] why would you continue to throw good money after bad?" Johnson continued.
Meanwhile, the subsidies won't disappear if the boost ends, as the original Affordable Care Act still offsets costs for most families.
"For a family of four with 30-year-old parents, their annual premium is $18,000," Johnson said.
"With the enhanced subsidies, they don't pay a dime of that," he added.
Still, if the way the ACA was initially designed is used, the families would pay $500 of the $18,000 premium, with the government subsidizing $17,500 for their healthcare, Johnson explained.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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