House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not commit to renewing Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire this year, a key issue for Democrats as the government begins its first shutdown in seven years.
Johnson was asked Wednesday at a press conference with House and Senate Republican leaders about the possibility of negotiating an extension of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," subsidies after the government reopens.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has expressed support for this position, yet Johnson passed on directly answering the question and accused Democrats of forcing the shutdown by failing to fund the government.
"This is an extraneous matter right now," Johnson said. "What the Democrats are trying to do is to grab a red herring."
The Senate rejected the continuing resolution to fund the government for a second time on Wednesday. The Democrats' proposal failed 53-47, unchanged from the previous vote, while the House GOP's version also failed to gain further support after Tuesday night's defeat.
"They're trying to bring in a December policy decision, which by the way is expiring because they themselves, the Democrats, put that into law. They had the expiration date set by themselves.
"So that is not a decision that needs to be made until the end of the year, December 31. They're trying to bootstrap that and bring it into this very clean and very simple decision," Johnson said.
Johnson continued to put the shutdown squarely on Democrats, saying: "Democrats in Congress have dragged our country into another reckless shutdown to satisfy their far-left base. That is the truth."
He added: "There isn't anything we can do to make this bill any better for them. We literally did not put one single partisan provision in the bill. There is nothing that we can pull out of this bill to make it any leaner and cleaner. It's absolutely sparkling clean."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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