Senate Republicans are lambasting an offer by Democrats to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for one year as part of a deal to reopen the government, arguing there is little to no appetite for such an agreement.
Multiple members of the Senate GOP were quick to pan the proposal — which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had offered on the Senate floor just hours earlier and which includes a short-term funding stopgap, an attached three-bill “minibus” and the extension of tax credits — as unserious.
“It’s terrible,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was on the way to a Senate GOP conference meeting to discuss the path forward.
“The five largest health care companies in America have had a 1000 percent increase in their stock prices since 2010. We’re flooding these people with money that’s creating inflation,” Graham continued. “The program is broken and I’m not going to keep giving hundreds of billions of dollars to insurance companies.”
Schumer announced the proposal the day after bipartisan talks that had been ongoing this week fell apart.
A group of moderate Democrats were nearing a deal with Republicans that included a stopgap spending bill, an attached minibus and a commitment to hold a vote on a bill to extend ACA subsidies by a certain date.
Negotiators, however, began singing a different tune early Thursday afternoon as they indicated a deal was not close. That was followed by a Democratic caucus meeting that led the party to seek more concessions from Republicans.
Led by the one-year ACA tax credits extension, the new offer was rejected swiftly by the GOP.
“Everybody who follows this knows that’s a non-starter,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). “There is no way. The ObamaCare extension is the negotiation. That’s what we’re going to negotiate once the government opens up.”
“A one-year extension along the lines of what they’re suggesting … it just doesn’t even get close,” Thune said, adding that the Democratic offer also does not include protections for the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.
Thune said that Democrats are “feeling the heat” with this proposal.
The Democratic proposal also came days after the party saw massive wins at the ballot box that opened up a fissure for Republicans and encouraged Democrats to dig in.
President Trump on Wednesday declared that the shutdown hurt the GOP in the elections, buoying progressives to keep up the fight for a subsidy extension with Republicans seemingly on the back foot.
Progressives also were not in favor of the deal at the center of bipartisan talks, having insisted that they want an outcome on the tax credits rather than a process that would include a likely failed vote.
