Dems pull out all the stops to keep Obamacare subsidies fight alive after vote to reopen government

By Fox News · Fox News

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced a long-shot plan to force the House of Representatives to vote on a three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies. During a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Jeffries said Democrats would submit a discharge petition that, if successful, would bring the subsidies to a vote in the chamber over the objection of GOP leadership, giving Democrats a way to continue pursuing their shutdown demands. "The House Democratic position is going to be the House Democratic position," Jeffries said shortly after leaving the meeting. "We believe that the American people — given the Republican refusal to act and find a bipartisan path forward — should be given the same level of certainty that Republicans have continued to give the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected." JEFFRIES REVEALS LAST-MINUTE MOVE TO EXTEND COVID-ERA SUBSIDIES AS HOUSE SHUTDOWN VOTE LOOMS The three-year window for the proposed extension coincides with the duration of President Donald Trump’s second term, which ends in 2028. In response to the plan, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said the discharge effort was an ill-conceived attempt to give a new lease on life to a program that was always supposed to be temporary. "There’s a reason Democrats set these inefficient subsidies to expire. COVID ended — it’s time these insurance company credits do, too. Republicans have real solutions to lower premiums for hardworking families, and they don't include bailing out insurance companies that are increasing prices," Scalise said. The whip also slammed the high health insurance costs that the Obamacare tax credits subsidize. "Democrats created the healthcare mess with Obamacare that has resulted in 80% increases in premiums. Now their only solution to those skyrocketing premium increases is to bail out insurance companies with billions in taxpayer subsidies. These COVID subsidies are rife with waste, fraud and abuse," Scalise said. MODERATE D…