House GOP tensions erupt after moderate Republicans' Obamacare 'betrayal'
Tensions are once again boiling in the House GOP after four moderate Republicans joined Democrats in a bid to force a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during...
By Fox News · Fox News
Tensions are once again boiling in the House GOP after four moderate Republicans joined Democrats in a bid to force a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's a betrayal to the Republican Party," House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said. "It basically turned the agenda over to the Democrats." "This is not what people voted for when they voted for a Republican majority," he said. A Democrat-led Congress voted to broaden who can get federally subsidized healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, later voting to extend those subsidies through 2025 the following year. HOUSE REPUBLICANS TURN ON EACH OTHER HEADING INTO YEAR'S END Congress has now left D.C. until the new year with no plan in place to extend or replace those subsidies, and millions of Americans are now facing heightened healthcare costs in a matter of days. The majority of Republican lawmakers are opposed to extending those subsidies, calling them a pandemic-era initiative that's part of an overall broken system. But several GOP lawmakers have warned that a failure to extend the subsidies, preferably with reforms, would negatively impact people across the country — as well as Republicans headed into a tough re-election year. Several GOP plans have emerged for another short-term extension to give Congress an off-ramp while they work on a new healthcare plan, but leaders in the House and Senate showed no appetite for taking them up. The four House Republicans who joined Democrats' push for a three-year extension — Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Robert Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa. — have argued that their own leaders left them with no choice but to tack onto a pathway they did not want to support to extend the subsidies. "Ultimately, the failure to bring a vote left us with little choice," Lawler told reporters last week. MODERATE REPUBLICAN ERUPTS ON HOUSE GOP LEADERS, SAYS NOT HOLDING OBAMACARE…