Senate boss John Thune set up a messaging vote, not a relief measure.
Photo: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Nearly a month ago, Senate Majority Leader John Thune convinced a group of Senate Democrats to end the nation’s longest government shutdown by promising them a December vote on a measure to extend Obamacare premium subsidies. The roughly 24 million Americans potentially hurt by the December 31 expiration of these subsidies might have hoped the planned vote would lead Republicans to either back an extension or cut a deal to extend the subsidies temporarily while a longer-term health-care reform measure could be worked out.
But no. Instead, on Thursday, Senate Republicans voted down the Democratic measure while offering a hastily drafted and rather slapdash “alternative” they knew no Democrat could support so they could show alleged interest in the topic and perhaps share the blame with their opponents. Thune & Co. made no real effort to negotiate with Democrats, perhaps expecting Donald Trump to step in and broker some deal. But alas, Trump was as indifferent to the plight of those on the Obamacare subsidy cliff as his Senate allies. So after this exercise in messaging, it’s very clear the subsidies will expire and millions of Americans will experience skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. It adds to the perfidy of the congressional GOP that the hardest-hit people will be those in red states that rejected the Affordable Care Act’s optional Medicaid expansion and thus made Obamacare policies a popular fallback.
Four Senate Republicans — Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Sullivan — voted for both bills. Collins and Sullivan, as it happens, are up for reelection next year. There is also a group of Republican “moderates” in the House who are trying to convince Speaker Mike Johnson, or force him via discharge petitions, to hold a vote on a subsidy extension next week, perhaps in another twin vote that includes another pasted-together “Republican alternative.” But even if a compromise bill passes, it would die in the Senate (where 60 votes, including 13 Republicans, would be needed for passage) even before having the opportunity to die on Trump’s desk.
So congressional Republicans, and apparently Trump, are resigned to letting those on the Obamacare subsidy cliff fall off. It remains to be seen if Senate Democrats will again use their leverage to protest this development when the stopgap spending bill that ended the recent shutdown runs out on January 30. But for the moment, it looks like subsidy beneficiaries must wait for the midterms for relief or hope that whatever “Obamacare alternative” Republicans promote will offer them something other than a chance to fend for themselves. In the meantime, it could be a grim Christmas for the poor and the unhealthy.
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