After teasing a plan by President Donald Trump to extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies—currently on track to end within weeks—the White House has indefinitely delayed the announcement under pressure from congressional Republicans, MS NOW reported on Monday.
The last-minute change of plan signals the GOP’s priorities: the party has fought to cut or repeal the ACA since it entered law in 2010, and was uncompromising in opposing the subsidies during the record-breaking government shutdown that ended earlier in November.
The last thing Republican elected officials want to see, the Center for American Progress’ Bobby Kagan posted on social media Monday, is a deal that protects ACA subsidies.
“That’s why they didn’t extend them in OBBBA, and that’s why they kept calling them a ‘December problem’ even though open enrollment began on November 1,” Kagan, the group’s senior director for federal budget policy, wrote.
I’m sorry that you don’t think the public entity providing healthcare is socialized, but if the DNC had 59 votes instead of 58 when it was being debated you’d be sitting here complaining about Single Payer instead.