Jeffries on Thune’s ACA vote offer: GOP ‘can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer’
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) offer of a vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies was not firm enough to move Democrats to end the government shutdown.
Thune told MSNBC on Wednesday that he was willing to guarantee a vote on ObamaCare subsidy extensions, though he said reforms to the program were needed and he could not assure the outcome of the process. He had made a similar proposal last week.
Jeffries told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early Thursday that he has not confirmed that Thune had an “actual offer” and that GOP leaders “can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer.”
“We need a real path forward to address the crisis that Republicans have visited upon the American people in terms of health care, the cost of living and affordability,” he added.
Jeffries pointed to a pattern of Republicans attempting to repeal ACA subsidies “more than 70 different times since 2010.”
The New York lawmaker said spending cuts in the summer spending package dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” have only made things worse.
“They’ve [Republicans] enacted the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history, hospitals, nursing homes, community based health centers are closing because of Republican policies all across the country,” Jeffries told host Ali Vitali on the morning program.
“They refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies but they also can find $20 billion to support this right wing so-called leader in Argentina as a part of an effort to bail out a foreign government,” he added, referring the Trump administration’s financial lifeline to the South American country.
Jeffries said GOP commitments to extending ACA subsidies must be “ironclad.” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) made similar remarks during a Sunday appearance on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
“We need this corrected for the American people,” he said, rather than having “some vote without an assured outcome.”
“For so many people, their health care is running toward a cliff, and if we don’t fix this, it’s going to go right over it,” he added.
Senate Democrats blocked the House-authored stopgap bill from advancing for the ninth time Wednesday, holding strong to their health care demands as the Trump administration enacts layoffs and spending cuts targeting Democratic districts and priorities.
Millions of Americans who purchase health insurance through the ACA marketplace are set to see their premiums spike when open enrollment begins next month, unless Congress extends the subsidies passed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republicans have said they don’t want that outcome, but many have expressed opposition to bailing out ObamaCare, making their path forward unclear. Johnson said earlier this week that the party has many ideas for fixing health care costs, though the party has for years been unable to unite around a plan for replacing or reforming the ACA.