Republican Rebels Defy Johnson on Obamacare Subsidies

Speaker Mike Johnson
Reuters
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Happy Wednesday! President Trump is set to address the nation at 9 pm ET, and the White House said he'll be speaking about his administration's accomplishments over the past 11 months and plans for the next three years. He may also touch on a newly ordered blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers or other topics. The address comes at a time when the president's poll numbers, including approval of his handling of the economy, are sagging.

Here's what else is happening today.

Republican Rebels Defy Johnson to Force Vote on Obamacare Subsidies

The House on Wednesday narrowly passed a Republican healthcare package hours after four frustrated GOP members bucked Speaker Mike Johnson and joined with Democrats to force an eventual vote on an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The group of GOP moderates - Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania and Mike Lawler of New York - signed a Democratic discharge petition led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, delivering the last of 218 signatures needed to force a vote on a three-year extension of the subsidies. That vote is likely to come in January, after the subsidies expire, though Johnson could expedite it.

All four lawmakers represent competitive districts that could be crucial to Republican hopes of maintaining their narrow majority in the House.

"We have worked for months to craft a two-party solution to address these expiring healthcare credits," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "As I've stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge. Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome."

The moderates' rebellion came after GOP leaders effectively blocked an amendment vote to extend the subsidies by insisting that the cost of an extension be offset by other healthcare savings. The House Rules Committee also shut down the moderates' proposed amendments during debate on the GOP healthcare package and blocked a 2-year extension of the subsidies.

Republican leaders had used a "current policy baseline" this summer to zero out the roughly $4 trillion cost of extending their 2017 tax cuts, but they refused to do the same or waive "pay-for" requirements for a subsidy extension projected to cost $35 billion a year.

The Republican leadership's plan, passed in a 216-211 vote, would allow the enhanced ACA subsidies to expire as scheduled at the end of the month, affecting some 22 million people enrolled in plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Instead of extending those Covid-era tax credits, the House Republican bill combines a handful of other policies, including an expansion of access to "association health plans," which allow employers to join together to buy coverage, as well as funding for "cost-sharing reduction" payments that would help lower-income enrollees afford insurance but make premiums more expensive for others with ACA plans.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Republican bill, called the "Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act," would lower the federal deficit by $35.6 billion over 10 years but also cut the number of people with health insurance by about 100,000 over the years 2027 through 2035. That's on top of the roughly 4 million people expected to lose coverage as a result of the expiration of the enhanced subsidies.

The House GOP plan has no real chance of getting through the Senate, but it gives Republicans in the chamber something they can highlight to counter Democratic charges that they were fomenting a healthcare crisis by allowing the subsidies to lapse. Johnson and many others in the party have little interest in helping to shore up the Obama-era health law they say is fundamentally broken, or the Covid-era subsidy enhancements enacted by Democrats.

Republican moderates insisted that the leadership plan wasn't enough and that allowing the subsidies to lapse would hurt their constituents and prove to be "political malpractice," setting the stage for midterm election losses by allowing millions of Americans to be hit with soaring healthcare premiums.

Lawler said he wasn't endorsing the Democratic legislation but that GOP leaders had left the centrists little choice. "I continue to believe any extension should be targeted, fiscally responsible, and include income eligibility limits and safeguards against fraud, similar to the bipartisan discussions underway in the Senate," he said in a statement. "But when leadership blocks action entirely, Congress has a responsibility to act. My priority is ensuring Hudson Valley families aren't caught in the gridlock."

A straight three-year extension of the subsidies, estimated to add about $83 billion to the federal deficit, was already blocked once by Senate Republicans and is likely to fail if brought to another vote in the upper chamber. That means that the real path to a subsidy extension will likely have to involve bipartisan compromise. Senators from both parties have been working on a possible deal, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers reportedly discussed the possibility of using the House Democrats' bill as the vehicle for an eventual deal.

Another rebuke for Johnson: The speaker has been bombarded with criticism from his own members in recent months and at times has struggled to wrangle his narrow 220-213 majority. Lawmakers have used discharge petitions four times this year to bypass Johnson and force floor votes, deploying a procedural move that only occasionally succeeded prior to this Congress. The latest challenge to Johnson again highlights the divisions in the House and within the GOP conference. "I have not lost control of the House," the speaker insisted to reporters on Wednesday - but it's never a good sign to have to answer that question.

The bottom line: The enhanced ACA subsidies are going to expire at the end of the month. Neither the House Republican bill nor Democrats' three-year subsidy extension can pass the Senate, meaning the pressure is still on lawmakers to find some bipartisan compromise when they reconvene next month.

Senate Passes $900 Billion Defense Bill, Pressuring Pentagon to Release Boat Strike Videos

The Senate gave final approval to the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, sending the legislation to the White House for President Trump's signature. The vote was 77-20, with two Republicans and 18 members of the Democratic caucus voting no.

The NDAA authorizes $900.6 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2026, about $8 billion more than requested by the Trump administration earlier this year.

The legislation provides enlisted service members with a 3.8% pay raise, provides billions for weapons development and procurement, introduces reforms in the acquisition process and makes significant investments in the military industrial base.

"The bill sets us on a path to modernize our defense capabilities and augment our drone manufacturing, shipbuilding efforts, and the development of innovative low-cost weapons," Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker said.

Pressuring Hegseth: A provision in the NDAA withholds 25% of the travel budget for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth until the Pentagon provides lawmakers with unedited recordings of U.S. military strikes on purported drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea. The controversial attacks have killed at least 95 people, and some lawmakers are calling for the release of more information. Hegseth said earlier this week that he does not intend to turn over the complete videotapes of the strikes.

A separate flight safety bill: The NDAA relaxes rules governing military flights in and around Washington that were put in place following the fatal collision between a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter earlier this year. A group of lawmakers tried to amend the bill to maintain the more stringent rules, but that effort failed.

As an alternative, Sen. Ted Cruz offered a separate bill, the ROTOR Act, which overturns the new rules contained in the NDAA and requires safety technology in all aircraft flying in congested airspace. The bill passed Wednesday afternoon by unanimous consent.

Cruz said he hopes the legislation is approved by the House in the next month. "The White House is committed to helping us work with our House colleagues to see that the ROTOR Act, passes in that chamber," Cruz said Wednesday.

Trump Rating on the Economy Hits New Low

Americans aren't happy with how President Trump is managing the economy, according to a new poll from PBS News, NPR and Marist.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, while just 36% said they approve. That's the lowest positive rating Trump has seen in either of his two administrations.

Trump's numbers on the economy are similar to his overall ratings. Just 38% of respondents think Trump is doing a good job as president, while 54% do not.

"This is a major problem for him," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, per PBS News. "When affordability is so front and center in people's minds, that's going to be laid at the doorstep of a chief executive."

A majority of Americans report that the cost of living is too high, with 70% saying their local costs are unaffordable.

In what will certainly be seen as an alarming sign for Republicans, more people now give Democrats the edge on handling the economy. Forty percent of respondents said they think Democrats would do a better job on the economy, compared to 35% picking Republicans.

In the run-up to the midterm elections under President Joe Biden, Republicans held the advantage on the economy, leading Democrats by 15 points.

The poll of 1,440 U.S. adults was conducted via phone, text and online from December 8 through December 11, 2025, with a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Quote of the Day

"It's just mortifying that the Congress of the United States can't get its work done."

− Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, on the government-funding process for 2026. "We're three months late now, and we've wasted the last month in my opinion," Cole said.

Congress has passed just three of 12 required annual spending bills and faces a partial shutdown deadline at the end of January.

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