Health care proposal?????

Jeffries says Johnson ‘tanked’ Trump’s health care proposal

Congress has just a few weeks left to reach a deal to avoid expiring Obamacare tax credits.

Mia McCarthy

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is accusing Speaker Mike Johnson of undermining a White House proposal to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies for two years as Congress stares down a fast-approaching deadline to avoid massive premium hikes.

“It even appears that the Trump administration was ready to put forth a plan that would at least have been worthy of consideration, and that Mike Johnson tanked it,” Jeffries said at a press conference Monday.

The New York Democrat was referring to a framework for extending the enhanced ACA tax credits that the White House was planning to release last week before the details were leaked and conservatives revolted, postponing rollout plans indefinitely.

Many Congressional Democrats were cool to the blueprint, which would have paired an extension with other health policy changes sought by Republicans. But other Democrats called it a promising sign that President Donald Trump was finally getting ready to engage in ongoing negotiations over the future of the tax credits, which are due to sunset Dec. 31 without congressional action and around which Republicans are deeply divided.

“Obviously, Mike Johnson has zero interest in protecting the health care of the American people,” said Jeffries, adding that while Republicans “consistently said” they would discuss an extension of the subsidies after the end of the shutdown, “now we get nothing but crickets.”

“Democrats are once again fabricating a narrative and misrepresenting the Speaker’s position,” said a Johnson spokesperson in a statement. “The Speaker welcomes President Trump’s efforts to lower health care costs, and any White House input is a meaningful contribution to the thoughtful, deliberative conversations taking place in Congress.”

The spokesperson also blasted Democrats for slamming Trump’s health care framework after demanding negotiations throughout the government shutdown, adding, “If Democrats truly want to address health care affordability, why would they reject a plan they haven’t even seen?”

Jeffries is now encouraging Republicans to sign onto a Democratic-led discharge petition to force a floor vote on legislation that would extend the subsidies for three years.

The Senate is also set to take up a vote next week related to the tax credits — a fulfillment of a deal to end the government shutdown brokered between Senate Majority Leader John Thune and a group of Democrats — but still it’s unclear what Democrats will propose.

A “straight extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credit,” appears to be “the only viable path forward,” said Jeffries.