Rep. Maxwell Frost slams ‘out of touch’ House speaker at Healthcare Over Billionaires rally in Orlando

Democratic U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost joined federal employees, union representatives and local state representatives Thursday to highlight the impact of the ongoing U.S. government shutdown on Orlando’s federal workforce and what’s at stake if Republicans fail to preserve affordable healthcare costs for millions.

“At the end of this year, if Congress doesn’t do its job, we are going to see 25 million Americans have their healthcare costs go up anywhere from 50 to 300 percent,” Frost said at a Healthcare Over Billionaires rally, flanked by a couple dozen members of the public and federal employees.

“When the Speaker of the House [Mike Johnson, R-LA] was asked about this, he said healthcare is an ‘extraneous issue,’” Frost pointed out, criticizing the GOP leader as “out of touch.” Johnson recently accused Democrats’ effort to hold the line on healthcare in the current fight over government funding as “trying to grab a red herring.”

“Maybe for a billionaire like Donald Trump, a bump in your healthcare isn’t life-changing,” Frost conceded, taking a predictable swing at the Republican president. But for a working family, he said, “That’s a matter of medicine or food. … It’s a matter of life or death.”

The primary sticking point that led to the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1 was a fight to preserve federal subsidies that have helped keep healthcare affordable for millions of Americans who purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Those tax credits, first made available through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, are set to expire by the end of 2025 unless Congress extends them.

If the subsidies do expire, monthly healthcare premiums for those ACA marketplace plans could more than double, potentially costing low- and moderate-income earners hundreds or even thousands of dollars more per year. Frost estimates this could affect 200,000 people in his Orlando-area district alone.

KFF analysis of how changes to ACA tax credits could affect health plan enrollees. Credit: KFF

“Republicans have chosen to shut down this government because they don’t want to do anything about healthcare and because they want more room in the federal budget to give their billionaire donors and mega-corporations a tax break,” Frost said. “And it’s disgusting.”

Impact on the federal workforce

Also at stake amid the shutdown is reliable paychecks for more than 1 million federal government employees across the country. That group includes thousands of people in Central Florida who work for the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Homeland Security and other critical agencies.

“Every day that this shutdown continues, more families fall behind, more stress builds and more essential services are put at risk,” said Tatiana Finlay, a union representative for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 556, which represents TSA officers at Orlando International Airport.

“Federal workers don’t stop showing up,” she said, referring to federal workers who haven’t been furloughed. “But each day without pay chips away at the stability and dignity they earn.”

Amid the shutdown, many federal government employees are forced to either work without pay, or have already been furloughed (also without pay) until Congress reaches a funding agreement that will allow the government to reopen.

Federal employees have conventionally been guaranteed back pay once a government shutdown lifts, although a recent White House memo this week floated that, just maybe, they are not entitled to that after all.

Speaking at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 606’s union hall in Orlando Thursday, Finlay recalled the last federal government shutdown that occurred during Trump’s first term in the White House in 2018.

“I remember the last one — the silence in the break rooms, the fear of opening banking apps, the exhaustion of putting on a uniform knowing no paycheck was coming,” Finlay said. “I remember co-workers carpooling because they couldn’t afford gas, and officers holding back tears because they didn’t know how to feed their kids.”

“And yet we showed up,” said Finlay. “Because that’s what federal workers do. We serve this country even when it feels like the system is not serving us.”

The government shutdown, she added, “isn’t just about a missing paycheck,” but priorities.

“Federal workers don’t stop showing up, but each day without pay chips away at the stability and dignity they earn.”

The federal workforce has already taken a hit under the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, a novel (and controversial) initiative that ordered federal agencies to drastically reduce their workforce.

The U.S. Department of Education — a prominent target of right-wing forces — is now hanging by a thread, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled, and the Social Security Administration has reportedly already lost 20 percent of its staff since Trump took office.

The White House on Friday also reportedly began moving forward with permanent layoffs of employees in various departments, including Homeland Security, as previously threatened by White House budget director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought. The move has been slammed by the AFGE, the largest union of federal workers, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“A budget is not just a financial document. It’s a statement of values,” said Finlay. “It tells workers, families and communities whether they matter.”

‘Kicking the most vulnerable to the curb’

State Reps. Anna Eskamani and Rita Harris, both Democrats, also joined Frost’s rally Thursday, highlighting the stakes of adequate government funding in a state that hasn’t expanded access to Medicaid (even though the federal government, not the state, would fund most of the expansion).

Florida is also expected to see more low-income Floridians kicked off social welfare programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) moving forward, as a result of eligibility changes made through Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law in July.

“We reviewed the changes here in Florida to Medicaid, to SNAP and to TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] because of the big, ugly bill, and we learned that more than 181,000 Floridians who currently have exemptions to the administrative burdens to access SNAP are no longer going to have those exemptions,” said Eskamani, who attended presentations on the topic during legislative committee meetings earlier this week.

“That includes our veterans, that includes foster youth, and it includes immigrants with legal status, including asylum seekers and refugees and victims of human trafficking,” she added.

“This comes from the party that says they care about veterans, they care about our survivors of human trafficking,” Eskamani said of the GOP. “They say they care about the most vulnerable, and here they are kicking the most vulnerable to the curb.”

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, argue that Democrats are to blame for the government shutdown (although the majority of Americans disagree) and claim Democrats are being unreasonable in their demands.

“They’re trying to make this about health care. It’s not. It’s about keeping Congress operating so we can get to health care. We always were going to. They’re lying to you,” Republican House Speaker Johnson told reporters on Thursday. “The health care issues were always going to be something discussed and deliberated and contemplated and debated in October and November.”

Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried, however — who made a surprise visit to Frost’s rally Thursday night — argued that Democrats don’t trust Republicans will meaningfully return to the issue for negotiation. And they want to settle this now, not later.

“We stand firm with our family members, and we’re asking Republicans to do their damn jobs,” Fried said.

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Rep. Maxwell Frost slams ‘out of touch’ House speaker at Healthcare Over Billionaires rally in Orlando

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