WASHINGTON ― As the government shutdown enters its second week with little sign of ending anytime soon, Republicans are beginning to realize they’re in a different fight than they originally thought, and it’s about an issue where they are at a distinct disadvantage.
Speaking to reporters and TV cameras at a press conference at the Capitol on Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson seemed eager to undercut Democrats’ position as champions of affordable health care, which they have cited as their reason for refusing to vote for a Republican bill to fund the government.
“Let me look right into the camera and tell you clearly: Republicans are the ones concerned about health care,” Johnson said. “Republicans are the party working around the clock to fix health care.”
The emphatic statement about Republicans working to fix health care is something of a rhetorical shift from Johnson, who has for the past two weeks mostly bashed Democrats for arbitrarily demanding health policy concessions on a “clean” government funding bill and dubiously accused them of supporting free health care for unauthorized immigrants.
The shift comes after Senate Democrats held their ground in a third vote on reopening the government on Friday ― and after a weekend of polling showing voters mostly blame President Donald Trump and the GOP for a shutdown, and are overwhelmingly supportive of the health care subsidies Democrats are asking for, with 78% of the public, including 57% of self-identified “MAGA Republicans,” believing they should be extended, according to a poll from KFF.
But the most worrying poll result for Republicans may come from a CBS News/YouGov survey which found a 36% plurality believe the shutdown is primarily about health care, compared to a mere 5% who said it was about immigration, reflecting far more voters are buying the Democrats’ basic frame of the shutdown than the GOP’s. (Republicans on Monday pointed to a poll last month in which 65% of voters said Democrats should not shut the government if their demands aren’t met; the poll also showed more voters would blame Republicans for a shutdown.)
Democrats started the shutdown with multiple television spots on the air driving home their health care focused-message in key districts, while the GOP appears to so far have spent significantly less on the shutdown ad wars. It’s all left Republicans moving to catch up to a fight they didn’t realize they were having.
Johnson said Republicans had taken action to “fix” health care, pointing to the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts they enacted as part of the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” But the legislation isn’t very popular, leading Republicans to rebrand it as the “Working Families Tax Cut Act.” The bill is expected to trim Medicaid enrollment by about 10 million people.
Johnson suggested Monday that the Republican health care agenda remains a work in progress.
“Health care is broken in America. It’s too expensive. The quality of care needs to rise. We need more access for more people,” Johnson said Monday. “We have lots of ideas to do that, but that issue is up for debate in the next three months.”
The speaker also highlighted efforts by Republicans to negotiate with Democrats. He spontaneously revealed he’d recently had a “fruitful conversation” with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) about proposals to extend expiring tax subsidies that help 22 million Americans afford their monthly health insurance premiums. He said he would allow the House to vote on health care legislation if Democrats first agreed to reopen the government.
Murray responded on social media that Democrats still want health care concessions as a condition of reopening the government.
“Premium hikes are going out THIS MONTH. We need a deal that reopens the government & stops premiums from doubling,” Murray said.
Meanwhile, conservative House Republicans seem worried that their leaders might cut a deal with Democrats to extend the subsidies.
“Making such concessions would make us look weak, saying we’re for one thing and doing another,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote Monday in a letter to The Wall Street Journal. “If Republicans govern by poll and fail to grab this moment, they will own it. Don’t expect me to.”
Marc Short, a former chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence, similarly predicted the GOP would fold on the issue soon. (Short, a fiscal conservative, opposes extending the subsidies.)
“Republicans are going to cave on this in the end,” he said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “The bottom line is that Democrats were really shrewd when they put the Obamacare subsidies in the plan.”
The Senate will hold another vote on a House-passed funding bill Monday evening. It’s not clear if any additional Democrats will defect to the Republican side.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that if Speaker Johnson really wanted to “fix” health care, there should be no need to wait until after the government opens to cut a deal.
“If he’s serious about lowering costs and protecting the health care of the American people, why wait? Democrats are ready to do it now,” Schumer said.
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Since the shutdown started last week, Johnson, Jeffries, Schumer and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) have held daily press conferences and given frequent TV interviews. On Monday, Johnson seemingly lamented the daily messaging grind.
“I hate to drag you all out and go through all the details, but I have to put on the case over and over because repetition apparently is the key to this,” Johnson said. “This is not a Republican shutdown. It is a Schumer/Democrat shutdown.”