![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/c-gettyimages-2245396092.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, one of a handful of House Republicans who won in a district that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried last fall, has a stark message for his party as the deadline to extend expiring health care subsidies and the midterm elections approach.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a better plan, then get on board with ours,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cBut doing nothing is not an option.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n In a wide-ranging interview with CNN\u2019s Manu Raju for \u201cInside Politics Sunday,\u201d Fitzpatrick leaned into areas where he broke sharply with his party\u2019s leaders, including his desire to find a health care compromise, staunch commitment to defending Ukraine and past votes against advancing major pieces of President Donald Trump\u2019s agenda.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Pennsylvania lawmaker is among the few House Republicans putting forward legislation to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies due to expire at the end of the year.\n <\/p>\n
\n Though he doesn\u2019t agree with every part of former President Barack Obama\u2019s signature health care law, Fitzpatrick made clear that a short-term plan to shield Americans from skyrocketing insurance premiums is better than anything he\u2019s seen from his party.\n <\/p>\n
\n Fitzpatrick voted against the GOP push to repeal Obamacare in 2017 because he found the replacement \u201cinsufficient.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Now, eight years later, he says Republicans \u201cstill have not been able to put together an articulable plan that\u2019s going to work for everyday Americans.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Fitzpatrick suspects House Speaker Mike Johnson believes he\u2019s representing the majority of his conference by vowing to advance a new GOP health care package instead of holding a vote to extend ACA tax credits.\n <\/p>\n
\n But the swing-district Republican said even some of his more conservative colleagues have expressed an interest in his effort to reach a compromise on the ACA subsidies.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAffordability is such a crisis in this country right now,\u201d he said, explaining that for low- and middle-income constituents, \u201ca significant increase in their premiums is not an option.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Combating rising costs will be \u201cthe issue\u201d of the 2026 elections, Fitzpatrick predicts. He highlighted Trump\u2019s election to a second term and Democrat Zohran Mamdani\u2019s recent victory in the New York City mayoral race as examples of what happens when voters are motivated by cost-of-living concerns.\n <\/p>\n
\n Though the president called affordability a \u201choax\u201d last week, as Democrats begin to zero in on the message, Fitzpatrick disagrees: \u201cBelieve me. I hear it every day back home. It\u2019s real.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Pressed on whether the GOP has been focusing enough on this issue, Fitzpatrick responded, \u201cI don\u2019t think they have.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cEvery bill we bring to the floor should be focused on lowering the cost of living for people who need it most,\u201d he said, criticizing recent legislative efforts related to condemning socialism and regulating compensation for college athletes.\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhy are we focusing on that? That\u2019s not what our constituents care about,\u201d Fitzpatrick continued.\n <\/p>\n
\n Frustration among Republicans has increasingly been directed at Johnson, as he fights to hold together his razor-thin majority and retain the support of the president.\n <\/p>\n
\n Asked whether he thinks Johnson can win the gavel again next term if Republicans hold on to control of the House, Fitzpatrick answered, \u201cI am not sure Mike wants the job next Congress, but that\u2019s a question for him.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Fitzpatrick and Johnson entered Congress as classmates in 2017, when Fitzpatrick recalls his colleague \u201cled the bipartisan charge for civility.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI personally like him. Do I agree with every decision he makes? Absolutely not. I never agree with every decision every speaker\u2019s made,\u201d he said, elaborating that his \u201cpersonal frustration\u201d with leadership comes from his desire to empower rank-and-file members to better serve their constituents.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think the best way to run the floor is allow every member to identify one district priority that\u2019s paramount in their district, and give them a full floor vote on it,\u201d he explained.\n <\/p>\n
\n One bill Fitzpatrick wants to see on the House floor expeditiously is a measure imposing steep sanctions on Russia.\n <\/p>\n
\n Fitzpatrick, who is the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, has introduced legislation mirroring Sens. Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal\u2019s broadly popular bipartisan bill to enact crippling tariffs on countries that buy oil and gas from Russia.\n <\/p>\n
\n While Fitzpatrick acknowledges there are barriers to forcing a vote on his bill in the House, including concerns from otherwise empathetic Democrats about Congress granting the president further tariff authorities, Fitzpatrick warns, \u201cI don\u2019t want to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhat I think we need to do is to make sure that we send a signal to Russia, to Ukraine, and to the world, that Congress cares about Ukraine,\u201d he said, pointing to an outpouring of support in both parties for previous bills supporting the war-torn country.\n <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-01t091815z-1284158749-rc2k7iadcf6j-rtrmadp-3-ukraine-crisis-kostiantynivka.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Fitzpatrick aligns himself with other Russia hawks in the conference who want \u201ca lot more moral clarity out of the administration,\u201d training a critical eye on Trump\u2019s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t care how brilliant of a businessperson you are, the Russians are masters of propaganda,\u201d he said. Pressed on if Trump is being played by Putin, Fitzpatrick responded, \u201che\u2019s been too deferential to him,\u201d adding, \u201cto say someone\u2019s \u2018played\u2019 is sort of insulting their negotiating tactics.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n As the Trump administration continues on the rocky road to a peace deal in Ukraine, Fitzpatrick urges an aggressive approach to Putin, whom Trump last met with in a high-stakes summit in Alaska in August.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe just need to take a much stronger tact to him, because dictators understand one thing and one thing only,\u201d he said. \u201cLook at what brought him to the table. It was the threat of sanctions, and it was the threat of Tomahawk missiles.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Fitzpatrick said unequivocally that he will run for reelection, despite the steep uphill climb Republicans will undertake to retain control of all levers of power in Washington.\n <\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s just one of only three House Republicans who won in a district where Trump lost the 2024 election. Another one of those lawmakers, Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, has already announced he won\u2019t seek reelection next year.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019ve been through these environments before, but I\u2019m very close with my district,\u201d Fitzpatrick said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The fifth-term congressman recalled 2018, when he was elected to a second term by less than 3 percentage points amid backlash to Trump\u2019s first two years in the White House and after a blow to Pennsylvania Republicans\u2019 attempts to draw more favorable maps<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s natural that the pendulum always swings back and forth in politics,\u201d he contended. \u201cAngry people vote; happy people don\u2019t.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Still, Fitzpatrick brushed off the potential drag that Trump might have on his race.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m a pretty independent-minded person,\u201d he said, underscoring his willingness to break with his party on major votes, like Republican leadership\u2019s push to pass Trump\u2019s sweeping domestic policy agenda ahead of the president\u2019s self-imposed July 4 deadline.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI got a lot of heat for it, both back home and from the White House and from some of my colleagues here, but I politely reminded them that I don\u2019t answer to any person or any party in Washington, DC. My bosses are back home,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n