‘Roots are so deep’: The GOP is straining to get past its Obamacare morass
www.politico.com/news/2025/10…— Steve Jenkins (@stevejenkins.us) October 17, 2025 at 9:12 AM
How *dare* the Democrats devise a healthcare assistance program that, however imperfect, has managed to make millions of voters healthier & happier! Per Politico, “‘Roots are so deep’: The GOP is straining to get past its Obamacare morass”:
The ongoing debate over soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies has reopened an old wound for Republicans: What should they do about the health care law they have railed against for more than a decade but has now taken root with their own constituents?
While some GOP hard-liners are again embracing repeal-and-replace rhetoric, the scars from the party’s failed attempt to undo the ACA in 2017 have left a broader swath of Republicans extremely wary of trying to rip out the law — even as they continue to criticize it.
Instead, as Democrats put the ACA at the center of the ongoing government shutdown fight, Republican leaders and key senators are acknowledging the political reality that Obamacare, at least for the immediate future, is here to stay. Republicans are, instead, eyeing a bipartisan end-of-year health care push that could pair a conservative overhaul of the expiring subsidies with modest proposals that would tweak — but not fully uproot — the 2010 law.
Speaker Mike Johnson is downplaying prospects for nixing the ACA ahead of the midterms, saying this week he still has “PTSD” from the GOP’s 2017 repeal-and-replace debacle.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear in an interview his members are making plans for a bigger health policy push, including “reforms” to the subsidies, in the next government funding package and potentially elsewhere before the end of the year…
The expiring tax credits, expanded by Democrats in 2021, are driving the desire to act on health care this year — millions could go uninsured come the new year without legislative action, according to the Congressional Budget Office. At the same time, Republicans have been discussing a menu of other options in the health care policy arena, both among themselves and with White House officials.
Ideas include overhauling the operation of drug intermediaries, known as pharmacy benefit managers; granting Americans additional options around Health Savings Accounts; and allowing more flexible employer-provided health insurance plans…
But Democrats are already seizing on the repeal talk in some corners of the GOP, with Sen. Patty Murray of Washington comparing it to the cataclysmic sinking of the Titanic.
“It is bad enough so many of them can see the iceberg coming and are saying, ‘Ah, we’ll worry about that after the ship goes down.’ But we’ve also got Republicans saying that you wish this ship had sunk earlier,” Murray, the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, told reporters. She was referring to the GOP’s refusal to extend the Obamacare subsidies before Nov. 1, at which point notices will go out alerting enrollees to massive premium hikes…
Monday Morning Open Thread: The ACA Is Here to StayPost + Comments (201)
