A moderate House Republican is raging against his own party after negotiations over a vote on extending COVID-19-era Obamacare subsidies fell apart.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday morning that it was ‘idiotic’ and ‘political malpractice’ to not hold an ‘up-or-down vote’ on the subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year.
He also turned his ire on House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who he accused of rejecting moderate Republicans’ compromise solutions in order to keep the issue alive as a political cudgel.
‘You have two leaders that are not serious about solving this,’ Lawler said in reference to Jeffries and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. ‘I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bulls—.’
House Republicans have introduced their own healthcare bill aimed at lowering prices via cost-sharing reductions, drug cost transparency measures, and association healthcare plans, which allow small employers and self-employed Americans to work in small groups to purchase coverage.
And while a majority of GOP lawmakers are against any sort of extension of the subsidies, Democrats and a group of moderate House Republicans have warned that a failure to act will result in millions of Americans seeing significant price hikes for their premiums.
House GOP leadership aides told reporters late last week that they expected some sort of amendment vote on the expiring subsidies, but a source familiar told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that those talks fell apart due to disagreements over how to cover the cost of an extension.
The growing pressure has spawned three separate efforts to force a vote on extending the subsidies via discharge petitions, mechanisms to override the will of House GOP leadership on a piece of legislation, provided it has support from the majority of chamber lawmakers.
Two petitions are bipartisan and include limited extensions with reforms to the healthcare system, while a third led by Jeffries includes a straightforward extension for three years.
But moderate Republicans have shown a mixed reaction so far to Jeffries’ proposal, while Jeffries has dismissed the GOP’s.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told NBC News he would not sign Jeffries’ petition, and a source close to Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., told Fox News Digital the same.
Lawler, however, said, ‘Everything is on the table,’ when asked by reporters about his own plans.
He blasted Jeffries for the decision and urged all his colleagues to sign onto one of the GOP’s petitions during an impassioned speech on the House floor.
‘If everybody who says they care about extending this signs the discharge, it could be solved today. And we could say to the leadership on both sides, ‘A pox on both your houses, both of you are failing this country, both of you are failing this institution,’ and move the bill forward,’ Lawler said. ‘So the challenge I have for every one of my colleagues is, put the party crap aside and sign the damn discharge today.’
He directed a comment at Jeffries specifically, ‘Come down to this floor, sign the discharge, and show real leadership. Because sadly, my conference has failed to do that.’
Johnson called Lawler ‘a very dear friend’ and pointed out he campaigned in Lawler’s district recently when asked about the criticism during his weekly press conference.
‘Mike Lawler fights hard for New York, as every Republican in this conference does for their districts. The districts are different. They have different priorities and ideas,’ Johnson said. ‘And many of them didn’t want to vote on this Obamacare or, you know, COVID-era, something that the Democrats created. We looked for a way to try to allow for that … and it just was not to be.’
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