Democrats plan to go around Speaker Johnson, force vote on ACA tax credits

The government shutdown is over and Democrats failed to secure their number one priority

extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year

But they say they're not giving up. They are taking a big step to go around House Speaker Mike Johnson

in an attempt to force a vote on the House floor on a three-year tax credit extension through a discharge petition

Here's what they told us. At one point with the Affordable Care Act

We were up to 95 percent of Americans that had health insurance

The Republicans are trying to do whatever they can to cut that number back and not have Americans have health insurance

And that's what they're doing by trying to destroy the ACA and the subsidies. A discharge petition can force a vote on any bill if a majority of House members sign on

The petition to extend ACA subsidies has already been filed and has 174 signatures and counting

By the time all Democrats sign on, it'll have 214 signatures. So they'll need four Republicans to hit the 218 needed to force a vote

There are some Republicans who in the last few weeks have said that they're supportive of extending the tax credits for the ACA

Whether we can believe them or not remains to be seen. But certainly we'll push them to sign the discharge petition

There are some Republicans who say they want to extend the tax credits, but not for three years

And they also want to change some of the eligibility requirements. Is the discharge petition negotiable, given that some Republicans would be willing to vote

for ACA extension, just maybe not in the exact way that it's being proposed now

Republicans have zero credibility on this issue. These are folks these Republicans who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 70 different times in the last 15 years There no evidence that they serious about extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits The expanded

tax credits were first implemented during the pandemic and they're expiring at the end of 2025

Without them, premiums for millions of Americans who get their health insurance through the federal

marketplace are set to increase, in some cases double to quintuple. Democrats point to the one

big, beautiful bill that Republicans approved in July, which made income tax cuts and other tax

breaks permanent. Because of that, Democrats say the ACA tax credit should be, at a minimum

extended. Republican tax breaks, those are permanent, you know, so we should be considering

you know, how best to support the American people, and that's to ensure that health care is within

their reach. You know, given the impacts of the big betrayal bill and the cuts to Medicaid

When you compound that with not extending the ACA subsidies, I mean, again, the greatest wealth for our country is the health of our people

Republicans who oppose the tax credit say if the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace needs to be continually subsidized to be affordable, then the system is broken and needs to be reworked

$450 billion over 10 years. The money is going to line the pockets of very profitable insurance companies

Again, the market is failing. Obamacare is only 7% of Americans. Literally almost 100% of Americans need relief from their healthcare policy premiums

Republicans still want to repeal Obamacare, but they've yet to come up with a plan for what they'd replace it with

I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Hour News. For more unbiased reporting straight from our nation's capital, download the S.A.N. app