OPINION:
Nine Republicans in the House sided with Democrats in pushing for extensions on Obamacare subsidies — or at least, on bringing the measure to the floor for a vote.
They call this bipartisanship. But it’s better called caving.
Once again, Republicans have failed to return health care to the people — to the private sector — to a place where it’s a matter for individuals to provide for self and family. Once again, Republicans have failed to recognize health care as a personal responsibility and instead, solidified the Democrat-slash-socialist talking point of it being a human right, to then be pushed as a taxpayer-funded human right.
President Trump, in his speech to House Republicans earlier this week, said the party should have grabbed hold of health care years ago and made it a signature issue. But they didn’t. (He also said Republicans should be “flexible” on abortion, a remark that no doubt sent alarm bells ringing in the minds of his evangelical supporters). But the fact is, Trump hit on a nerve of conservatives all around the country who have watched for a couple decades now as Democrats pushed, pushed, pushed the idea that medicine is a matter for government control — can you say Hillarycare? — until ultimately, the party that once stood strong for individualism, independence and self-reliance, i.e., Republicans, began to break from that block and water down their own messages.
They ceded the point on health care as a “right.”
They then ceded the point that tax dollars should be used to provide health care for those unable to pay for it themselves.
Enter Obamacare — enter a brave new American medical world where the debates on Capitol Hill focused not so much on whether government belonged in the doctors’ offices, but rather the degree to which government should oversee and pay those doctors.
Patients — people — became the third party to their own medical decisions.
The horrible treatment of veterans at government-run Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics should have served as a suitable warning about the mess politicians can make of health care. Apparently, it didn’t. The COVID years and the absolute despotism that marked how the Democrats and their chosen doctors treated anyone who went against their preferred medical advice should have served as a frightening warning about the power politicians can wield if given control of health decisions. Apparently, it didn’t.
Now America has this: “9 Republicans vote with Democrats to set up House vote on 3-year extension of [Obamacare] subsidies,” ABC News wrote.
“The House,” ABC wrote, “cleared the first procedural hurdle teeing up a vote Thursday evening on passage of a clean three-year extension on the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired at the end of 2025. The measure passed by a 221-205 vote. Notably, nine House Republicans broke ranks and voted with Democrats in favor of the procedural motion to discharge.”
The vote isn’t expected to prove an easy pathway to subsidy approval.
The Senate still has to give it the thumbs-up. So, too, Trump.
But the point is this: Nine House Republicans sided with Democrats to pass a measure that just a hop, skip and jump ago wouldn’t have even seen the light of day. Again: Can you say Hillarycare? No. You can’t. Because it was mocked out of Washington, amid a barrage of outrage and anger about its socialist ideas.
Socialism, sadly, has gone mainstream in America. And with it comes the caving of Republicans who once said socialism didn’t belong in America.
These nine will say they voted with Democrats because they didn’t want another government shutdown. These nine will say they voted with Democrats because they wanted to work cooperatively to fix a health care system that’s gone off the rails in expenses and left many Americans struggling to pay. These nine will say whatever it takes to excuse their actions in a way that makes them look compassionate and caring and cooperative and focused on moving America forward — on making America great.
But these nine — Reps. Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Rob Bresnahan, Ryan Mackenzie, Brian Fitzpatrick, Maria Salazar, David Valadao, Thomas Kean and Max Miller — have just become the enablers of America’s embrace of the “warmth of collectivism.”
Obamacare, once the pledge of Republicans to destroy, has now become the party’s platform. They just haven’t acknowledged it to the American people.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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