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

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00:00The government shutdown is over, and Democrats failed to secure their number one priority,

00:05extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

00:09But they say they're not giving up.

00:10They are taking a big step to go around House Speaker Mike Johnson

00:14in an attempt to force a vote on the House floor

00:17on a three-year tax credit extension through a discharge petition.

00:21Here's what they told us.

00:23At one point with the Affordable Care Act,

00:26we were up to 95 percent of Americans that had health insurance.

00:31The Republicans are trying to do whatever they can to cut that number back

00:34and not have Americans have health insurance.

00:38And that's what they're doing by trying to destroy the ACA and the subsidies.

00:41A discharge petition can force a vote on any bill if a majority of House members sign on.

00:46The petition to extend ACA subsidies has already been filed and has 174 signatures and counting.

00:52By the time all Democrats sign on, it'll have 214 signatures.

00:57So they'll need four Republicans to hit the 218 needed to force a vote.

01:01There are some Republicans who in the last few weeks have said that they're supportive

01:05of extending the tax credits for the ACA.

01:09Whether we can believe them or not remains to be seen.

01:12But certainly we'll push them to sign the discharge petition.

01:16There are some Republicans who say they want to extend the tax credits, but not for three years.

01:20And they also want to change some of the eligibility requirements.

01:24Is the discharge petition negotiable, given that some Republicans would be willing to vote for ACA extension?

01:29Just maybe not in the exact way that it's being proposed now.

01:32Republicans have zero credibility on this issue.

01:34These are folks, these Republicans, who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act

01:37more than 70 different times in the last 15 years.

01:41There's no evidence that they're serious about extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

01:46The expanded tax credits were first implemented during the pandemic, and they're expiring at the end of 2025.

01:52Without them, premiums for millions of Americans who get their health insurance through the federal marketplace

01:57are set to increase, in some cases double to quintuple.

02:00Democrats point to the one big, beautiful bill that Republicans approved in July,

02:04which made income tax cuts and other tax breaks permanent.

02:07Because of that, Democrats say the ACA tax credit should be, at a minimum, extended.

02:13Republican tax breaks, those are permanent, you know, so we should be considering, you know,

02:19how best to support the American people, and that's to ensure that health care is within their reach.

02:23You know, given the impacts of the big betrayal bill and the cuts to Medicaid,

02:28when you compound that with not extending the ACA subsidies, I mean, again,

02:34the greatest wealth for our country is the health of our people.

02:38Republicans who oppose the tax credits say if the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace

02:42needs to be continually subsidized to be affordable, then the system is broken and needs to be reworked.

02:48$450 billion over 10 years.

02:50The money is going to line the pockets of very profitable insurance companies.

02:57Again, the market is failing.

03:00Obamacare is only 7% of Americans.

03:03Literally almost 100% of Americans need relief from their health care policy premiums.

03:08Republicans still want to repeal Obamacare, but they've yet to come up with a plan for what they'd replace it with.

03:13I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Hour News.

03:15For more unbiased reporting straight from our nation's capital, download the SAN app.

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