Speaker Mike Johnson returned to Congress after the 43-day shutdown with the confidence of a man who thinks he’s Batman. He claimed that Republicans would continue to reduce healthcare costs and lower prices for American families. But one can’t help but wonder what he means by “continue.”
Johnson framed the day as a restart. Congress is back for a legislative session, and Republicans are ready to “deliver” on their commitments. But how could he leave his “big plans” for healthcare out of the conversation? “We’re going to continue to reduce the cost of healthcare. We got big plans to do that,” he said. And he didn’t stop with his lies there.
Johnson also claimed to “continue reducing prices and the cost of living for American families.” Sorry, but “Continue?” Where, exactly, does he think this heroic price-cutting streak began? Only in his 70-page notebook, perhaps. Because nothing in the past decade of Republican health-care and housing politics suggests any cost-cutting ever began.
The closest thing Republicans have produced to a health-care plan is ideas on paper that Johnson keeps bragging about. Almost the same way a freshman brags about outlines for a paper he hasn’t written. Meanwhile, the enhanced ACA subsidies that have kept healthcare affordable thus far are about to expire.
Those subsidies saved families $700 a year on average (via CBPP). They prevented 4 million people from losing coverage and capped premiums for those otherwise priced out of the market (via Urban Institute). And Republicans, including Johnson, spent the shutdown refusing to extend them. Now, premiums are projected to skyrocket when they expire in December. Unsurprisingly, Johnson has yet to present an effective, alternative plan.
Trump’s replacement plan, which Johnson praises, effectively kills ACA subsidies and replaces them with vague cash handouts. Anyone with two brain cells knows that it wouldn’t control insurance prices at all. That’s the magic of Republican healthcare rhetoric. Their accomplishments always live in the future, and failures always belong to Democrats.
As always, the social media chorus said out loud what the press had politely refrained from saying. “You can’t continue something you haven’t started,” one user on X called Johnson out. Another sarcastically clapped back, asking, “Are the cheaper health care and groceries in the room with us right now?” People also came with their testimonies, shattering Johnson’s narrative: “All of my premiums have done nothing but go up.” Another joined, “‘Continue reducing’ would mean that prices have been falling. They haven’t.”
People’s bills sadly don’t lie like this puppet of Trump does. Republicans had 15 years to produce a real healthcare plan. What they produced instead was 70 pages of vibes and a Speaker insisting the work had already begun. Johnson keeps offering “big plans,” “notebooks,” and projects that never materialize but always sound moments away from greatness. But he wouldn’t need to do all that talking if his boss were actually doing something.
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