Speaker of the House Mike Johnson brushed off MAGA congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s criticisms of him for supposedly not focusing on affordable healthcare Wednesday evening by using the insult “bless her heart.”
Greene, who has more frequently broken from her party’s messaging in recent months, wrote a lengthy X post, accusing Johnson of avoiding affordable healthcare policies and not providing “a single policy plan” on a conference call with Republicans this week.
Hours later, Johnson appeared on CNN’s The Source with Katilan Collins to push back on Greene’s claims, saying she was not privy to conversations about policy plans.
“Well, bless her heart, that’s an absurd statement,” Johnson began, invoking an insulting phrase, commonly used in the South, that expresses disdain for a person’s lack of intelligence or judgment.
“We have been working on this for a long time. We worked on it today. We have been working on it every day. Marjorie is not here in Washington, she’s not on the committee of jurisdiction and she’s not involved in those specific discussions, but she will be soon,” Johnson said.
The speaker said no detailed information about Republicans’ affordable healthcare policies were revealed on the conference call because it is “monitored by the media.”
Johnson argued Republicans’ plans could be published prematurely if too much information was revealed.
The Independent has asked Greene’s office for comment.
Republicans and Democrats have been battling for weeks over including provisions in a temporary funding bill that would extend tax credits for people who obtain healthcare through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, otherwise known as Obamacare.
Democrats argue that excluding the provisions would make healthcare more expensive for millions of Americans because the tax credits expire at the end of this year. One analysis found that premiums could jump by as much as 18 percent.
They are also seeking to restore rollbacks to healthcare cuts that were made in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
But Republicans have refused to add the provisions to the stopgap appropriations bill, maintaining a party position opposing Obamacare that’s been held for years.
As a result, the government has been shut down for more than three weeks.
While Greene blamed Democrats for creating “this nightmare” through the Affordable Care Act and the tax credits, she pressured Johnson and other Republicans to release more information about the methods they’re using to help those struggling to pay for healthcare.
“I find it unacceptable that Republicans are sitting on the sidelines doing nothing to fix this healthcare disaster that is leading many Americans into financial ruin,” Greene wrote in her post.
Greene, a staunch ally of the president, has emerged as one of the few Republicans being publicly critical of her own party on the issue of healthcare. Over the last several weeks she has spoken out against the healthcare affordability crisis and urged her colleagues to redirect their attention.
Johnson said on CNN that Republicans have a plan in place but said he will not bring members of the House of Representatives back, pushing responsibility on to senators.
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