According to
National Review's Robert Costa, here is the outline of the House GOP's new plan:
- Keep government open through January 15 and extend debt limit through February 7.
- Suspend the Medical Device tax for two years.
- Add new income verification language to Obamacare (which already has income verification).
- Require members of Congress and Cabinet to use Obamacare.
Depending on the details of the third item, this is actually not enormously different than what the Senate has been talking about. The dates on extensions are the same, and until yesterday afternoon, the Senate had been talking about a medical device tax delay. The Senate had also discussed including an income verification provision, but not the fourth item, requiring members of Congress and the Cabinet to use Obamacare. Reports yesterday said Democrats had "won" a delay in a tax opposed by unions, but House Republicans don't seem to have included that in their list of demands.
Assuming that the income verification provision doesn't actually force any changes to Obamacare, then this means Republicans will have shut down the government and brought us to the brink of default in order to win a two year delay in a tax for special interests and to force politicians to get their health care through Obamacare exchanges. Will they think it's worth it?
7:04 AM PT: Okay, ignore everything I wrote above. Costa apparently left out an important detail:
DETAILS FROM GOP BILL: debt ceiling till feb7, govt funding till jan 15. Medical device tax delay for 2yrs. Language canceling hc subsidies
— @JakeSherman
The "language canceling health care subsidies" is a reference to the income verification piece, which means that (at least according to Politico's Jake Sherman) the House bill essentially guts Obamacare, which means John Boehner is back at square one.
7:06 AM PT: According to both Costa and Sherman, the House will vote on its plan this evening, but we've heard that before from the House. Also according to Sherman, the House bill would cancel Treasury's ability to use extraordinary measures to avoid default, which is incredibly insane policy, though not as toxic as ending Obamacare subsidies would be.
7:21 AM PT: Here's another report on what House Republicans are proposing. This one makes no mention of canceling Obamacare subsidies for income verification, which would be the the worst part of what Sherman had suggested, so it's probably too early to form a final opinion of the House proposal, since it's not clear what's in it.
7:26 AM PT: Ah, so the canceled subsidies piece referenced by Sherman had nothing to do with income verification. It was about canceling subsidies to members of Congress and the cabinet for health care on health insurance exchanges:
In a closed party meeting Tuesday morning, House GOP leadership announced a plan to reopen the government until Jan. 15 and lift the debt ceiling until Feb. 7. The legislation would also delay Obamacare’s tax on medical devices for two years; cancel health-insurance subsidies for members of Congress, the president, vice president and the cabinet; and beef up income verification requirements for Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Spiteful, perhaps, but nothing remotely similar to to canceling Obamacare subsidies overall.