In perhaps the most overt lie ever told, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that it's Republicans who are working to fix health care in the United States.
"Let me look right into the camera and tell you very clearly: Republicans are the ones concerned about health care. Republicans are the party working around the clock every day to fix health care. This is not talking points for us: we've done it," Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.
Where do we even begin with this absolute whopper that anyone with half a brain and a rudimentary understanding of politics over the last decade and a half of politics knows is a lie.
First, to say Republicans are “working around the clock” to fix health care is false, as the House is in its third week of recess as Johnson refuses to negotiate with Democrats on a government funding bill.
But more than that, Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail for years to not only block the passage of health care reforms, but to repeal the advances Democrats have made on the issue. Not a single Republican lawmaker voted to pass the Affordable Care Act back in 2009.
And since its passage, Republicans took dozens of votes to repeal the landmark health care law, which blocked insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions, expanded coverage to low-income Americans, and offered subsidies to others who struggle to afford insurance.
“Get lost” by Clay Bennett
In 2017, during President Donald Trump's first disastrous term, Republicans led an overwhelmingly unpopular campaign to repeal the ACA in its entirety—failing at the 11th hour amid a massive outcry to the GOP's plan that would have caused a massive 22 million people to lose their insurance.
Now in power again, congressional Republicans are again taxing an axe to health care coverage. Republicans in a party-line vote passed the "One Big, Beautiful Bill"—which made a massive $1.1 trillion in cuts to the Medicaid program that provides coverage to the poorest Americans. Because of those cuts, more than 15 million people will lose their insurance by 2034.
Meanwhile, the government is currently shut down because Republicans are refusing to negotiate with Democrats on extending subsidies that help millions afford their insurance plans. If those subsidies expire, not only will millions lose their coverage, but premiums will skyrocket for everyone else, raising the cost of living when all Americans want is to see prices go down.
In fact, polling shows that an overwhelming and bipartisan majority of voters want Congress to extend those health care subsidies, which Republicans are currently refusing to do.
A Washington Post poll published on Thursday found a massive 71% of voters want the health care subsidies to be extended. That includes 80% of independents, and even more than a third of Republicans.
What's more, Trump—who has been promising better health care for Americans since he first ran for office in 2015—has still not released his plan for how he'll achieve that.
Just give him another two weeks, though. Maybe then he'll finally tell us about the "concepts" of his plan.
