House speaker promises health care fix, you know, one day

House Speaker Mike Johnson

Flanked by House Republicans, Speaker Mike Johnson held his now-daily GOP shutdown press conference on Thursday. Pressed on the Democratic Party’s demands to guarantee funding for Affordable Care Act subsidies, which would help to offset some of the skyrocketing health insurance costs next year, Johnson essentially admitted the GOP has no real plan, except to kick the can down the road. 

"It's about keeping Congress operating so we can get to health care,” he said. “We always were going to. They're lying to you. Okay. The health care issues were always going to be something discussed and deliberated and contemplated and debated in October, November. It always was.”

“They're trying to pretend that a December 31 policy issue has something to do with the fiscal cliff that we faced on September 30 with a shutdown," Johnson added.

Johnson is clearly feeling the pressure of leading an unpopular Republican Party that has spent the better part of two decades trying to repeal the ACA and the protections it provides to hundreds of millions of Americans, while consistently offering zilch as a meaningful replacement. 

But sure, they’ll have it figured out in a couple of months.