“Here’s The False Narrative…”

MIKE JOHNSON: Here's the false narrative -- Democrats are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country. It affects 7% of Americans, this extended subsidy

CNBC: But we are talking 22 to 24 million Americans

JOHNSON: We're going to help 100% of Americans reduce… pic.twitter.com/zK9WOm5JPu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 17, 2025

By...?

Rep. Roy in @RulesReps: “Now we're sitting here, and we're listening to nonsense about health care, where my colleagues on the other side of the aisle sit here saying, 'Well, you guys aren't doing anything about the massive, expensive cost of health care.' Why do you think it's… pic.twitter.com/YxGSPOpPSs

— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) December 17, 2025

Rep. Roy in @RulesReps : “Now we're sitting here, and we're listening to nonsense about health care, where my colleagues on the other side of the aisle sit here saying, 'Well, you guys aren't doing anything about the massive, expensive cost of health care.' Why do you think it's expensive? Because you literally cut a deal with insurance companies to run health care...

And yet, Republicans will complain about it, and then they'll offer milquetoast garbage like we're offering this week, and then go home at Christmas and say, 'Look at what we're doing, we’re campaigning on reducing health care.'

Well, congratulations. At some point people will look at this body and say, 'Maybe we should get rid of all 435 members of the House and all 100 members of the Senate, and start over, because Congress is literally failing the American people.'”

He thought that was so clever he posted it himself.

“[W]e’re campaigning on reducing health care.” Well, aren’t you?

“Why do you think it's expensive? Because you literally cut a deal with insurance companies to run health care... “

I’m old enough (literally) to remember when health insurance became a medical necessity. My GP in Austin had a solo clinic with a nurse assistant and a receptionist. By the time I left Austin for seminary, he had added another doctor and staff to handle insurance paperwork. He needed the extra doctor to pay for the extra staff. The city hospital also built a new three story wing while I was there. The entire bottom floor was given over to clerks handling insurance paperwork. This was almost 40 years ago.

I still wonder what planet people like Roy are living on.

The absolute refusal of the GOP to reckon with the reality of healthcare in America, how it is paid for (I had elective surgery two years ago. Without insurance, I doubt the surgeon would have scheduled it, or the hospital admit me), and what it costs, is truly stunning. Of course, I remember the wall-to-wall cable coverage of people who couldn’t afford healthcare in the lead up to Obamacare, and Sen. Lieberman, the stone upon which Medicare for All stumbled, didn’t care a bean. 

The GOP made the same arguments then it is making now. No wonder they’ve never advanced a healthcare plan. All they want to do is reduce it to people who are worthy; and those people prove their worth by not needing a government healthcare plan.