Sorry, Sen. Johnson. The House just doesn't care about your political prospects.
Things are getting just slightly urgent for Republicans faced with the possibility that the Supreme Court will rule at the end of June to take health insurance subsidies away from millions of Obamacare customers—million who are
largely clustered in red states, and in states where Republican incumbent senators have to fight for re-election in 2016. One of them, Wisconsin's Sen. Ron Johnson has a plan to extend subsidies—if the Supreme Court strikes them down—
until he's safely re-elected and
then to gut the law, but even that
isn't flying with House Republicans.
The growing divide between the two chambers leaves the GOP in an awkward spot. The court could gut Obamacare in June, handing Republicans a long-sought victory they couldn’t achieve legislatively. But without a backup plan that the whole party supports, the GOP has no way to blunt the political damage if millions of Americans lose the ability to pay for their health insurance.
When asked about Johnson’s bill, Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Utah), said only "Eerrrrrrntt!" in imitation of a game show buzzer, and gave a thumbs down.
"If you're voting for an extension, you're essentially voting for the continuation of Obamacare—that's a real problem," said Republican Study Committee Chairman Bill Flores of Texas, who said he is planning to release an Obamacare replacement plan in the coming days.
Of course Flores has a plan that will be coming out "any day now." You can't swing a dead cat in the House Republican conference without hitting one of those. Aside from that, his statement perfectly exemplifies the problem Senate Republicans are going to have with House Republicans. House members have only to appeal to the most conservative, most Obamacare-hating of their constituents to worry about getting re-elected because their districts have been so carefully devised to keep them in office. For them, it's all about repeal. Senate Republicans have to worry about every voter in their state, including those people who might be about to lose subsidies and lose insurance. They feel like they should at least pretend that they're trying to do something about it.
Make no mistake, pretending is precisely what Johnson is doing. He's putting out a plan that extends the subsidies to 2017—after the election—but which also ends the individual mandate that requires everyone to have insurance. Even if the House gave a damn about Johnson's re-election and threw him a bone by passing his bill (fat chance), President Obama would veto it because it would truly destroy the law. Now, Johnson isn't the sharpest guy, but he's not so dumb that he doesn't get that. He's just trying to set it up so that he can blame the failure of his effort on Obama. But that pesky House just keeps getting in the way.