House GOP tensions erupt after moderate Republicans' Obamacare 'betrayal'

Kevin McCarthy touts Speaker Johnson's handling of healthcare battle Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy joins 'The Sunday Briefing' to discuss Speaker Mike Johnson's handling of the ongoing healthcare fight, the possibility of another reconciliation bill and more. Tensions are once again boiling in the House GOP after four moderate Republicans joined Democrats in a bid to force a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's a betrayal to the Republican Party," House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said. "It basically turned the agenda over to the Democrats." "This is not what people voted for when they voted for a Republican majority," he said. A Democrat-led Congress voted to broaden who can get federally subsidized healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, later voting to extend those subsidies through 2025 the following year. HOUSE REPUBLICANS TURN ON EACH OTHER HEADING INTO YEAR'S END Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., is among the conservatives angry over the decision by four House Republican moderates, including Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., to join a bid to force a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images) Congress has now left D.C. until the new year with no plan in place to extend or replace those subsidies, and millions of Americans are now facing heightened healthcare costs in a matter of days. The majority of Republican lawmakers are opposed to extending those subsidies, calling them a pandemic-era initiative that's part of an overall broken system. But several GOP lawmakers have warned that a failure to extend the subsidies, preferably with reforms, would negatively impact people across the country - as well as Republicans headed into a tough re-election year. Several GOP plans have emerged for another short-term extension to give Congress an off-ramp while they work on a new healthcare plan, but leaders in the House and Senate showed no appetite for taking them up. The four House Republicans who joined Democrats' push for a three-year extension - Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Robert Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa. - have argued that their own leaders left them with no choice but to tack onto a pathway they did not want to support to extend the subsidies. "Ultimately, the failure to bring a vote left us with little choice," Lawler told reporters last week. But it's inflamed tensions with conservatives, threatening an already-unsteady peace in the House GOP's razor-thin majority. "For any Republican to be supportive of Obamacare is really gross and a betrayal to everything that we've ever promised voters," Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said. "I mean, this is the Democrats' fault. They are the ones who made insurance, health insurance, unaffordable and unreliable." Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., leaves the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sept. 4, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) She noted that House Republicans did pass a bill with some modest healthcare reforms before they left Washington, but conceded "we need to do a lot...

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