Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in the halls of the Capitol on Wednesday and challenged the chamber’s top Democrat to sign onto a short-term extension of the Obamacare subsidies.
Lawler was waiting for Jeffries as he emerged from a Democratic leadership press conference and pressed him to sign a one-year extension of the subsidies in a heated exchange surrounded by reporters that was recorded.
“Why don’t we sign on right now? Why don’t we sign on right now?” Lawler said to Jeffries. “You can easily extend the ACA right now.”
“Did your boss, Donald Trump, give you permission?” Jeffries asked, repeatedly calling Lawler “an embarrassment.”
“He’s not my boss,” Lawler shot back.
“Yes, he is,” Jeffries said.
Democrats have made the expiring tax credits a focus of their shutdown of the federal government, despite the fact they don’t expire until Dec. 31, which House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Newsmax is an “eternity” in politics. Johnson also called the urgency of the subsidies a “red herring” used to justify shutting down the government.
Jeffries on Tuesday flatly rejected a one-year extension of the subsidies as Democrats push to make them permanent, a nonstarter for Republicans, who want to scale down the COVID-era subsidies. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., introduced a bipartisan bill to extend the enhanced ACA subsidies through 2026.
“You’re making a show of this to make yourself relevant,” Jeffries told Lawler. “You’re embarrassing yourself right now.”
“It’s sad. It’s sad. You could easily sign on to this,” Lawler said. “The only embarrassment here is you.”
“Leader Jeffries has once again chosen partisanship over governance,” Lawler said in a statement after the incident. “Instead of coming to the table to work out a bipartisan compromise that extends ACA credits, he’s playing political games with people’s livelihoods.
“It’s disgraceful, and it’s hurting families across New York and the country.
“Shutting down the government is cowardice to radicals in the Democratic Party, like AOC and the Squad.”
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