NOTUS reports the House Republican Conference is being consumed by infighting as Congress prepares to leave town for the holidays.
Many members are fed up with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and his leadership, as Republicans head home to constituents who could give them an earful for exploding their healthcare costs with the expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits.
“It’s a s——storm of Johnson’s own creating,” one senior Republican member said after four moderate Republicans signed a Democratic-led discharge petition to circumvent the speaker and force a vote on a three-year clean extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.”
“Johnson infuriated moderates when he refused to allow a vote on a Republican-led amendment to extend the subsidies this week.” NOTUS' Reese Gorman reported. “Now, he has to deal with a mutiny in his conference, where just about everyone is miserable, and a significant number of members are laying the blame directly at Johnson’s feet.”
“S——,” is how one anonymous member described Johnson as a leader. “If you asked members for their honest review of Johnson, he’d be at a 20 percent approval rating.”
A second senior Republican told NOTUS that the conference “might be running to their rope.”
“But this is not a parliamentary system, so you can’t call a special election,” the anonymous senior Republican added. “We have to deal with whatever we’ve got until the first Monday in January in 2027.”
NOTUS reports that while House rules allow a vote on a new speaker with the support of nine members, it’s unclear who could get a consensus vote to replace him among the majority party’s fractured enclaves.
This member also pointed out that because Johnson has failed to act, “you’ve got so many Republicans who think they’re drowning [on subsidies] and they’re trying to reach for [Democratic minority leader] Hakeem [Jeffries’] lifeboat.”
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told NOTUS “it’s frustrating” because Republicans had a bipartisan solution to the subsidies problem, but Johnson refused to bring it to the floor. This left moderates no choice but to work with Democrats to extend the subsidies.
Read the NOTUS report at this link.