WASHINGTON ― As the government shutdown enters its second week with little sign of ending anytime soon, Republicans are beginning to realize they’re in a different fight than they originally thought, and it’s about an issue where they are at a distinct disadvantage.
Speaking to reporters and TV cameras at a press conference at the Capitol on Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson seemed eager to undercut Democrats’ position as champions of affordable health care, which they have cited as their reason for refusing to vote for a Republican bill to fund the government.
“Let me look right into the camera and tell you clearly: Republicans are the ones concerned about health care,” Johnson said. “Republicans are the party working around the clock to fix health care.”
The emphatic statement about Republicans working to fix health care is something of a rhetorical shift from Johnson, who has for the past two weeks mostly bashed Democrats for arbitrarily demanding health policy concessions on a “clean” government funding bill and dubiously accused them of supporting free health care for unauthorized immigrants.
The shift comes after Senate Democrats held their ground in a third vote on reopening the government on Friday ― and after a weekend of polling showing voters mostly blame President Donald Trump and the GOP for a shutdown, and are overwhelmingly supportive of the health care subsidies Democrats are asking for, with 78% of the public, including 57% of self-identified “MAGA Republicans,” believing they should be extended, according to a poll from KFF.
