Republicans have rightly spent the last 15 years denouncing the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare) as a government leviathan that has increased health care costs for many American families.
However, Republicans need to hear the cold, hard truth about their resistance to term extensions. Obamacare Subsidies expires in December. Chief among them is that failure to renew these subsidies would be a political disaster. Failure to implement the GOP's bold plan to address the root causes of rising health care costs before the 2026 midterm elections would also be a political disaster.
It's not about love Obamacare or the trillions in benefits created by the ACA. It's about protecting the American family, which is still struggling with rising costs that began during the pandemic and have intensified in the Biden era. Politician reported that Republicans are missing this simple point and are instead focusing on all the wrong issues regarding ACA subsidies.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune weighed in, saying the COVID-era subsidies were part of a Democratic Band-Aid and should never have been included in a permanent spending package.
Health insurance for families will soon reach $30,000 a year. Employers are stuck, employees are losing pay, and hospitals continue to be built. Here's how the ACA rules made all this possible. #healthcare #policy #AffordableCareAct #economy pic.twitter.com/CAhpVyBWaO
— A real doctor speaks (@realdocspeaks) November 15, 2025
Likewise, Florida Senator Rick Scott argued that the federal government is responsible for rising health care costs and that asking hardworking families to help subsidize others is wrong. (Sign up for Mary Rook's weekly newsletter here!)
“We're not going to ask someone making $20 an hour to subsidize someone making $250,000 a year,” Scott said. “The government has driven up the cost of everything and that has to change.”
Republicans hope rising health care costs won't be an issue by the time the midterm elections begin if the Trump administration succeeds in reducing everyday costs such as food, gas and housing. Others view support for extending subsidies as a major risk, essentially inviting challengers to criticize their voting record on an issue the base has long opposed.
“The core of the Republican Party still believes that Obamacare is a dirty word, so supporting it that way is just a bridge too far for most Republican members,” said Stan Barnes, an Arizona GOP strategist and former state senator. “Who wants to risk that in some deep red county or even a swing county? Nobody wants the main challenge to be the charge, 'You supported Obamacare.'”
But, again, Republicans are focused on the wrong things. The primaries are the least of their worries, since Democrats will criticize Republican inaction as an attack on family security. It's completely naive to think that Americans don't factor health care costs into their monthly budgets. And by ignoring this issue, they give Democrats a loaded gun while they fiddle with primaries and purist fantasies about who is the most anti-ACA candidate.
This is not about supporting or co-signing Obamacare, which should never have been allowed to happen. But we cannot eliminate the adverse impact of the ACA on American families without passing a different plan. The GOP has no answer to what happens when they turn off the tap. These subsidies will protect about 21 million Americans, many of whom live in red states and face the reality that without funding intervention their insurance premiums will double overnight.
Biden's expiring subsidies won't account for the bulk of rising premium costs—taxpayers will still foot most of the bill.
The truth is that the Affordable Care Act never made healthcare affordable.
Obamacare is broken and America needs a convention. pic.twitter.com/R9wRutzTlK
— Rep. Eric Burlison (@RepEricBurlison) November 20, 2025
The appeal of the GOP is that the GOP positions itself as a shield for American families from the whims of DC elites. Inaction is not principled tough love, as some Republicans like Thune would have us believe. This is callous cruelty that will hit their blue collar workers the hardest because of the policies they were forced to use despite never supporting them.
Republicans who are oblivious to this reality are forgetting that their voters are not D.C. political wonks. These are parents who were blindsided by Biden-era inflation, which the GOP has vowed to crush during the 2024 election. The idea that they will use increased health care costs as a cudgel to expose the failures of Obamacare is an unrealistic pipe dream based on the hope that they will somehow overcome the Democrats' ability to control the situation. (RU: Trump's campaign promise could be the ticket to a massive cultural revolution)
While it's fair to blame Democrats for rising health care costs, the GOP has historically been poor at swaying the national conversation in its favor. Democrats will, with the entire antiquated media apparatus serving as their party's propaganda armament, blame the financial pain Americans are experiencing on Republican inaction.
Their only option is to temporarily extend these subsidies to buy time to put forward a plan to end Obamacare once and for all. This allows Republicans to be the heroes that American families have long been looking for, while at the same time giving them the perfect opportunity to expose Democrats as the causers of pain.
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