House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted Thursday that he has absolutely no clue how to end the government shutdown.
During another daily press conference, Johnson pretended as if Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House, had absolutely no say in the fate of the federal government.
“So, many of you have asked all of us, ‘How does it end?’ We have no idea. It’s up to the Democrats, and they have to decide it,” Johnson said. “And judging by their outrageous behavior, the Democrats appear perfectly happy to keep the political theater going while real people suffer.”
But Johnson seemed all too eager to wash his hands of doing the actual work of governance.
Johnson fumed that Democrats had refused an offer from Senate Majority Leader John Thune to get the chamber to vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies, with some reforms, in exchange for reopening the government. But Thune couldn’t guarantee the vote would pass.
“And [Chuck] Schumer said no,” Johnson said, laughing. “That happened. Ask Leader Thune about it. Because they wanted a guaranteed outcome.”
Johnson raged that Republican leaders couldn’t guarantee an outcome, because it was “not possible” for Republicans to build consensus to pass the ACA subsidies until the government was back in session. It was not immediately clear what would be so difficult about that, except that the speaker had sent all members of his own party back to their districts.
Johnson claimed Democrats were holding the American people “hostage” by continuing the shutdown. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has proceeded to gut essential programs, including projects that would create thousands of jobs, and executed unprecedented layoffs of federal workers.
The speaker ended his address in a huff. “I don’t like being mad Mike, I wanna be happy Mike, I want to be the happy warrior, But I am so upset about this,” he said. “God bless America, we’re done.”
If the ACA tax credits expire at the end of the year, they could knock an estimated 5.1 million Americans off their insurance by 2034.
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