A GOP lawmaker has warned House Speaker Mike Johnson that a string of Republicans could retire early if he opposes extending the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies.
The unnamed House Republican told Punchbowl News that moderate members are “apoplectic” over Johnson’s claim that most GOP members of Congress do not want to extend Obamacare subsidies, which were at the center of the record-breaking government shutdown negotiations.
The lawmaker suggested that the House GOP—already reeling by the shock resignation announcement from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—could see a host of other retirements unless there is an agreement to extend the healthcare subsidies, as well as in protest over the party’s direction.
“Every week it’s more censures, public flogging of members, and a massive redistricting strategy totally blown up in their faces,” the House Republican said. “The floodgates will be wide open with retirement announcements after holidays with family.”
The lawmaker added that GOP members are also considering teaming up with Democrats to “unload” discharge petitions to force a vote on Obamacare subsidies.
The GOP is facing a potential crisis as multiple House members are weighing up leaving office early rather than face the expected wave of humiliating defeats in the 2026 midterms.
The Republican Party currently holds 219 seats in the House to the Democrats’ 213, meaning the GOP can’t afford any more resignations or early retirements as they risk losing their already razor-thin majority in the lower chamber even before next November’s crucial nationwide elections.
Punchbowl News also quoted a senior House Republican this week who warned that more “explosive early resignations are coming” because members are irate with the Trump administration and GOP leadership.
“It’s a tinderbox. Morale has never been lower,” they said. “Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel, and they will lose the majority before this term is out.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Johnson told the White House that House Republicans oppose extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, as Donald Trump’s team was proposing a plan to extend them for two years and other measures. Trump then unexpectedly postponed an announcement about the proposed healthcare plan.
The current subsidies will expire by the end of the year, leaving tens of millions of Americans at risk of sharply rising healthcare costs if no new deal is reached. Multiple Democrats eventually caved and agreed to end the government shutdown on the basis that a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies might take place.
While Senate Majority Leader John Thune has promised to hold a vote on extending the subsidies, Johnson has so far made no such commitment and is now warning the president against the two-year healthcare extension proposal.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, Trump denied that he wants to extend the subsidies for two years, saying, “I’d rather not extend them at all.”
However, the president, who has long opposed Obamacare without ever putting forward an alternative, accepted that “some kind of extension may be necessary to get something else done.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Johnson’s office for comment.
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