The refusal to extend ACA subsidies becomes a huge political liability and signals deepening splits.??? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

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**DECEMBER 12, 2025**

Hey! Small favor to ask before you
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****KUTTNER ON TAP****

**The Republicans' endangered health**

**The refusal to extend ACA subsidies becomes a huge political liability and signals deepening splits.**

On January 1, some 22 million Americans will face
massive increases in their health insurance premiums, as enhanced tax credits for policies under the Affordable Care Act expire. According to KFF, a health policy research organization, the **average annual premium will rise from $888 to $1,904** [link removed].

In some states, the increase will be several times that. For a 60-year-old making roughly $60,000 annually in Wyoming or West Virginia, premiums will increase by more than 400 percent. In Colorado, it will be 600 percent.

This has created a crisis for Republicans and exposed fractures that will only widen. On Thursday, Democrats proposed a simple three-year extension of the tax credits. Four Republicans joined in support, enough for a 51-49 majority but well short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Republicans voting with the Democrats were Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of
Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Josh Hawley of Missouri. The Senate then rejected a Republican plan for far less generous health savings accounts.

Meanwhile, the Republican leadership in the House faced growing defections. Republicans have signed on to two separate discharge petitions-one led by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), the other by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jen Kiggans (R-VA)-that would force floor votes on extending ACA subsidies.

Fitzpatrick's **bill** [link removed] would extend the tax credits for two years and add new income caps, as well as minimum monthly premiums. Gottheimer and Kiggans's **bipartisan bill** [link removed] to extend the ACA subsidies for a year has 16 Republican co-sponsors.
Fitzpatrick's discharge petition has **11 Republican signatures** [link removed] and **Gottheimer's has 11** [link removed] as well. If either bill comes to the floor, more Republicans would feel compelled to support it, and if Democrats join either petition en masse, there would be enough supporters for a House majority.

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If legislation were to pass the House, it would then go back to the Senate, where there would be more pressure on more Republicans to vote for it. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson's strategy is to run the clock to prevent either measure from coming to a vote. Congress is set to adjourn for the year on December 18. And President Trump has been AWOL.

If Johnson does succeed in
blocking a vote on the legislation, it will be a Pyrrhic victory, and a short-lived one. Not only will Democrats get to keep attacking Republicans for causing skyrocketing premiums, but the issue will not go away. Pressure will only increase as legislators hear from outraged constituents, and there will be more votes in the next session of Congress.

More broadly, the Republican quandary on the ACA subsidies is a sign of a weakened Trump presidency, highlighted by the willingness of more and more GOP legislators to defy both the congressional leadership and their president, on multiple fronts.

Underscoring that defiance, **as my colleague David Dayen reports** [link removed], Indiana Republicans, who massively rejected Trump's demands for gerrymandering, did not seem troubled by his threats to sponsor primary opponents. Increasingly, as Trump
becomes more and more unpopular, Republican willingness to stand up to Trump is seen as a source of strength.

This distancing only increases as Trump's outbursts become more and more floridly insane and impolitic. For Christmas spirit, from a man with gold toilets, it's hard to beat this: "**You don't need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice.** [link removed]"

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Robert Kuttner [link removed]
Co-Founder, Co-Editor [link removed]

On the


**Prospect** website [link removed]

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Indiana Republicans Reject Trump, Vote Down Gerrymander [link removed]

The full result of Trump's election-rigging scheme shows almost no advantage. And the way things are going, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. [link removed]

**BY??DAVID DAYEN**
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'Cadillac Desert' Reconsidered [link removed]

Environmentalists in the 1970s and '80s internalized a lot of Reaganite politics. [link removed]

BY RYAN COOPER
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The Vulnerability of Black Immigrants [link removed]

Black immigrants are more likely to be deported, in part because of their contact with the criminal justice system. [link removed]

BY NAOMI BETHUNE [link removed]

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