Four Republicans Force Mike Johnson’s Hand on Obamacare

Four House Republicans have rejected the party line to give Obamacare more juice.

In a major act of defiance against House Speaker Mike Johnson, GOP Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler, Robert Bresnahan, and Ryan Mackenzie signed Democrats’ Affordable Care Act discharge petition Wednesday morning.

They join every House Democrat in doing so, bringing the overall tally on the petition to the 218 signatures required to force a vote on whether to extend enhanced ACA subsidies for another three years.

Last week, Johnson granted Fitzpatrick and Representative Jen Kiggans an opportunity to vote on an amendment to extend the subsidies. But differing opinions over the amendment’s text had blocked efforts to make a deal.

Kiggans is not expected to sign the petition, people close to her told The Hill.

The successful effort does not translate into immediate action, however. Signatories on the petition will have to wait at least seven legislative days to recognize it, according to House rules, after which House leadership will have two days to respond. That would likely put the ACA vote on the agenda sometime around New Year’s Eve, but Johnson could voluntarily speed up the process if he wanted to.

Johnson did not respond when asked by CNN as to whether he would permit a vote before the year’s end.

The Obamacare subsidies that were enacted under the previous administration are slated to expire on December 31. Without them, health insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans are expected to double.

If the subsidies completely lapse or expire—as most Republicans seemingly want them to do—practically everyone will feel the pain: Policy analysts expect a mass exodus from Obamacare plans altogether that could leave roughly four million Americans completely uninsured. The spike in uninsured Americans will spur a nationwide public health problem that has historically made premiums more expensive for the insured as hospitals look to recoup the lost cash.

But Johnson apparently doesn’t see that forthcoming domino effect.

“Here’s the false narrative: Democrats are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country,” Johnson told CNBC two hours before the Republican defection. “It affects 7 percent of Americans, this extended subsidy.”

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump got excited on Tuesday describing his bombing campaign against suspected drug boats, at a Hanukkah reception at the White House.

“The only time anybody could see those planes was when those bomb chutes open up, because it becomes totally un-stealth,” Trump began, making hand gestures to describe the airstrikes. “You’re going in, you go like this. And as soon as it goes like this, for some reason, the plane is totally visible, not good. And I watched it happening.”

Trump continued on, getting more animated, to scattered laughter in the crowd.

“And I watched it happening, it’s like I’m sitting home watching it, you know, it’s amazing, the situation room is an amazing place. But I watched ’em go bing, bing, it went bing, bing, and two massive hundred-thousand-pound bombs come pouring out, and the job they did was incredible,” Trump added, going on to call a particular strike “the single greatest military attack that anyone’s ever seen.”

Trump turns 80 next year, and is beginning to face more questions about whether he is physically and mentally up to the job of being president. Even though this is his second term in office, it’s evident that he has trouble understanding and explaining certain concepts. Trump won’t admit to any issues, though, lashing out reports of his cognitive decline.

It’s not good that Trump gets excited about dropping bombs and killing people, especially when the bombings are likely illegal and seem to be a prelude to regime change and war with Venezuela. And the fact that Trump seems to be experiencing early-stage dementia probably means that national security is in danger.

The price tag on the White House ballroom just keeps climbing.

Speaking at a Hanukkah reception at the White House Tuesday night, Donald Trump nonchalantly dropped that the cost of building the 90,000-square-foot dance pad had grown to $400 million.

“I think it’ll be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “Who else but in our country would sue to stop a $400 million beautiful ballroom that people have been after for the White House?

“The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years,” he added.

But exactly who has been clamoring for the facility—which will dwarf the 55,000-square-foot mansion—is not clear. Even the architect of the project, James McCrery II, disagreed with the size and scope of Trump’s ginormous ballroom, claiming that its construction would violate basic architectural principles. But McCrery’s opinion eventually got him fired.

The project’s price tag has seemingly grown by 100 percent since Trump first pitched it in July. The original $200 million cost became $300 million in October, as soon as Trump started tearing into the White House East Wing. The historic wing has been completely razed in the process, despite the president’s initial promises to build the addition “near but not touching” the actual White House.

Since Trump’s other promises have fallen flat, there seems to be no guarantee that the cost of the development will actually be funded “100 percent” by Trump and “some friends” of his.

The White House suggested that the project would be paid for, in part, by some of the country’s wealthiest families and biggest corporations, including the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta.

Some major players in the defense industry with massive federal contracts have also pledged significant cash to develop the ballroom, including Lockheed Martin and Palantir.

Donald Trump bragged about one of his biggest donors, Miriam Adelson, donating $250 million to his campaign in 2024, at a White House Hanukkah event Tuesday night. Adelson then told the audience that Trump could run for a third term and whispered something in Trump’s ear. Trump smiled widely as he announced she’d offer him another $250 million.

Adelson, a staunch supporter of right-wing Israeli causes, said that a third term, which is unconstitutional, was possible for Trump with the help of disgraced attorney and Israel supporter Alan Dershowitz, who is implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

“Miriam gave my campaign, indirectly and directly, 250 million, she was number one,” Trump told the crowd. “When somebody can give you 250 million, I think that we should give her the opportunity to say hello. And Miriam, make it quick, because 250 million is not what it used to be.”

Adelson then came to the stage and told the crowd about how she had recently “met Alan Dershowitz, and he said the legal thing about four more years.”

“And I say, Alan, I agree with you. So, we can do it. Think about it,” Adelson said. Trump pointed out that Dershowitz was in the crowd as the audience started to chant, “Four more years.”

The whole thing raises numerous issues, like the influence that rich donors have on the president and the open declaration of plans to flout the Constitution to keep Trump in office beyond 2028. Adelson’s money doesn’t come without strings, either: Just like in 2024, the billionaire widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson will likely push for the United States to recognize Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.

Last year, Trump told pro-Israel donors including Adelson that he would set back the pro-Palestinian movement by “25 or 30 years,” and so far, it seems that at least Adelson is happy with the job Trump is doing. Meanwhile, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the last two years, including over 379 casualties two months after a ceasefire in Gaza was declared. But at least Trump will get paid to stay in office illegally, right?

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles may have just ruined any chance President Donald Trump had of reviving his administration’s indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

In a wildly candid interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, Wiles admitted that Trump’s effort to go after James over flimsy charges of mortgage fraud was his “one retribution.” (He has arguably had far more than one.)

Wiles explained that she hadn’t felt compelled to warn Trump off of James because “she had a half a billion dollars of his money.”

If the Trump administration ever wanted to seek an indictment against James again, it’s more than likely that the opposing legal team would simply have to cite Wiles to get the case tossed out again.

The Justice Department has tried three times to indict James—unsuccessfully in each instance, including one failed attempt as recent as last week. The original indictment against James was dismissed last month when a judge ruled that the Trump administration had improperly appointed the lead attorney, who had no prosecutorial experience at all.

Wiles was quick to claim that many of her quotes were taken out of context, but she’s already been caught lying about what she did and did not say. Multiple members of Trumpworld have voiced support for Wiles in the face of supposedly fake news. Meanwhile, Trump actually confirmed Wiles’s own wild comment about him.