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House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back hard this week when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened to torpedo a short-term continuing resolution unless Democrats’ sweeping health demands were met, making clear Republicans will not solvent the Biden-era expansion of benefits for those here illegally. Johnson framed the stopgap as a clean vehicle to keep government running while forcing Democrats to negotiate in good faith on real reforms. The speaker’s blunt posture — refusing to bankroll what he called expanded healthcare for noncitizens — set the tone for a showdown in the weeks ahead.
Democrats immediately painted themselves as the saviors of insurance subsidies, insisting that Republicans’ clean CR would force premium spikes and pain for millions unless enhanced ACA payments are extended now. But this is theater: Democrats are weaponizing fear about premiums to demand a multibillion-dollar expansion of entitlement spending on their timetable, not because it’s necessary today. Republicans are right to call that what it is — an attempt to jam permanent policy giveaways into a stopgap funding vote.
Speaker Johnson has repeatedly said the Affordable Care Act subsidy question is a December policy fight, not a September funding matter, and he has refused to let the CR become a vehicle for one-party spending bonanzas. That stance is both fiscally responsible and politically honest: Congress should not be turned into a backdoor appropriations shop for endless entitlement expansions. If Republicans cave now, they’ll set a precedent that every midyear funding bill becomes a hostage negotiation.
The House GOP moved to pass a short-term CR to buy time for negotiations, approving a measure meant to fund the government into November while keeping policy changes out of the stopgap. The vote was narrow and predictable, and Washington insiders know the real fight moves to the Senate where Democrats can try to block the measure and blame Republicans if a shutdown occurs. That is the political playbook: force the majority to choose between principled restraint and caving to endless spending.
Chuck Schumer and his allies are now leaning on alarmist talking points about skyrocketing premiums and millions losing coverage, but their messaging conveniently omits the fiscal cost and the open-border reality that drives demand for more taxpayer-funded benefits. Democrats want to tie the hands of House negotiators and turn a stopgap into a vehicle for a permanent expansion of the welfare state, while insisting Republicans are the obstructionists if they resist. Americans deserve honest tradeoffs, not partisan blackmail that enriches special interests and rewards illegal behavior.
Conservatives should applaud Johnson for refusing to fund an entitlement agenda that rewards lawlessness and expands dependence, but they should also demand that Republican leaders do more than merely resist — they must offer a real plan to secure the border, root out fraud, and make benefits work for citizens first. This is not small-government dogma for its own sake; it is about preserving the safety net for those who earned it and protecting taxpayers from an ever-growing tab. If Republicans stand firm and keep the focus on enforcement and fiscal sanity, they can win the argument — and preserve the republic in the process.
