'Remarkably off-message': MTG stuns analyst as she throws GOP leaders under the bus

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) made Republicans' effort to silence Democrats' demands in the federal shutdown much more difficult, Aaron Blake wrote for CNN on Tuesday.

On paper, it shouldn't be so. Greene is notoriously one of the most hard-right, pro-Trump lawmakers in Congress, and she has gone so far as to urge Senate Republicans to bypass the filibuster to ram through funding for the government and go over Democrats' heads.

But she also went out of her way to concede the very thing Democrats are demanding as a condition for reopening the government: that Affordable Care Act subsidies for millions of people should be extended to prevent massive spikes in insurance premiums.

“I’m carving my own lane. And I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year,” Greene wrote on X, adding that she opposes Obamacare and the entire concept of health insurance in principle, but that it's still a huge problem that “not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!”

"Greene has not said Republicans should relent and agree to extending the subsidies as part of the government shutdown debate, specifically. But it’s a remarkably off-message moment for Republicans. And it’s already impacting the debate on Capitol Hill," wrote Blake, noting even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) praised her for her remarks.

Greene's defiance of leadership ranks reveals just what a precarious spot Republicans are in, noted Blake.

"Using shutdowns for policy concessions almost never works, because Americans overwhelmingly say they shouldn’t be used as leverage," he wrote. "But Democrats’ demand here has proved an unusually popular one. A poll last week from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, showed 78% of Americans and even 57% of MAGA-aligned Republicans supported extending the Obamacare subsidies. In that way, a MAGA Republican like Greene supporting them isn’t all that surprising."

It's still unclear how this will end, and not at all guaranteed Republicans will be the ones to blink, Blake concluded. However, "Greene’s comments effectively highlight a problem that already existed for Republicans — while casting it in terms they probably wish she hadn’t."