'We get blamed for everything': GOP senators know party is running over health-care cliff

WASHINGTON — Thursday is the long-awaited health-care day in the U.S. Senate, but that doesn’t mean Congress has a plan to avert massive spikes in health premiums in the New Year.

To counter Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s proposal to extend COVID-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for three years — which most Republicans say is too long — on Tuesday, Majority Leader John Thune announced the GOP would offer a new measure to replace subsidies with health savings accounts.

“We need to fix it. It's broken. It's a piece of sh––,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story of the ACA, commonly known as Obamacare.

While many in the GOP are glad the party finally has an alternative to the ACA to rally behind, more middle-of-the-road Republicans are upset with the competing messaging bills at a time when Americans are desperate for a solution.

“How are you feeling about this [new GOP] health-care measure?” Raw Story asked Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a rare moderate in GOP ranks.

“Bad,” said Murkowski. “We haven't resolved anything, so we're going to have votes? Good deal. What have you got? What are you going to get out of it?”

With no bipartisan solution in sight, the American people aren’t expected to get anything from Thursday’s dueling health-care measures — setting up a key battle in next year’s midterm elections.

‘Not a serious proposal’

This fall, throughout the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Democrats demanded the GOP sit down and find a way to prevent the pending health insurance premium spikes.

The GOP refused, leaving rank-and-file Republicans scrambling to craft a counter offer.

“The 1.6 million people approximately that will lose their subsidy, I've got sympathy for those folks,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story. “They're going to be left paying enormous Obamacare premiums.”

“And your party might get blamed for that?” Raw Story asked

“Totally. We get blamed for everything,” Johnson said. “But Democrats should be blamed for destroying that individual insurance market with Obamacare.”

Democratic leaders say their three-year extension is essential for families struggling under the weight of inflation induced by President Donald Trump’s tariffs — but the measure is bound for defeat.

“That’s not a serious proposal, because they know there’s billions of dollars in fraud,” Sen. John Husted (R-OH) told Raw Story. “That’s not going to be tolerated.”

Earlier this year, under the guise of rooting out “fraud,” Republicans cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP benefits, or food stamps, in their “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

That’s something you only hear Democrats mention these days.

“Why not promote the changes you guys made to Medicaid in the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ as Republican health reform?” Raw Story asked Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). “You guys just did sweeping reform, just to Medicaid.”

“Well, it's a possibility,” Kennedy told Raw Story.

“It seems like you guys don't want to own that and make that a part of the debate?” Raw Story pressed.

“No, I think your conclusion is wrong,” Kennedy said.

While the GOP scrambles to save face on the Senate floor, Republicans continue to rally around unraveling Obamacare — but not much else.

“At the end of the day, we got to get the federal government out of it,” Sen. Tuberville said. “To do that, we got to have a lot of smart minds putting it together where it'll help everybody and not only just a few.”

With little to no guidance from party leaders, four competing GOP Senate measures have emerged, including a new proposal from Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Bernie Moreno (R-OH), to extend ACA subsidies two years.

While that is likely to attract Democratic support, GOP leaders refuse to bring it to the floor and instead are promoting health savings accounts.

It’s almost as if GOP leaders don’t want to solve the pending health-care cost crisis, even as the party desperately tries to portray itself as serious about health care.

“We need to put something forward. We need to show America what we're for,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told Raw Story.

“This is just a springboard. This bill that we're voting on now is a springboard to a hopefully bipartisan bill that truly addresses all of health care in January.”

But as the New Year quickly approaches, the clock is ticking.

“Nothing happens around here without a deadline,” Husted said.

So far, Republicans haven’t gotten much of any direction from President Trump.

“Would it be helpful for Trump to say: ‘This is the plan that I want, the one I prefer?” a reporter asked Sen. Kennedy.

“Sure,” Kennedy replied. “But I don't think the White House is going to do that, nor do I think that they're prepared to do that. I think the White House is concerned about what, if anything, the House would do, as am I.”

‘Get to 60’

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson remain mum, even as swing-state Republicans are freaking out.

At the same time, Minority Leader Schumer’s putting forward a three-year extension despite opposition from most all Republicans.

With a mere two legislative weeks before the end of the year, it seems as if the two parties are campaigning past each other instead of trying to find a path to a filibuster-proof majority of 60 senators.

“Is that all this week is,” Raw Story asked Sen. Murkowski, “just politics on both sides?”

“That’s what it seems like,” Murkowski replied. “It takes both sides. Sixty. Neither side has 60. We need to get to 60.”

Murkowski’s one of the few senators willing to cross the aisle. While she remains undecided as to how she’ll vote Thursday, she says she knows the outcome.

“See, the thing is, how I vote doesn't matter, because either one, the public gets nothing, right?” Murkowski said. “So I can say I support the Republican agenda. I can say I support the Democrat [bill]. I can say I support either, but the results are the same.”