Mike Johnson dedicated his presidency to killing the Affordable Care Act. In 2025, he passed a law that massively cut taxes on the rich and financed it in part by gutting U.S. health care.
Johnson’s legislation excluded 4 million Americans from Medicaid and ended the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies, which raised health insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans.
PoliticusUSA is true, independent news and opinion that bends its knees to no one. Support us by becoming a subscriber.
President Johnson was so desperate to prevent any possibility of extending the ACA subsidies that he shut down the government to prevent a deal to extend the subsidies, and he went so far as to shut down the House for nearly two months to ensure that no deal could be negotiated that would extend the subsidies and end the shutdown.
Given the depth of Johnson’s hostility toward an extension of Obamacare subsidies and the power Johnson wields as president, what happened in the House on Thursday was astonishing.
The Democratic bill, which they first proposed in early 2025, provides for a three-year extension of the subsidies. After vulnerable House Republicans split with Johnson after he reneged on his promise to allow a vote on extending the subsidies and supported a discharge petition to force a vote on the Democratic bill, the legislation passed the House 230-196.
17 House Republicans defied their president and voted for the bill. Those 17 Republicans were Bresnahan, Carey, De La Cruz, Fitzpatrick, Garbarino, Hurd (Co.), Joyce (Ohio), Kean, LaLota, Lawler, Mackenzie, Miller (Ohio), Nunn (Iowa), Salazar, Valadao, Van Orden and Wittman.
Learn more below.