House Speaker Mike Johnson lashed out at Democrats on Monday for creating the healthcare crisis they are now using to demand more than a trillion dollars in new spending to reopen the goverment, much of which would be used to continue subsidizing “Obamacare” medical premiums.-Democrats have kept the government shut down for more than five weeks by failing to side with Republicans on a clean continuing budget resolution to reopen the government. While most Democrats in the House opposed it, all the measure needed in the lower chamber was a majority vote, which it received thanks to GOP support.
But in the Senate, 60 votes are needed to overcome the filibuster and advance legislation. So far, only a few Democrats have joined the 53 Republicans to support the bill after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) instructed his caucus to oppose the bill and keep the government shuttered while demanding the Obamacare subsidies be added before they expire next month.
Republican leaders have said they are willing to negotiate the subsidies but demanded that Democrats support the clean spending bill to reopen the government after many of them supported an identical measure last spring
At a Monday press conference, Johnson addressed the subsidies and blamed Democrats for using them as leverage to reopen the government.
“It is the Democrats who created Obamacare. It is the Democrats who did that without any Republican votes” during then-President Barack Obama’s first term, Johnson said.
“It’s the Democrats who by extension have cost the American taxpayers and people who have health insurance, have made their costs skyrocket,” he added.
“It is their policies that made that happen. And instead of reforming it, the Democrats don’t reform Obamacare. They want to subsidize it. They want to spend more taxpayer dollars,” he continued.
“That, by the way, goes mostly to insurance companies, which makes the cost rise further. That’s the Democrats’ plan,” he said. “When they passed Obamacare in 2010, they called it the ‘Affordable Care Act.’ We know the truth is exactly the opposite. By some estimates, premiums have risen 60 percent.”
“Republicans are the ones fighting to save healthcare. Why? It’s not just talking points to us. We do this. We have ideas and we have already implemented ideas and measures to reduce costs, increase access and quality, and eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse,” Johnson continued.
“We got millions of ineligible enrollees off the program and it preserved it. It strengthened Medicaid for the people who rely upon it, which is the elderly, disabled, and young pregnant women, as we always use an example,” he added.
“No, [the shutdown] is not about healthcare. That is a false claim and everybody knows it. Everyone in America, and certainly everybody in this room, understands that this is about something else. It’s about FEAR [of the radical left],” he added.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Johnson said President Donald Trump was “eager” and “determined” to reopen the federal government as quickly as possible.
“I think what you’re seeing there is a reflection of his anger, his real frustration that the government is closed. He he is a big-hearted president,” Johnson told anchor Shannon Bream.
“He wants everybody to get their services, and the health services for veterans and SNAP benefits and all the rest. And he’s tried everything he can, and he is now exhausting his ability. The courts are now saying you can’t go any further. So he’s just desperate for the government to open. He’s tried everything,” Johnson said.
President Donald Trump on Saturday went after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), again invoking her Somali heritage and urging her to “go back,” a line he has used several times since taking office.“She should go back!” Trump said on Truth Social, alongside a video clip of Omar speaking to a crowd in which she said her allegiance would always be with her native country.
It was not immediately clear when the video was recorded, but the footage has circulated for weeks on conservative-leaning social media accounts.Omar was born in Somalia and fled the country’s civil war at age 8, later spending four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the United States in 1995.She became an American citizen in 2000 and has served in Congress since 2019.Trump’s latest post quickly gained traction online, with supporters including conservative activist Laura Loomer amplifying it across social media platforms.
The former president’s comments come amid renewed scrutiny of Omar’s record in Congress and her frequent clashes with House Republicans.It is not the first time in recent months that Trump has suggested Omar should be removed from the country.
“You know, I met the head of Somalia, did you know that?” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in September.
“And I suggested that maybe he’d like to take her back,” Trump said. “He said, ‘I don’t want her.’”
exchange echoed comments Trump made during his first term, when he accused Omar and other members of the so-called “Squad” of “telling us how to run our country.”
Omar has often been one of Trump’s most frequent critics, accusing him of using race and religion as political weapons.
Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest remarks.
Speaking Friday on “The Dean Obeidallah Show,” Omar dismissed talk of deportation or citizenship challenges.
“I have no worry,” she said. “I don’t know how they’d take away my citizenship and, like, deport me.”
“But I don’t even know why that’s such a scary threat,” Omar added. “I’m not the 8-year-old who escaped war anymore. I’m grown, my kids are grown. I could go live wherever I want if I wanted to.”
“It’s a weird thing to wake up every single day to bring that into every single conversation — ‘we’re gonna deport Ilhan,’” she said.
Omar faced new calls for her removal from office and even the revocation of her U.S. citizenship last month after she reposted a video online that accused Kirk of denying “the genocide happening in Palestine” and spreading “racist dog whistles.”
In a separate interview with broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, she described herself as “mortified” by Kirk’s murder and expressed empathy for his wife and two children, but also criticized his positions on race relations and gun rights, particularly in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
Her remarks drew immediate backlash from Republicans, who accused Omar of downplaying the tragedy and fueling political division. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), whose office is near Omar’s on Capitol Hill, introduced a resolution to censure her and remove her from House committees. That motion failed by a single vote, 214–213, after four Republicans joined Democrats to table it.
Mace has since gone further, suggesting Omar’s U.S. citizenship should be revoked. “We would love to see you deported back to Somalia next,” Mace wrote in a social media post. Others online echoed similar calls, citing longstanding allegations that Omar committed immigration and marriage fraud.
Adding to the controversy is renewed attention to Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed. Somali-language obituaries described him as a senior officer in the regime of dictator Siad Barre, which ruled Somalia for decades and carried out atrocities against rival ethnic groups.
Fact-checking organizations like Snopes and Politifact disputed those claims in 2019, describing Nur as a “teacher trainer.