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The Senate is readying for a vote on extending expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, but the proposal on the table is all but certain to fail.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unveiled Senate Democrats’ long-awaited plan to prevent the subsidies from lapsing, which Senate Republicans nearly universally panned. A vote on the plan is expected on Thursday.
“I mean, it’s obviously designed to fail,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital.
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Schumer’s proposal would extend the subsidies for another three years without any of the reforms demanded by the GOP. And bipartisan talks that have been ongoing since the government shutdown ended have virtually ground to a halt.
Thune said when the proposal fails, “if they want to have a serious conversation about a real solution, that can get underway.”
“But, you know, we haven’t decided yet exactly what we’re going to do. But what that signals, though, and evidences, is they’re just not serious,” he said.
Senate Republicans have not landed on their own proposal and may not before the upper chamber leaves Washington, D.C., next week until the start of the New Year.
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There are several plans circulating among Republicans to choose from, but none have gained enough traction or support to hit the floor in a possible side-by-side vote.
The subsidies, which were initially passed under former President Joe Biden during the COVID-19 pandemic and then enhanced to virtually remove any income caps — one of the many sticking points for Republicans — are set to expire by the end of the year.
While the Senate struggles to find a way forward, lawmakers are quick to point the finger at who would own the subsidies’ expiration.
Senate Republicans contend that it’s Schumer and Senate Democrats who are to blame, given that they set the subsidies to sunset by the end of this year when they controlled the Senate. And Senate Democrats argue that Republicans would own the issue since they have yet to produce their own proposal.
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Schumer argued that Republicans have “chosen to do nothing, absolutely nothing,” as the deadline creeps closer. And he believes that Senate Democrats’ plan could succeed, despite a likely insurmountable math problem.
“It is not a nonstarter, 13 votes could solve the problem,” Schumer said. “That’s where the onus should be.”
But the plan is a nonstarter for Republicans for several reasons, including the lack of reforms, the length and that it has no inclusion of Hyde Amendment language that would prevent taxpayer dollars from funding abortions — a tricky issue that has largely derailed bipartisan negotiations.
Meanwhile, Republicans are eyeing a proposal that would send the subsidy money directly to Americans in the form of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), a plan first pushed by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and then co-opted by President Donald Trump.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has been working on an HSA plan that he presented, among other ideas, last week to Senate Republicans during their closed-door lunch. Still, lawmakers exited the meeting and left Washington by the end of the week, without a counteroffer to Senate Democrats’ dead-on-arrival proposal.
“The president gave the marching orders. We’re working on it. We want to deliver it,” Cassidy told Fox News’ Shannon Bream.
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