Congress is back in Washington this week, and with apologies to Yogi Berra, it’s déjà vu all over again. After spending much of late 2025 debating Democrat proposals to extend enhanced, Covid-era Obamacare subsidies, the Republican-controlled Congress is kicking off 2026 doing… exactly the same thing. Because apparently, lessons learned are optional in this town.
If this feels confusing, you’re not alone. But the House now faces an unavoidable vote on extending these enhanced subsidies thanks to a last-minute, pre-Christmas move by four renegade Republicans—Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan, and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania, along with Rep. Mike Lawler of New York. By signing a discharge petition, they effectively handed control of the House floor to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats. A bold strategy—if the goal was to help the opposition.
The maneuver is baffling on several levels. For starters, it forces a vote on a bill the Senate has already rejected. That’s right: more time, more drama, same dead end. Even worse, history suggests this surrender buys Republicans absolutely nothing. Fitzpatrick, for example, voted against the House GOP’s repeal-and-replace bill back in May 2017 and still got pummeled by Democrats in the 2018 campaign over health care. So much for goodwill gestures.
In other words, these moderates won’t escape Democrat scare tactics in the next election—no matter how many concessions they make. What they will accomplish is ensuring the Republican-controlled House spends precious time and political capital debating Democrat priorities instead of advancing its own. Mission accomplished… just not for Republicans.
The bigger issue is substance. Enhanced Obamacare subsidies were sold as temporary, emergency measures during Covid. They were never meant to be permanent. Extending them again means pouring more taxpayer money into a program that continues to struggle with rising premiums, limited choices, and structural flaws that subsidies can’t fix. Masking failure with federal cash doesn’t make it success—it just makes it more expensive.
Rather than doubling down on temporary patches, Republicans should be focused on reducing the actual cost of health care. That means competition, transparency, and reforms that address why care is so expensive in the first place. Simply throwing more money at Obamacare may feel compassionate, but it avoids the hard work of real reform.
Here’s hoping that, whatever happens with the upcoming House vote, Republicans stop playing into Democrats’ hands and start changing the conversation. Taxpayers deserve solutions, not reruns—and there’s still time to prove that governing responsibly is better than repeating the same failed debate year after year.
