House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) accompanied by Vice President J.D. Vance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, speaks during a press conference following a meeting between President Trump and Congressional Democratic leaders on funding the government, in Washington, DC on September 29, 2025.
Nathan Posner | Anadolu | Getty Images
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday blasted Democrats for holding out against passing a stopgap funding bill that would avoid a shutdown of the U.S. government at the end of the day.
“They “need to come to their senses here, and do the right thing,” Johnson, R-La., said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
He said that top Democrats — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — have “painted themselves into a corner” by making policy demands in exchange for passing a funding bill Tuesday.
Those demands, Johnson said, are irrelevant to the urgent need to pass that continuing resolution.
Democrats are insisting that any continuing resolution to keep the government funded in the near-term include an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Those credits, which lower the cost of health insurance premiums paid by millions of Americans who buy coverage on ACA exchanges, are due to expire at the end of 2025.
Johnson accused Democrats of trying to protect Schumer’s “backside” by pressing that and other demands.
He said Schumer and other Democratic leaders were concerned that Schumer would become vulnerable to challenges to his position and House seat by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a leader of the party’s progressive wing, if they did not hold firm against Republican demands for a “clean” continuing resolution without any provisions for health-care protections.
Johnson said a debate about how to reform the ACA — popularly known as Obamacare — could happen later.
“If the government shuts down, it’s their decision to do it,” Jeffries said, during a later interview on “Squawk Box.”
“We are ready and willing and able to find a bipartisan way forward,” Jeffries said.
But he said Democrats are unwilling to support a bill that does not include health-care protections.
“We will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people,” Jeffries said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks during a press conference alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), following a meeting between the Congressional Democratic leaders and President Trump and Congressional Republican leadership on funding the government, outside of the White House in Washington DC, United States on September 29, 2025.
Nathan Posner | Anadolu | Getty Images
He said that on Wednesday, “notices are going to start going out” to tens of millions of Americans about higher insurance premiums that they will pay if the ACA subsidies are extended.
“We are fighting to deal with the health care of the American people,” Jeffries said.
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