Four GOPs side with Ds on health care subsidies support

 

Dec 17, 2025 (331/1461)

While the rest of us have been fed up with TOM from day negative one, some GOPs are finally saying enough is enough. “Four moderate House Republicans — from swing districts Democrats are already eyeing for next year’s midterms — have broken ranks with Speaker Mike Johnson, signing on to Democrats’ petition to force a vote on extending health care subsidies that expire at the end of this year. From battleground districts in Pennsylvania and New York, the members on Wednesday sided against their party on the Democratic-led measure to force a vote on subsidy extensions related to Affordable Care Act — a move that came after House Republican leaders pushed ahead with a GOP health care bill that does not address impending soaring monthly premiums.

Acknowledging “these are not normal times,” Johnson said his party’s razor-thin majority allows a small number of GOP members to have an outsize influence in some of the chamber’s mechanics.”

And the Vanity Fair interview with Susie Wiles continues to have great fallout. Everything on tape, on the record, not redacted, not taken out of context. They all thought they could control the narrative and their hubris and egos got the better of them. “the more than 10,000-word Vanity Fair spread, based on 11 interviews over the course of a year, glossy photo-spreads and on-the-record quotes from Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had many of Trump’s allies scratching their heads, wondering why the very top of the administration would participate in the interview. And how could Wiles, lauded for her political acumen and loyalty, have miscalculated so badly?

The interview was “extremely demoralizing,” said a person close to the White House.

A second person close to the White House said simply: “So far … WTF.” But privately, West Wing officials and Republicans around town are beginning to question the decisions of the person they’ve revered and respected since she took the helm of Trump’s 2024 campaign along with co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita.

“Honesty isn’t always the best policy,” a high-level Republican familiar with White House thinking said. “We’ve seen what happens to chiefs who fly too close to the sun — like Mark Meadows.”

WTF indeed. Nice to have you all join the WTF Bus that we all bought tickets on back in January. I wonder what war will break out or what tariff will be announced or what university will be sanctioned as the distraction factor this time. TOMs running out of distraction ammo. There are only so many countries to go to war with, put tariffs upon and not an infinite number of colleges in the US. Oh wait! I know, we’ll go back to annexing Greenland. Like a good narcissist, he’ll circle back on some of the originals.