House Republicans are privately fuming at Speaker Mike Johnson over his failure to lead on issues such as the cost-of-living crisis and skyrocketing healthcare premiums, according to CNN.
GOP lawmakers were already on edge over voters’ economic concerns, President Donald Trump’s falling approval ratings, and Democrats’ success last month in a slate of crucial statewide races—not to mention the administration’s efforts to block the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the president’s risky nationwide gerrymandering campaign.
This week, they received yet another wake-up call after the Republican candidate in a special election in bright-red Tennessee vastly underperformed against his progressive challenger, winning by just single digits.
Privately, a GOP lawmaker told Johnson, 53, his leadership was “slipping away,” and that frustration was “boiling over” among the members of his caucus, CNN reported.
“Morale has never been lower,” the lawmaker, whose identity was not revealed, told Johnson.
House members returned from their Thanksgiving break expecting to vote on a bill that would show Republicans are taking their constituents’ economic concerns seriously, according to CNN. Instead, they were told the week’s main legislative effort would involve regulating college athletics.
In the meantime, Republicans still don’t have a plan for bringing down healthcare costs after the latest GOP spending bill cut nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid spending and failed to extend health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
Premiums for about 22 million Americans will skyrocket next year after the ACA credits expire, with the average recipient seeing their premiums double.
Although Johnson keeps saying he’s working on a plan, some House members are frustrated because they don’t see any progress. GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez insisted to CNN that he had confidence in the speaker.
Johnson promised on Thursday to unveil a plan next week, but many members of his own party still have no idea what it will include.
They also worry that it’s too late to pass legislation by the end of the year, and unless the plan includes some version of extending the enhanced subsidies—which is seen as unlikely—millions of Americans could be priced out of their healthcare plans.
“We’re trying to get consensus on it. It’s a complicated matter. Lots of opinions on it,” Johnson told reporters.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.
GOP lawmakers, however, are frustrated that the House has been “missing in action,” as one California representative put it, thanks in part to Johnson’s decision to cede the power to Trump, CNN reported.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who has clashed repeatedly with the president, accused Johnson of being a “rubber stamp” for Trump and warned that a flood of Republican retirement announcements were coming.
“You have a lot of intelligent, hard-working people who gave up a lot of things to be here in Congress, only to find out that all they get to do is come here and rubber-stamp whatever Donald Trump wants, and that’s kind of humiliating,” he told CNN.
“That’s why you have so many people running for statewide office and retirements being announced, because nobody wants to be a rubber stamp. You could get a monkey to do this job,” he added.
