Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has criticized GOP leaders for not having a plan for health care subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
As the government shutdown drags into its second week, Georgia’s congressional delegation is locked in a partisan struggle over who is to blame, with one of the state’s most high-profile Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, seemingly charting her own political path by challenging both parties on the issue of rising health care costs.
Greene, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, broke with her party’s leadership and declared, “I’m carving my own lane” in an online post this week. She said she would go “against everyone on this issue” because the premium hikes would impact “my own adult children” and her constituents in northwest Georgia.
She criticized the Republican-controlled Congress for prioritizing “foreign countries and foreign wars” over domestic health care affordability concerns.
At the core of the dispute in Washington is the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, which would significantly increase health insurance costs for Georgians if allowed to expire at the end of the year. According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 per year would see their monthly premium more than triple.
While Greene provided a rare moment of agreement with Democrats — “I never thought I’d say this, but Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is right,” Sen. Raphael Warnock posted online Tuesday — she offered no clear legislative solution, maintaining a deep ideological opposition to the program itself. Greene called the ACA a “disaster” and the insurance industry a “scam.”
Greene said she was “absolutely disgusted” by the lack of a Republican plan to prevent the doubling of health insurance premiums for Americans.
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Natalie Crawford, executive director of Georgia First, a nonprofit think tank and policy advocacy group, said in an interview that she is hopeful more members of Georgia’s congressional delegation will come to understand how “uniquely bad the situation is for Georgia.”
The loss of these credits, she said, would result in the collapse of the state-based marketplace, an “explosion” of the already “very large uninsured rate,” and an expansion of the coverage gap for residents who earn too much for Medicaid but too little to afford market policies.
“Those are populations that are going to be greatly affected. It’s going to have very real fiscal impact for the state of Georgia,” Crawford said. “And I think that the more our delegation understands that and is able to speak to that, there potentially is some hope for negotiation.”
Crawford said the lack of a viable alternative means the state of Georgia would be left to consider its own tax credits or to “revisit expansion” to cover those expected to lose coverage if the federal tax credits expire. Georgia is one of 10 states that have not fully expanded Medicaid.
“This is not a partisan issue. It should not be a partisan issue, and I understand policy differences, but at the end of the day, healthy Georgians are productive Georgians, and if we continue making policy choices that favor a lack of coverage or don’t do anything to improve coverage, and accessibility and affordability, then what we understand is going to happen is that we have a less healthy workforce, and ultimately that will lead to a less healthy Georgia economy,” Crawford said.
‘This is not a health care fight’
Greene stands out for her willingness to talk about the expiring health care subsidies. Her Georgia Republican colleagues have instead focused on ramping up pressure on Democrats to support the GOP spending plan.
Georgia Republicans sent a letter to Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff this week demanding they “set aside partisan politics” and “join us in reopening the government.” They accused Senate Democrats of refusing to pass a “clean, continuing resolution” that the House has already approved and of holding Georgia families and farmers hostage.
Rep. Mike Collins, a U.S. Senate candidate speaking Tuesday at a Georgia Republican event in Cumming, insisted that the debate is “not about a health care fight” but solely about passing a “clean CR” to fund the government, arguing that if Democrats want to argue about health care, they can “bring that up on its own.”
“This is not a health care fight. That’s not where you have this fight. Right now, this is a funding bill. Simple,” he said.
Rep. Austin Scott said in a statement Thursday that “the Democrat argument to shut the government down over ACA subsidies is nothing more than an excuse,” and pointed to funding bills House Republicans passed in September that he argued would keep the government open until November while negotiations continue.
“They knew well over a month ago they were going to shut the government down to try and teach President Trump a lesson. The bottom line is they hate Trump more than they care about the American people,” Scott said.
‘We’re not bending the knee’
Democrats, meanwhile, are unified in blaming the Republican leadership for creating the crisis. Rep. Hank Johnson, led the Georgia Democratic delegation in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to call the House back to Washington “to engage in good-faith bipartisan efforts to address these issues.”
“Our constituents get up each morning and come to work. With Georgians’ health care on the line and government funding expired, they expect the same from the Members of Congress who represent them,” he wrote to Johnson.
Rep. Lucy McBath, speaking at a press conference in Atlanta Thursday, insisted the shutdown is “not a government shutdown of our making,” but because Republicans refuse to negotiate.
“We have wanted a bipartisan funding bill. We’ve been waiting, trying to get the Republicans to come to the table to negotiate, but they refuse. What they have given us is a take it or leave it,” McBath said.
McBath rejected the view that health care is a secondary issue in the government funding debate, a position some of her Republican colleagues, like Collins, have taken. She added that the issue is central to the nation’s economy, arguing that if people are not healthy, they cannot work, and “if they can’t work, they’re not a vital part of this economy.”
She said Democrats are ready to “stand (their) ground.”
“I cannot predict how long this will last, but we have to stand our ground to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to give as much information and prepare people as to what is about to happen with the expiration of these tax credits. We’re not bending the knee, and we’re not kissing the ring,” she said.
