On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) said he doesn’t support extended Obamacare subsidies for a year with reforms and doesn’t think more conservative members support that. He also stated that Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) and President Donald Trump “need to come up with something that I think can garner enough support that, once again, the White House can put their full effort behind and make the case to members that this is, again, a short gap kind of extension that could get us to a different place” on Obamacare.
Fitzgerald said, “There [are] about 35, maybe they’re up to 40 members, a bipartisan group, that, on Thursday, kind of launched this idea that a one-year extension that includes some reforms might be the way to go. I can tell you, right now, I still do not support that, and I’m not aware of some of my more conservative friends that have examined that program are there or even close to that.”
He continued, “So, we’re in a place right now where the Speaker and the President of the United States need to come up with something that I think can garner enough support that, once again, the White House can put their full effort behind and make the case to members that this is, again, a short gap kind of extension that could get us to a different place on the Affordable [Care] Act, but that has not happened yet. And the clock is ticking. We know that we’ve got two more weeks here to kind of pull this together. I think all the members understand that. We do not want to go anywhere near another shutdown. So, with all that being said, I think the next two weeks are critical.”
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