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greg casar
‘Reality Breaking Through,’ Says Casar, as MTG Scolds Fellow Republicans Over Healthcare
"Not a single Republican in leadership... has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!" wrote MAGA firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Oct 07, 2025
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar said Tuesday that "reality" was finally starting to hit some Republicans in Congress about the catastrophic results of reopening the government without a plan to extend tax credits that help tens of millions of Americans afford healthcare.
The government shut down this past Wednesday after Democrats refused to vote for a GOP funding bill that did not extend Biden-era subsidies for the more than 24 million Americans who purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace.
Republicans did not vote to extend the subsidies in July's One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). And if they are allowed to expire at the end of 2025, KFF estimates that the average recipient's insurance premiums will more than double, from $888 to $1,906 per year, which will result in about 4 million people losing their insurance due to unaffordability, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
This is on top of the roughly 10 million expected to lose insurance coverage due to the GOP's massive cuts to Medicaid and other ACA marketplace spending in the Republican budget law.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have maintained that they would not negotiate on extending the subsidies unless Democrats vote to reopen the government, thereby sacrificing their main point of leverage.
But while many Republicans have hoped to divert attention from the wildly unpopular subsidy cuts to instead push the false narrative that Democrats are pushing for "free healthcare for illegal aliens," one of the most outspoken members of the MAGA coalition put her own party's leaders on blast Monday for their apparent willingness to let millions face higher healthcare costs.
In a blistering post on X, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that while she was "not a fan" of the ACA and blamed it for "skyrocketing premiums," she was "going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children's insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hardworking people in my district."
"No, I'm not [toeing] the party line on this, or playing loyalty games," Greene continued. "I'm carving my own lane. And I'm absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year."
Greene lamented that "not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!"
She then turned her attention to the tens of billions of dollars worth of military aid sent to Israel and Ukraine in recent years: "All our country does is fund foreign countries and foreign wars, and never does anything to help the American people!!!"
Johnson brushed off Greene's attack, noting that she "does not serve on the committees of jurisdiction to deal with those specialized issues, and she’s probably not read that in on some of that, because it’s still been sort of in their silos of the people who specialize in those issues."
But Casar described Greene's post as evidence that Republicans were beginning to recognize the hardship their policy may have wrought.
" Mike Johnson hasn't picked a fight with Democrats—he's picked a fight with reality," Casar said. "Here's reality breaking through."
While hardly toning down her conspiracy theorizing or her attacks on immigrants and transgender people, Greene has taken some notable stands against her party, as well as President Donald Trump, on some key issues in recent months. These have included opposing additional weapons aid for Israel's war in Gaza, which she has described as a "genocide," and the full release of the Epstein files, which Trump and other Republicans have seemed intent on burying.
But she may not be the only Republican for whom the reality of the GOP's healthcare cuts is "breaking through." On Monday, Trump told reporters gathered at the Oval Office: "We have a negotiation going on with the Democrats that could lead to good things... And I'm talking about good things with regard to healthcare."
Asked if he'd be willing to extend the expiring subsidies, Trump said: "If we made the right deal, I'd make a deal. Sure," adding that "we're talking to the Democrats."
The top House and Senate Democrats denied talking to Trump, and the president did not specify which party members he's allegedly talking to. But it nevertheless marked a notable shift in tone from the week before, when Trump responded to Democrats' healthcare demands with derisive, artificially generated sombrero memes and top congressional Republicans swore off any negotiations unless Democrats agreed to fund the government first.
Other Republicans have joined calls for the subsidies to be extended, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who told reporters: "You've got to do something to make sure the premiums don't essentially double, which they will in my state for private insurance. I mean, we just can't allow that to happen. That's a lot of Missourians who will not be able to afford healthcare."
Hawley notably raised similar concerns about the OBBBA's cuts to Medicaid earlier this year but ultimately voted for the legislation.
Nevertheless, the rhetorical change from some Republicans may have something to do with public opinion on the tax credits.
A poll released Friday by KFF found that 78% of Americans want Congress to extend the credits, compared to just 22% of Americans who want to let the credits expire. These majorities extend across the political spectrum, including 92% of Democrats, 82% of independents, and even 57% of Republicans who identify themselves as part of Trump's MAGA movement.
The same poll found that if the tax credits are not extended, about 4 in 10 adults would blame Trump, while another 4 in 10 would blame Republicans in Congress. Just 2 in 10 would blame Democrats.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Tuesday that waiting to extend the subsidies until after the shutdown ends is not an option.
"Mike Johnson wants to kick the can down the road when it comes to addressing skyrocketing premiums—but this is a crisis right now," Jayapal said. "Now is the time to negotiate to lower costs—not after millions have been kicked off their healthcare."
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Progressives Organize 'Shutdown Showdown' to Defend Healthcare From Trump and GOP
"Republicans could end this Trump Shutdown today by passing a deal that averts the massive spike in healthcare costs," said a co-director of Indivisible. "They need to feel heat from their constituents."
Oct 02, 2025
Progressive activist groups and legislators have launched a new effort to pressure Congress to reach a deal to end the government shutdown that protects healthcare programs from brutal budget cuts.
The government officially shut down on Wednesday after Republicans refused Democrats' demands to reverse cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) spending from July's GOP megabill that, if allowed to go into effect, are expected to result in around 15 million Americans losing their health insurance coverage over the next decade.
On the first evening of the shutdown, over 18,000 people joined a conference call organized by a coalition of advocacy groups, including Public Citizen, MoveOn, Working Families Power, and Indivisible. Also in attendance were Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and vice chair Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
"We know that we are already in a broken healthcare system in this nation," Frost told the thousands of attendees. "Not only do they not want to do anything to fix the problems we have, they are making it worse."
Video: MoveOn
"We want to reopen this shutdown government and restore healthcare back to the American people," Casar said. "But House Republicans are nowhere to be found. I'm here in Washington, DC, and those House Republicans fled on vacation."
The hosts urged attendees to call their Republican senators and make them aware of their responsibility for the shutdown and the loss of healthcare that millions of their constituents may soon face.
They also singled out certain Senate Democrats, such as Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) and Catherine Cortez-Masto (Nev.), who voted to advance the GOP's continuing resolution despite the lack of benefits on healthcare, for "siding with [President] Donald Trump."
"We can do this," said movement organizer Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson. "We can put the pressure on that forces the Democratic Party to have a backbone and the Republicans to prioritize people over profit."
The groups have dozens of events planned over the coming days as part of what they have called the "Shutdown Showdown" campaign, including rallies and demonstrations outside the offices of Republican lawmakers.
“Trump and congressional Republicans control a federal government trifecta; they are responsible for ending the shutdown," said Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible. "We don’t know how long this shutdown is going to last."
He said Republicans "need to feel heat from their constituents to actually sit down and negotiate with the Democrats. That’s where we come in.”
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Largest Caucus in House Endorses Bill to Block US Bombs to Israel
"The United States cannot continue to send bombs we know will be used to commit terrible atrocities in Gaza."
Sep 21, 2025
The Congressional Progressive Caucus over the weekend officially endorsed a bill that would block the sale of many offensive US weapons to Israel. This move coincides with growing outrage from US voters from across the political spectrum who say they have seen enough of American complicity with the genocidal humanitarian blockade and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
"The United States cannot continue to send bombs we know will be used to commit terrible atrocities in Gaza,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the CPC, the largest single caucus in Congress, with nearly one hundred members.
The Block the Bombs Act, first introduced in May by Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) and now backed by 49 co-sponsors, calls for a prohibition on the sale of a variety of US weapons and a limitation on military services to the Israeli government, accused of committing a genocide in Gaza.
The vote by the caucus, which took place Saturday and was first reported by Zeteo, marks a historic shift—even for the most progressive group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill—that provides "a significant boost to efforts to hold Israel accountable for its genocidal war in Gaza."
While the CPC acknowledged that the legislation, H.R. 3565, "targets the most destructive and indiscriminate weapons systems, such as BLU-109 bunker buster bombs, 2,000-pound bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), 120mm tank rounds, and 155mm artillery shells," it does not put restrictions on what it terms "defensive systems," such the Iron Dome missile shield.
"Netanyahu and Trump are a lethal, unaccountable, extremist duo," said Ramirez in a statement on Sunday. “The Block the Bombs bill is the first step toward oversight and accountability for the murder of children with U.S.-made, taxpayer-funded weapons. In the face of authoritarian leaders perpetrating a genocidal campaign, Block the Bombs is the minimum action Congress must take. I am proud to be part of a caucus of progressive leaders who are challenging policies that destroy life, rob our children of futures, or dehumanize our neighbors."
Last week, despite a finding just earlier by the UN Commission of Inquiry that Israel is, in fact, perpetrating genocide in Gaza, the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, now undergoing a famine in which hundreds of people—young people and old—have died of starvation and otherwise preventable disease.
In a Saturday op-ed on Common Dreams, Peace Action president Kevin Martin said it's way beyond time for the US to end its arming of Israel, and he heralded Ramirez's bill, though not perfect, as the best vehicle in the moment for doing that.
"The bill is as close as we have to a de facto arms embargo on Israel," argued Martin, "as it would ban transfers of seven specific offensive weapons systems, from bunker-busting bombs to tank ammunition to white phosphorus artillery munitions.
"The Biden Administration’s support for Israel was bad, but predictably, Trump has been worse, accelerating transfers of bombs and guns with monolithic Republican," argued Martin, "and far too much Democratic, support, in spite of Israel’s clear violations of U.S. and international law in its mass killing of civilians and denial of life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza."
DropSite News co-founder Ryan Grim emphasized the historic nature of the vote in a social media post following Saturday's news.
“Historically, the CPC had resisted weighing in at all on Israel because so many of its members were ‘progressive except for Palestine,'" said Grim.
"That era is fading," he added, "this endorsement is a major signal."
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