MTG Takes a Page from McCain’s Playbook: Caving on Obamacare

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG) on Monday broke with President Trump on the government shutdown and caved on Democrats’ demand to extend expanded Obamacare subsidies imposed by President Biden. In a post on X, Greene admitted that she would vote to expand Obamacare because her “own adult children’s” premiums would allegedly go up. She wants taxpayers to foot the bill.

Ironically, in a 60 Minutes interview just a few years ago, MTG said that the very reason she ran for Congress was seeing the, “House and the Senate completely fail to deliver the agenda that we had all voted for,” citing the failure to repeal Obamacare as a prime example. “They failed us,” she declared.

MTG’s choice to endorse the expansion of Obamacare is deeply troubling and betrays our conservative base. Extending the expanded Obamacare subsidies would make our healthcare system worse – sticking taxpayers with $450 billion more in debt, increasing premiums for all consumers in the long-term, and encouraging widespread fraud.

This, of course, wouldn’t be the first time a self-proclaimed conservative Republican caved to protect government-run healthcare. While reading through MTG’s post, one can’t help but shudder at the memory of John McCain’s “thumbs down” vote against Obamacare repeal.

That day, John McCain betrayed President Trump and the entire GOP base, who fervently stands against government-run healthcare. Since then, Obamacare has continued to prove itself disastrous, driving higher healthcare costs and skyrocketing premiums. Today, even with this additional evidence, MTG and other lawmakers already looking to cave on this issue are 1) betraying President Trump by giving cover to Democrats during a contentious shutdown and 2) betraying the American people by buttressing the very program driving healthcare unaffordability and offering no solutions.

In the American Rescue Plan (ARP), President Biden and congressional Democrats expanded Obamacare subsidies by increasing benefits for households at every income level and expanding them to households earning more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). These expanded subsidies were then extended through 2025 in the Inflation Reduction Act. The expanded version of the premium tax credit expires at the end of the year – not the PTC established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Notably, roughly half of new enrollees would not have been eligible under the original ACA framework, as their incomes exceed the 400 percent federal poverty level. This includes those making over $500,000 per year. The expansion caused an explosion of the Obamacare marketplace – enrollment rose from 11 million to 2021 to over 24 million by earlier this year. Now, Democrats and “Republicans” like MTG want to extend or make permanent this bloated version of Obamacare.

For fiscal conservatives, this cycle has become exhausting. Government creates a high-cost program/an expansion of a program with the goal of “affordability,” thus undercutting the free market. Program fails its goal of affordability, instead drives prices higher, as companies are given free license to raise their prices because the government is subsidizing it. Program creators insist we must, again, expand the program to address affordability in the face of higher prices.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Traditionally, Republicans have seen through this ruse. When it comes to the subsidization of college tuition, clean energy, etc., our coalition universally recognizes that more subsidies lead to ballooning costs. Unsurprisingly, some don’t keep the same energy with healthcare-related subsidies. After all, Democrats erroneously accuse anyone trying to bring economic sanity to healthcare of wanting to “kill babies.” As the adults in the room, it’s important to be clear: these universal, economic dynamics apply to healthcare too.

With that understood, the expanded Obamacare subsidies have encouraged insurance companies to raise their premium prices. A CBO report confirmed that premiums for exchange plans are rising more quickly than originally anticipated. When the government subsidizes the cost of anything, sellers inevitably raise their prices. The government will pay for it, after all. As a result, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on this expansion are going straight to insurers, not to patients. While some Americans may be concerned about premiums going up in the short term, removing the incentive for insurers to continue raising their prices will save patients money in the long run.

Because of these rising prices, the cost of the expanded Obamacare subsidies is massive. According to the Congressional Budget Office, expanding the subsidies would cost around $35 billion per year, or $350 billion over the next decade. As the Economic Policy Innovation Center detailed, “resulting increases in net interest costs would add another $64 billion, for a total cost of $448 billion over the FY 2026 to 2035 period.” The cost of premium tax credits was already colossal – costing taxpayers $1 trillion over 10 years. It is unacceptable for a “temporary” expansion to raise that cost by roughly 45 percent.

American taxpayers “accepted” these high prices because the expanded Obamacare subsidies were always supposed to be temporary. At the time they were passed, the American people were assured that the expanded premium tax credits were a necessary and temporary response to the global pandemic. Four years later, we have moved on from the pandemic, but taxpayers are still on the hook for rising premiums, including for those making over $500,000 per year.

A relatively low number of Americans – 6 percent – receive premium tax credits. As mentioned earlier, about 24 million people are enrolled in the Obamacare marketplace. Of those, roughly 21.8 million people receive PTCs. Thus, only around 6 percent of the U.S. population may find themselves directly affected by the expiration of these subsidies.

The PTC will still be intact for those making under 400 percent of the FPL: individuals making under $62,600 annually ($5,216 a month) or, for example, a household of four making under $128,600 annually ($10,716 a month). Notably, the standards for enrollment were quite generous to begin with.  

Despite the enrollment numbers being a relatively low percentage of the population, even that number should be taken with a grain of salt – lax verification during the Biden expansion enabled millions to qualify improperly. The Paragon Health Institute estimated that 6.4 million Americans are improperly enrolled in Obamacare exchanges, a number that surged by more than one-quarter from 2024 to 2025. This level of improper enrollment, which is likely an underestimation, will cost taxpayers up to $27 billion this year.

As Paragon details in their report, after the PTC expansion, there was a surge in enrollment and high-than-ever insurer profits, with many of these enrollees “ineligible, unaware they were signed up, or never [having] used their plan.” This mirrors Paragon’s research regarding phantom Obamacare enrollees, finding that “a staggering 40 percent of enrollees in 94 percent actuarial value silver plans and bronze plans had no medical claims in 2024.” No doctor visits, services received, or prescriptions filled.

The massive cost of this expansion not only puts our country further in debt, but these federal dollars are going straight to insurance companies, not patients, who now have little incentive to keep their costs low. The expanded subsidies have encouraged rampant fraud and are putting taxpayers on the hook for high-income earners’ payments.

MTG’s betrayal of her stated principles is disappointing. Lawmakers who consider themselves fiscal hawks and defenders of the free market must reject this approach.