In a completely unexpected move yesterday, Marjorie Taylor Green just took to Twitter, issuing the following blow to Trump, Mike Johnson, and the rest of the GOP struggling to find their footing as Americans blamed them for the ongoing government shutdown over healthcare.
She wrote,
“I was not in Congress when all this Obamacare affordable care act started. I got here in 2021. As a matter of fact, the ACA made health insurance unaffordable for my family after it was passed with skyrocketing premiums higher than our house payment. Let’s just say as nicely as possible, I’m not a fan.
But I’m 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 towing the party line on this or playing loyalty games.
I’m a Republican and won’t vote for illegals to have any taxpayer funded healthcare or benefits. I’m America only. I’m carving my own lane. And I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will double if the tax credits expire this year. Also, I think health insurance and all insurance is a scam. Just to be clear, 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.”
Free Healthcare is NOT given to undocumented immigrants
Now, there are obviously some problematic elements of this, like this mistaken notion that even a dime of ACA subsidies or any federal funding for healthcare goes toward undocumented immigrants. But that notwithstanding, when even Margie Taylor Green is able to read the tea leaves and acknowledge the objective reality about her own party’s position, it becomes clear that they are losing the plot.
Everyone agrees healthcare premiums should not double
And look, we should all welcome any and all voices who agree with us that healthcare premiums should not double. But the reality is that Green is simply following the very obvious polling on this issue.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation polling, Americans want Congress to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act credits by a staggering 78% to 22% margin. Nearly eight in 10 Americans side with the Democrats here. And the reason why is beyond simple.
If Republicans get their way, the ACA subsidies will expire at the end of this year. And that means for the 24 million Americans who get their health care through the ACA marketplace, prices will increase as much as four times what they are right now. Four times more expensive.
Senator Waro has been sharing screen grabs from his constituents showing the difference between 2025 and 2026 prices. One tweet showed, for example, that $37 turns into $964. Another one shows $228 turning into $1,142.
So unless your entire identity is just blindly supporting Trump’s every whim or just trafficking and trade chaos, I cannot imagine who is out there rooting for healthcare prices to go through the roof. What’s even more striking though is that Green’s comments come as Mike Johnson acting per usual as a puppet for dear leader came out and said this.
So they created a red herring. A red herring is a distraction. They decided that they would pick a fight on healthcare. Let me look right into the camera and tell you very clearly, Republicans are the ones concerned about healthcare. Republicans are the party working around the clock every day to fix health care. This is not talking points for us. We’ve done it.
A big part of the one Big Beautiful Bill, the working families tax cut, was to fix healthcare. Healthcare is broken in America. It’s too expensive. The the quality of care needs to rise. We need more access for more people and we have lots of ideas to do that. But that issue is for debate in the next few three months. It always was. We have members working on that.
Right. Mike, when even Margie Taylor Green is able to call you out on this I’m not sure who you think you’re convincing. Also, I’m sorry, but Republicans are the ones who fixed healthcare. And he points to the big beautiful bill as proof. What planet is this guy living on? The one big beautiful bill cut a trillion dollars from health care so that the wealthiest Americans could get a tax cut.
17 million Americans are going to lose Medicaid as the result of this bill. Rural hospitals are already shutting down as the result of this bill. Republicans have fixed health care like Donald Trump has fixed his grifting problem.
In fact, think about the reputation that Republicans have built for themselves over the last 15 years on healthcare. They tried to repeal the ACA a staggering 77 times. 77 times. They they filed lawsuits to strip the ACA provision protecting coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. They’ve allowed the insurance marketplace to be flooded with junk programs that undermine the stability of the entire marketplace.
Americans Trust Democrats on Healthcare
There is a reason that Americans consistently trust Democrats more than Republicans on healthcare. It is because Republicans have broadcast on a daily basis that one of their core beliefs is that Americans are not entitled to any healthcare.
Margie Taylor Green’s defection here is evidence of yet another phenomenon at play here. And that is that it’s not just Democrats who he’s hurting. In fact, it is disproportionately Republicans who stand to be hurt by what Donald Trump is doing.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, enrollment in marketplace plans reached 24.3 million for 2025, up from 11.5 million in 2020. That’s growth of 113% for those 5 years. Almost all states have seen some level of increase since 2020. However, there are six states where enrollment more than tripled and all were won by President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
The highest increases were in Texas and Mississippi where enrollment grew by 255% and 242% respectively. In Louisiana and West Virginia, enrollment increased by 234% while Georgia saw an increase of 227%. Enrollment rose in Tennessee by 221%.
Overall, the study found that enrollment grew by 157% on average in states won by Trump, while it increased by an average of 36% in states carried by former Vice President Kala Harris.
Enrollment on the exchanges has more than doubled in 20 states since 2020, according to the report. In other words, Donald Trump is trying to screw over Republicans in need of healthcare all because he wants to make this into a pretend fight against the Democrats when in reality he is screwing over his own voters.
And while Trump’s not willing to admit it, and Mike Johnson isn’t willing to admit it, and most of Republicans in elected office aren’t willing to admit it, you better believe that Americans in their states and districts, even those who vote for Republicans, are going to feel it. Apparently, Margie Taylor Green is the only Republican with enough common sense on this issue to acknowledge as much.
So, why are Republicans so hellbent on burying their heads in the sand? Two reasons. First, Trump views any capitulation as weakness, and there is nothing worse than weakness as far as he’s concerned. So, because he’s already planted his flag on this hill, he’s going to go to the mat for it. Will he eventually reverse course? Possibly, when things get bad enough, and they are getting bad enough. But for the moment, he’s going to do what he always does and go scorched earth.
But second, destroying this program and undermining trust in the government more broadly isn’t some unfortunate byproduct for the Republican party. It is quite literally the goal. I spoke with Bernie Sanders about exactly that phenomenon. Here’s what he had to say.
“The major goal here uh as part of Trump’s big beautiful bill, which is what we’re talking about, was to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1%. All right, that was the main thing. And that has to do with a corrupt campaign finance system.
Elon Musk puts 290 million into Trump’s campaign. Other billionaires put money into Trump’s campaign, Republican campaigns. They want to be repaid. And the way you repay them is through massive tax breaks. So that’s number one.
Number two, it is no secret that Republicans do not like public insurance programs. Right? Over the years, they’ve tried to privatize Social Security. They want to privatize Medicare. They want to privatize Medicaid. They want to privatize the Veterans Administration.”
So, you got a twofer here. If you cut back on funding for Medicaid, you can give tax breaks to the very rich and move along toward the privatization of public health in general. So, keep an eye on what happens next because Republicans are very clearly losing the plot. The American people are defecting and now their own members are defecting. Time will tell how long the rest of the GOP will continue to shoot themselves in the foot all because they’re too afraid to say one ill word of Donald Trump.