House Speaker Mike Johnson spent this week drawing a sharp line in the sand as Congress raced to avert a shutdown before the September 30 funding deadline, publicly rebuking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for trying to stuff Democrats’ healthcare wishlist into a short-term continuing resolution. Johnson made clear — in interviews and on the House floor — that Republicans will not fund open-ended expansions of federal healthcare that reward illegal immigration, insisting the stopgap is to keep the lights on, not rewrite policy. The GOP plan would extend funding only through November 21, giving Congress time to finish negotiations without capitulating to partisanship.
Good. Responsible conservatives welcome a clean, temporary funding bill that focuses on national security and basic operations instead of turning every appropriations fight into a vehicle for left-wing policy wins. Democrats’ insistence on making Affordable Care Act premium tax credits permanent inside a CR is a classic bait-and-switch: use a must-pass funding bill to impose costly, long-term socialized-healthcare subsidies. Washington can’t be allowed to weaponize routine governance to force taxpayers into permanent new obligations.
Schumer’s posture — demanding health-policy riders in a stopgap — is political theater dressed up as urgency. Democrats are pushing a counterproposal that would extend subsidies and reverse recent policy shifts, turning a short-term fiscal patch into a policy bill with massive price tags and future entitlements. Voters who value fiscal sanity and the rule of law should see this for what it is: an attempt to leverage a government-funding cliff into permanent giveaways.
Speaker Johnson is right to say that big policy fights belong in the proper legislative process, not jammed into emergency funding to score headlines. The GOP CR includes sensible, targeted priorities like security funding for Congress and the judiciary, and short-term extensions for essential programs, not open-ended entitlement expansions. That kind of restraint is what voters expect from responsible leaders who take the oath to protect taxpayers and uphold the law.
Republicans should not be intimidated by Democratic brinkmanship or media shrieks about manufactured crises; passing a clean, short-term CR preserves continuity without surrender. If conservatives fold every time Democrats weaponize emotion around healthcare, they will concede policymaking to the left for good and institutionalize fiscal irresponsibility. Johnson’s insistence on saving policy debates for their proper time — including pushing contentious ACA questions to a December debate — is the kind of backbone the country needs.
Now is the moment for conservatives in Washington to stand firm, defend taxpayers, and say no to pay-for-play politics that rewards illegal immigration with new benefits. Law and order, fiscal prudence, and policy integrity can and should be preserved even as we keep the government working; that is the conservative, common-sense answer to Democratic overreach. Hold the line, demand transparency, and don’t let a clean stopgap become a backdoor victory for the left.
