Led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Democrats are poised to shut down the federal government in the coming days, refusing to pass a seven-week stopgap funding bill to the Senate floor unless Republicans agree to a $1.4 trillion wish list. 

Yes, Democrats are demanding that the GOP pass one of the most expensive spending bills in United States history, in exchange for funding the government for a singular month. A “deal” like this should be dead on arrival, but some Republicans have entertained negotiations with Democrats, signaling a willingness to make Joe Biden’s COVID-era Obamacare tax credits permanent — a $448 billion concession.

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Layered on top of already generous subsidies that are not going away, these Biden-era handouts force taxpayers to foot the bill for fully subsidized health care for more than nine million Obamacare recipients. Not a single Republican has ever voted for these subsidies or to extend them. None should do so now. Democrats themselves couldn’t even secure support within their own ranks to make these subsidies permanent. In fact, former Senator Joe Manchin opposed their inclusion in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, citing fiscal concerns.

The question now is whether Republicans will draw a clear line in the sand or settle for a position no stronger than Joe Manchin’s. In November, the people gave President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress a clear mandate to deliver on the conservative agenda. I can promise you that Biden’s subsidies do not fit the bill. 

It is incumbent upon us to actually do the work of the people and restore some semblance of fiscal responsibility. And the best part is, in this case, doing so requires us to do nothing at all: Republicans must simply allow Joe Biden’s disastrous temporary subsidies to expire.

Much like our fight to restore work requirements in Medicaid — a deeply popular and common-sense policy — Republicans again have the opportunity to take a principled conservative stand to protect taxpayers in the face of fabricated pressure campaigns. Dubious polling pushed by Democrats and insurance lobbyists suggests that the midterms could be a bloodbath for Republicans if they allow Biden’s COVID subsidies to expire. “Premiums will double,” they say. “Millions will lose coverage.”

Here’s the reality.

42% of Obamacare enrollees are on fully subsidized plans as of 2024. Another 28% pay a premium of $50 or less. When Biden’s subsidies expire, the average enrollee (someone earning 200 percent of the federal poverty level) will only have to pay $32 a week for a plan — about the cost of a median DoorDash order. Someone earning 100% of the poverty level would only have to pay $3.45 — the cost for a cup of coffee.

Even without Biden’s COVID subsidies, taxpayers will still cover 80% of the typical enrollee’s premium —up from 68% in 2014. That’s because Obamacare subsidies cap what enrollees pay, fully insulating them from rising healthcare costs and shifting costs directly onto taxpayers.

If Republicans cave to the Left’s demands, it will be entirely clear that generous taxpayer-funded pandemic healthcare subsidies will be here to stay; almost four million Americans will lose their employer coverage, crowded out by artificially low government-backed premiums. 

Free market principles be damned.

This, of course, doesn’t even scratch the surface of the systematically broken Biden subsidies, which cost taxpayers $30 billion annually in improper payments. Biden’s Covid-19 credits are direct cash payments from the United States Treasury to health insurers. Every customer is a fresh check, providing a direct incentive for insurance brokers to collect as many enrollees as possible, often without their knowledge. With $0 premium plans becoming widely available, many enrollees never see a bill.

In 2024 alone, nearly 12 million enrollees filed no claims. Between 2021 and 2024, the number of zero-claim enrollees tripled. As a result, taxpayers sent tens of billions of dollars to insurers even though no care had ever been given. 

Is it our position that taxpayer money is best spent on corporate welfare for insurance companies that provide nothing in return? Do we earnestly believe that the American taxpayer will look favorably upon us for layering more waste, fraud, and abuse on an already broken healthcare system? 

The truth is that when Americans are actually presented with the facts of the issue at hand, polling shows the majority of Americans want Congress to let these subsidies expire. So let them. 

If Democrats want to hold the government hostage because we refuse to burden taxpayers with another trillion-dollar list of demands that would erase all the progress Republicans have made over the past eight months, let them.

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Republicans were not sent to Washington to rubber-stamp Joe Biden’s COVID-era policies, allowing inflation to spiral further out of control. Our broken healthcare system does deserve attention, but monthly subsidy checks to insurance companies while shifting rising healthcare costs onto taxpayers isn’t “making health care more affordable.”

If politicians are genuinely interested in raising the living standards of Americans, spending measures that pile more debt onto the backs of working families, suppress free market competition, and incentivize government dependency shouldn’t even be entertained.

Rep. Eric Burlison represents Missouri’s 7th congressional district in the United States Congress.