By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

As the ongoing government shutdown enters its third week, Republican leaders are reminding Democrats that by blocking the House-passed funding bill, they are also delaying progress on the very health care policies that they claim are at stake.

Democratic senators have blocked Republicans’ clean Continuing Resolution seven times now. The bill would only extend government funding for the next seven weeks, buying time for lawmakers to finish the regular annual appropriations process.

But Democrats argue that any funding agreement should include health care policy riders to prevent the pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare Premium Tax Credits from expiring in December.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Democrats are essentially shooting themselves in the foot by prolonging the government shutdown over demands for health care concessions, rather than keeping the government open so that Congress can actually hammer out health care policy.

“They don’t really want a negotiation, it’s just a talking point,” Johnson told reporters Monday. “We have to fix health care in America, and we have ideas to do it. But we have to have government open and operating to do that. I cannot snap my fingers and go in a back room with [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer and say ‘oh, here’s the magic fix for it.’ That’s not how it’s going to work.”

Johnson echoed President Donald Trump’s view that American health care needs “dramatic reform,” and that any Obamacare subsidy deal with Democrats must take that into account.

“Let’s just state it simply: Obamacare failed the American people,” the Speaker said. “It was promised to be a great success, to make health care more affordable. It’s done exactly the opposite.”

He added that he is “skeptical” that Republicans can repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but said his party has “probably a hundred different ideas” on how to reform Obamacare.

“You can’t just rip it out at the roots and start over … It takes a long time to build consensus in a legislative body to do those kinds of things,” Johnson said. “We can’t do that overnight. That requires the month of October, and probably part of November to get the consensus built around that.”

The last time the government shut down occurred nearly seven years ago, and it lasted a record 35 days. Monday marks the 13th day of the current shutdown.