Marjorie Taylor Greene calls on Johnson to bring House back to DC and rails on GOP handling of health care

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene broke sharply with her party leaders on Wednesday as they tried to project a united front in the deepening standoff with Democrats over health care and the government shutdown, calling on Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the House back into session and warning that Americans would be hammered by higher costs if her party doesn’t help right the ship.

Greene, a staunchly conservative Georgia Republican, warned that her party would face backlash from voters if rising health care costs are not addressed, underscoring the growing rift between the prominent Trump ally and GOP leaders.

“Everyone’s just getting destroyed,” Greene told CNN in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview from her House office. “Look, Democrats, you created this mess. Republicans, you have no solutions. You haven’t come up with a new plan in place, and we’re not even talking about it, and it is hurting so many people.”

The issue is front-and-center in the feud over the government shutdown, with Democrats demanding an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that were bolstered during the Covid-19 pandemic to help families pay for health insurance. The loss of those subsidies, set to expire at year’s end, are expected to drive up health care premiums — and Democrats say they must be dealt with immediately as a condition for their votes to reopen the government.

Republicans say those negotiations must wait until after Democrats support a straight extension to fund the government until November 21. Johnson says he won’t bring the House back into session until Senate Democrats vote for the stopgap bill, which the House passed last month.

Greene said that Johnson’s approach is a mistake.

“I think he should really bring the House back in session for many reasons,” Greene said, lamenting that the regular appropriations process and important meetings between members, including on health care, are on hold. “Any serious speaker of the House is going to build consensus within his conference behind a plan. It’s not something secret that gets worked on in a committee.”

“This cliff is coming for millions and millions of Americans where their health insurance premiums are about to skyrocket, so put your money where your mouth is,” she said, while calling for broader changes to the nation’s health care policy as she contended that the Obama-era Affordable Care Act drove up her family’s health care costs dramatically.

Greene’s comments are the latest in a series of steps she’s taken that have isolated her from her party’s leadership — and the White House. An outspoken critic of Ukraine, she has also ratcheted up her criticism of Israel and called the Gaza war a “genocide.” And she’s one of a handful of Republicans trying to force a full House vote to seek the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, while urging Trump to meet with the victims of the late convicted sex offender, saying it would be a “good thing to hear their personal stories.”

Asked if Trump was straying from MAGA principles, Greene said: “I’d never speak on behalf of the president, but I don’t think he’s always getting the best advice.”

“I very much support the president, but I also work for my district, and I made that clear over and over again, that’s who has voted for me,” she added, pointing out that her district will be “crushed” by high health insurance premiums.

But Greene also made clear she didn’t think her party was winning the PR war over the shutdown, criticizing the GOP for pinning the blame squarely on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer without trying to cut a deal themselves.

“I think the politics are terrible,” Greene told CNN. “I don’t think anyone is sitting at home going, ‘Oh, this is great. The Republicans and Democrats have the government shut down, and they’re not discussing anything to fix it.’ Democrats are saying, ‘Continue to grow the debt with ACA tax credits’, and Republicans are just … calling it a Schumer shutdown, so I don’t think anybody is winning here, and I think it’s failure, and I personally don’t like it.”