The GOP’s health care woes: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC news Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, our Capitol Hill team reports on how congressional Republicans appear no closer to finding consensus on a health care deal. Plus, Andrea Mitchell breaks down the latest from the talks to end the war in Ukraine.

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— Adam Wollner

Republicans struggle to agree on a health care plan

By Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur and Kyle Stewart

House Republicans are vowing to vote on a health care plan next week before go home for the holidays. They just can’t agree on what should be in it.

Insurance premiums are set to skyrocket for millions of Americans in the New Year, if Congress fails to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire on Dec. 31.

Bowing to conservatives, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his leadership team are moving forward with a proposal that wouldn’t extend those subsidies, but would instead offer Americans some funds to defray health care costs.

Meanwhile, Republicans facing tough races in next year’s midterms say any health package moving forward must be bipartisan and extend the subsidies.

Facing the looming deadline, Republicans are under enormous pressure to vote on a health plan to insulate their party from Democratic attacks over rising health insurance premiums and protect their fragile House and Senate majorities. But there’s little agreement on how to proceed.

“The consensus is we need to come up with something,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said after a closed-door GOP meeting on the health issue.

Inside the room, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, stood up and warned that Republicans need to include some sort of extension of the ACA funding in their plan alongside conservative reforms, according to a source with knowledge of his remarks.

If they exclude the ACA money, Jordan warned that GOP moderates will team up with Democrats and force a bill to a vote through a discharge petition, which means the right would achieve even less.

Johnson said he plans to hold a floor vote on a GOP plan next week, just before lawmakers depart for a two-week recess. Among the ideas House Republicans discussed in a closed-door meeting today were an expansion of health savings accounts and funding cost-sharing reductions.

Read more →

Ukraine at a crossroads

Analysis by Andrea Mitchell

European leaders are reeling after the Trump administration turned 80 years of the transatlantic alliance on its head, issuing a new national security document that describes European allies as a greater threat than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

After months of disdaining European countries as national security freeloaders — including during that infamous Signal chat that was unwittingly shared with a journalist — the State Department made it official. In a new national security document, the U.S. indicated that Europe should be responsible for its own defense, suggesting a massive leak in America’s post-World War II security umbrella to defend fellow NATO members.

The document also declared U.S. support for far-right nationalist movements challenging centrist European governments, which European Union leaders see as interfering in their domestic politics. It confirms an ideological vision first unveiled by Vice President JD Vance during a global gathering in February, outraging his German hosts with a controversial speech criticizing Europe. And instead of reaffirming shared Western values of democracy and human rights with European allies, the document refers to “strategic stabilization” with Russia and improving economic ties with China.

This all comes as President Donald Trump is accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of clinging to power, pressuring him to hold elections and quickly accept what European leaders see as a lopsided peace offer favoring Russia. Strikingly, the U.S. has never criticized Putin, who has held power since 1994, for not holding a legitimate election. Despite a Ukrainian law that elections cannot be held during wartime, Zelenskyy posted today he will hold an election within the next three months if his country’s parliament and foreign allies agree.

What Zelenskyy has not been able to change is Trump’s persistent partiality for Putin over Ukraine during the nearly four-year conflict. Despite briefly expressing irritation with the Russian leader last month for rejecting a ceasefire and agreeing to sanction Russia’s two biggest oil companies, Trump has since reverted to his default position: blaming Ukraine for being the weaker party instead of Russia for invading a sovereign neighbor.

Trying to strengthen Ukraine’s hand to hold out for a better deal, the leaders of Great Britain, Germany and France called Trump today to press for further negotiations this weekend. This afternoon, Trump refused to commit to more talks, telling reporters, “We’ll make a determination depending on what they come back with.” He added: “We don’t want to be wasting time. Sometimes you have to let people fight it out and sometimes you don’t.”

Trump also slammed Zelenskyy for what he called Ukraine’s “massive corruption,” which was uncovered by Ukraine’s own investigators. Western supporters call that proof of the country’s democratic reforms.

Zelenskyy’s most important allies are now Europe’s leaders — the very leaders whose governments are being criticized by the U.S. in its new national security declaration.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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