https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/06/house-republicans-anxiety-margins-midterms-00713358Tuesday was supposed to be a rah-rah day for House Republicans — a chance to strategize with President Donald Trump about their agenda for the tough election year ahead.Instead, 2026 got off to an unexpectedly somber start as they confronted the sudden death of a well-liked colleague and pondered the dire political and policy straits their dwindling majority has to navigate.Most members learned about California Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s overnight passing as they boarded buses outside the Capitol to head to the Kennedy Center for their annual policy meeting. That news — as well as word that another Republican, Rep. Jim Baird of Indiana, had been badly hurt in a car crash — cast an immediate pall.“This is coming as a shock to all of us,” said one House Republican who, like others quoted for this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the mood.Even a characteristically freewheeling speech from Trump — delivered at the performing arts center his hand-picked board had recently renamed for him without congressional approval — hardly lightened the mood. He remembered LaMalfa, a rice farmer who represented a rural northern California district for seven terms, as a loyal supporter and said he considered skipping the speech out of respect for his death.“But then I decided that I have to do it in his honor,” Trump said. “I’ll do it in his honor because he would have wanted it that way.”
But reality soon set in that the House GOP would be facing challenges that went well beyond mourning. For one, LaMalfa’s death and Baird’s hospitalization represented another blow to their razor-thin majority, leaving many contemplating whether Republicans could ever muster the votes they would need to pass a laundry list of pre-midterm policy priorities.LaMalfa’s death and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation this week left the GOP with a bare 218 votes for at least until early March. With Baird’s indefinite absence and the unreliable support of libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Speaker Mike Johnson has to confront a day-to-day struggle to maintain control of the House.His leadership circle, for instance, quickly had to calculate whether they would have enough Republicans in attendance to clear a procedural vote Wednesday allowing them to pass on a critical government funding package and several other bills this week.“We keep saying we are one breath away from the minority — that’s more true today than ever,” another House Republican said.Trump’s 84-minute speech ultimately veered into myriad topics. He at one point commented on his own mortality and pushed back on reports about his aging and declining health, admonishing some Republicans in attendance for calling to check if he was “dead” last year after he was away from cameras for several days.He also raised concerns about keeping the House majority next year — a topic that lawmakers and White House aides say is frequently on the president’s mind.“They say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm,” Trump said. “So you’re all brilliant people: I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public, because we have the right policy.”
He then proceeded to throw a bomb into those policy plans as Republicans struggle to address rising health care costs — a topic that’s become an albatross for the party after a bitter December fight over extending Obamacare tax credits that have now expired, raising premiums for millions of Americans.The president directed Republicans to be “flexible” on abortion issues in ongoing health care talks — essentially asking many in his party to cross a moral red line by abandoning the longstanding ban on taxpayer funding for abortion known as the Hyde amendment.The remark stunned House conservatives in the audience and those listening in the Senate.“I almost fell out of my chair,” said one who attended the meeting.“Everything depends on details, but Hyde is nonnegotiable for most conservatives,” added a senior House Republican aide. That person didn’t rule out a potential “creative solution” on the matter but said “caving on Hyde is not an option.”Asked for his reaction on Capitol Hill, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said, “I’m not flexible on the value of every child’s life.” Others took it as an encouraging sign that Trump wants to notch a deal this month on an especially nettlesome election year issue.But inside the House GOP policy sessions that followed the Trump speech Tuesday — touching on energy, housing and other issues — members continued to struggle with the way forward on their health care plans, according to six Republicans with direct knowledge of the conversations.Many hard-line conservatives — who see abortion protections as an essential element in any health care legislation — would prefer Republican leaders pursue a party-line bill under filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation rules rather than cut a deal with Democrats.
Otherwise, according to two people with knowledge of the retreat discussions, key lawmakers ran through a well-known menu of legislative options — albeit one that is unlikely to offset the impact of the expired Obamacare subsidies before Election Day.House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) discussed proposals to expand tax-advantaged health savings accounts, while Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) talked through potential overhauls to a key prescription drug program and bills that would crack down on intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers.Trump directed House Republicans in his earlier remarks to work on so-called “most favored nation” drug pricing legislation — something he’s pursued in executive orders and deals with health care giants as he moves to lower the cost of prescription drugs.But the issue is deeply divisive among Hill Republicans, and GOP leaders have continued to rebuff Trump’s attempts to attach it to numerous legislative vehicles — including the sprawling megabill Republicans passed this summer.Senior GOP aides on Capitol Hill say they have plans to address drug prices via HSAs and other policies, but they are leaving it to the White House to promote the most-favored-nation and other direct drug pricing plans.That, Trump said — along with being “flexible” on Hyde and “directly” giving Americans money to purchase coverage — would allow Republicans to “take away” the issue of health care from Democrats, Trump asserted at the House GOP meeting.“You could own health care, figure it out!” Trump said.But House Republicans privately acknowledged throughout the day Tuesday it’s far from that easy.“We’re still far from a solution on health care,” one GOP lawmaker said.
>>1472667>“I almost fell out of my chair,” said one who attended the meeting.Oh I'm sure you did. Feckless fuck.
>>1472668>“We’re still far from a solution on health care,”Maybe should've thought about that before you let those subsidies expire and now you have an entire voterbase blaming you for their healthcare prices spiking.Trump's solution of "Just give people the money directly!" is retarded; at best it changes nothing at all in terms of prices, at worst it makes healthcare more expensive because all insurance companies factor it into their prices at once and eliminate previously lower options. Say what you will about Obamacare but it is at least AN option and getting rid of it with no replacement will not only result in higher prices, but also going back to the days of insurance companies just deciding you aren't worth saving and denying you basic healthcare for having any kind of liability.
>>1472674We never left the days of private insurance death panels.
>>1472684Maybe, but it was WORSE before. If you had any kind of pre-existing condition, you had no chance of health insurance from any insurance company, not just the shitheads like United.
>>“We’re still far from a solution on health care,” one GOP lawmaker said.Someone explain to be how GOP opposed Obamacare from day 0 in 2010, AND THEY STILL DO NOT HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN FOR IT, OVER 15 YEARS LATER.
>>1472692Because they don't want one. Keeping the underclass sick and too impoverished to do anything about it is a main pillar of their strategy for societal control.
>>1472694If those poorfags who voted in Trump don't switch their votes, I don't mind seeing them getting more fucked by healthcare prices. You get what you voted for.
>>1472694The plan is for you to not get sick, but to have the grace to die quickly in case you do
>>1472692You should try listening to figures like Rand Paul. He's talked about a plan for Healthcare Savings Account, which are shielded from taxation, earn interest and can be used for medical expenses outside of insurance.
>>1472699but why do we need to keep funneling tax payer money to subsidize billionaire insurance CEOs? Why can't we just luigi the leeches away
>>1472699I'd be in support of government subsidized HSA honestly. Seems like a good balance.. instead of subsidizing corporate insurance companies we subsidize what are essentially investment accounts owned by individuals that can only be used for health care expenses.
>>1472699I have a HSA account. It hasn't made healthcare any cheaper (because it doesn't do that) and it's not helpful for paying off expensive medical service unless you've been putting money into it for years. Finally, it depends on the stock market growing forever and ever and ever and ever, so if the mass AI scam (and we all know it's a scam) hits a roadblock, HSAs everywhere are suddenly fucked.How typical for a libertardian to suggest the solution for healthcare is the infinite (tm) growth of the stock market.
>>1472701That seems to be a complete non-sequitor>Here's this plan which lets you buy healthcare directly from hospitals or clinics>but why do we need to keep funneling tax payer money to subsidize billionaire insurance CEOsIf you go to a clinic with a broken arm and pay for an X-ray and cast out of a Healthcare Savings account, you are paying with money from that account to the hospital. Health insurance isn't recieving any money because they're not involved in the transaction.
>>1472684Honestly need more Luigi. Surprised there havent been copy cats. Man America is really full of pussies.
>>1472720>Health insurance isn't recieving any money because they're not involved in the transaction.This presupposes the person with an HSA doesn't also have insurance. HSAs are not a replacement for insurance.
>>1472720lmao delusional
>>1472738Luigi accomplished nothing.He's a modern day Barabbas
>>1472746Unironically there are people who got their treatments for cheap because United was scared of pissing people off more. He probably unironically saved a dozen people.
>>1472674He also fucked up SNAP food stamps around the same time the medical coverage is spiking. This is a VERY bad thing to do. Every $1 in food stanls returns $1.50 in the community so its a win-win.Retards think its only blacks buying snack cakes, it isn't. Lots of us white folks used it to survive the ever-climbing grocery prices. Us white voters won't forget that lesson on an empty stomach. Lard ass Trump WILL suffer.
>>1472720I have an HSA, it's specifically designed to cover my insurance deductibles. If I had to pay in full, it would cover a fraction of any serious medical bill, and then it would be completely drained in the event anything else comes up.The price of healthcare has to come down for any alternative system to work.
>>1472816>Lard ass Trump WILL suffer.No he won't. He's term limited and very old.
Republicans are willing to do anything to get out of running this year.
>>1472826and he and his sons have made so many billions of dollars grifting MAGA chumps he doesn't care what happens to the GOP.
>>1472816>Every $1 in food stanls returns $1.50 in the community so its a win-winHow do you arrive at that number?
>>1474296I made it up
