House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) accused Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) of selling “wolf tickets” to the American public on the topic of affordability. The phrase “wolf tickets” describes “aggressive talk that has no intention of being followed through with action.” “He’s definitely selling wolf tickets, and Mike Johnson and the Republicans, particularly the leadership, they continue to bury their heads in the sand,” Jeffries told MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) host Jonathan Capehart.

JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW HOST:  So then, Leader Jeffries, the point you just made is an excellent one. Unfortunately, Speaker Johnson doesn’t seem to be quite there yet in terms of holding a vote on ACA benefits. I want to play for you something he said on Wednesday at the Capitol. (BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA):  Who are you going to trust to fix health care? It’s the Republican Party, because we have volumes of ideas on how to do this, on how to fix it, on how to drive costs down, and how to increase access to care and quality of care. And you’re going to see all that vigorous debate. So the answer to your question is, am I going to guarantee a vote on ACA unreformed COVID-era subsidies that is just a boondoggle to insurance companies and robs the taxpayer? We got a lot of work to do on that. (END VIDEOCLIP) CAPEHART:  Leader Jeffries, Leader Jeffries, Speaker Johnson says that Republicans have a whole lot of — a lot of plans and everything to drive down costs. Have you seen any of them? Or is he selling wolf tickets? JEFFRIES:  He’s definitely selling wolf tickets, and Mike Johnson and the Republicans, particularly the leadership, they continue to bury their heads in the sand. They were on a taxpayer-funded vacation for seven plus weeks, missing in action, absent without official leave, nowhere to be found, uninterested in trying to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits or deal with the Republican health care crisis that’s devastating people all across the country. We know what their plan is to the extent that it exists. It’s to destroy the Affordable Care Act. It’s to rip Medicaid away from millions of people. It’s to trigger, you know, closures of hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health centers that are closing all across the country as a result of what they’ve done in their one big ugly bill. And, Jonathan, this is the same group of people who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 70 different times over the last 15 years. These people are obsessed with ripping health care away from the American people, which is why we’re going to go around them in terms of this discharge petition effort to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years, just like we’re going around them now to trigger a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

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