Life comes at you fast these days, and with the President Grievance administration constantly throwing shit at the wall, sometimes the effort that is needed to keep the wizard behind the curtain slips up.
On Wednesday, 4 House Republicans decided that they had enough of Mike Johnson’s haplessness and signed onto the Democratic ACA subsidy extension discharge petition. This appeared to catch the Speaker by surprise, which is just another sign of how awful he is at the job. Now while the good news is that the petition is live and will be headed for a vote it will almost certainly pass in the House, the vote won’t take place until mid-January 2026, after the current subsidies expire on December 31.
However, there is a procedural step which could have brought the discharge petition vote to the floor on Wednesday, and it involved defeating a procedural vote on the GOP heath care bill, which did not contain the ACA subsidy extensions. Simple enough, right?
Not when the GOP is involved. The House began voting on the bill prior to the published vote time and while a chunk of House members on the Judiciary Committee were in a closed door hearing with Jack Smith. Somehow Dan Goldman got himself to the well of the House in time for the vote anyway only for this to happen:
I was in the Speaker's Lobby when this happened and it generated a storm of protest. Rep. Riley Moore R-WV gaveled a procedural vote to a close while one Democrat was ready to vote. That vote would have defeated the measure on a 204-204 tie – but Moore opted for a very fast gavel.
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree.bsky.social) 2025-12-17T18:04:10.232Z
His vote would have tied the vote, and thus defeated the procedural bill and foreclosed the vote the GOP health care bill. And if that bill had been defeated, the ACA subsidy extension bill would have reached the floor. It’s funny how the GOP managed to keep a recent vote open for 7+ hours isn’t it?
And it’s no surprise to me–and to some of you–that the person all too willing to act unethically was Riley Moore, my useless and extremely stupid MAGA (is that redundant) House rep. I will take this opportunity to remind you that Riley is a fake Christian who spent Holy Week 2025 mocking people who were unlawfully in a foreign prison camp:
Republicans can’t win unless they cheat. Oh and Mike Johnson has cancelled Friday House votes and sent the House home early for a district work period, just like he did during the government shutdown. But did you know that prior to this session of Congress, the entire House would have to vote on unscheduled district work periods?:
Wait – the Speaker, under the current rules, can unilaterally gavel a session closed for a work period? Is there any limit or check on this? This is absolutely bonkers.
— Thomas Brackett “Czar” Reed (@czarreed.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T05:00:50.267Z
I’ll leave you with this, because Mike Johnson knows he’s living the story of The Crane Wife:
