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WASHINGTON — Republicans won a significant political victory this month when moderate Senate Democrats joined them to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, relenting from a showdown over the rising costs of healthcare.

But the fight is already back on, with mere weeks to spare before the Trump administration faces a potential uproar from the public over the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits on New Year’s Day, when premium costs will skyrocket.

The fast-approaching deadline, coupled with stinging defeats in elections earlier this month driven by voter concerns over affordability, has prompted a series of crisis meetings in the West Wing over a path forward on Capitol Hill.

The White House response that emerged this week is a political Hail Mary for an increasingly divided party entering an election year: a second megabill, deploying the parliamentary tool of reconciliation, addressing not just healthcare costs but Trump’s tariff policies under intense scrutiny at the Supreme Court.

“We’re going to have the healthcare conversation. We’re going to put some legislation forward,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair said Tuesday, addressing a breakfast event hosted by Bloomberg Government, as House Republican leaders pitched the plan to their members in a closed-door meeting.

“The president probably would like to go bigger than the Hill has the appetite for,” Blair added, “so we’ll have to see how that, you know, works out.”

New plan, last minute

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise presented the plan to skeptical Republican lawmakers on Tuesday, arguing an extension of tax credits for what he called the “Unaffordable Care Act” — even if they are renegotiated on Republican terms — would only mask the problem of rising premium costs, ultimately burdening the taxpayer.

Trump sent a message to the caucus ahead of their meeting on Tuesday morning with a post on Truth Social, emphatic in all caps.

“THE ONLY HEALTHCARE I WILL SUPPORT OR APPROVE IS SENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE, WITH NOTHING GOING TO THE BIG, FAT, RICH INSURANCE COMPANIES, WHO HAVE MADE $TRILLIONS, AND RIPPED OFF AMERICA LONG ENOUGH,” Trump wrote. “THE PEOPLE WILL BE ALLOWED TO NEGOTIATE AND BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, INSURANCE. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”

“Congress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else,” Trump added. “This is the only way to have great Healthcare in America!!! GET IT DONE, NOW.”

Yet the plan is causing anxiety across a wide ideological range of Republican lawmakers, including moderates in vulnerable races entering next year’s midterm elections as well as those from deep red districts whose constituents rely on the Affordable Care Act, more widely known as Obamacare.

Nearly six in 10 Americans who use the ACA marketplace live in Republican districts, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Enrollment is highest across the South, where districts across Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida consistently see more than 10% of their residents relying on the program.

Going for broke with reconciliation

Trump’s proposal would do away with the tax credits, potentially overhauling health savings accounts that would encourage Americans to save on their own and choose their healthcare plan.

But it’s unclear whether such a dramatic, last-minute change in the healthcare system, still in draft form, would garner enough Republican support to pass the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can only afford to lose two Republicans on party-line votes.

The bill would come in a perilous political environment for Republican lawmakers, who one year ago faced a tie with Democrats on a generic ballot, according to an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. In the group’s latest poll, Democrats are up by 14 points.

Even if Trump’s proposal were to secure House support, the Trump administration’s plan to pursue a bill through reconciliation in the Senate — which allows the upper chamber to pass legislation with a simple majority, instead of 60 votes — could face significant hurdles.

Senate parliamentary rules only allow reconciliation to be used for legislation that directly changes federal spending, revenues, or the debt limit. That could encompass an overhaul to health savings accounts, and potentially to codify Trump’s tariff policies, which have been approved through reconciliation in years past. But the fine print would be up to the discretion of the parliamentarian, whose cuts to tangential policy provisions could upend delicate negotiations.

Reconciliation was used in Trump’s last major push to repeal Obamacare, in 2017, when the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) surprised the nation with a thumbs-down vote on the measure.

That bill, McCain argued, would have repealed the healthcare of millions without a plan to replace it.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Could Trump destroy the Epstein files?
The deep dive: A bombshell federal fraud case exploded inside Gov. Newsom’s powerful political orbit
The L.A. Times Special: This Arizona town is an unexpected magnet for Californians: ‘We do it our way’

More to come,
Michael Wilner
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Nov. 1 (UPI) — As daylight saving time ends overnight Saturday, a large majority of Americans will turn their clocks back and gain an extra hour of sleep early Sunday morning.

Many clocks will self-adjust at the appropriate time, such as the clocks on computers and cell phones, but others still must be changed manually.

The official time to turn the clocks back is 2 a.m. in states that participate in daylight saving time, which many view as an opportunity to get in an extra hour of celebration in states and locales that require bars to close at 2 a.m. or later.

Most of Canada and northern Mexico also will change their clocks as daylight saving time ends for them.

The purpose is to add an hour of daylight during the morning hours during the winter months and an extra hour of daylight during the evening hours during the summer months, according to USA Today.

Most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do not follow daylight saving time, though, which means clocks will remain the same as the rest of the nation joins them on standard time.

Arizona, with the exception of the Navajo Nation, forgoes daylight saving time due to the summers there being so hot.

Hawaii does not participate in daylight saving time due to its close proximity to the Equator and relatively consistent daylight hours throughout the year.

The U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands likewise do not participate in daylight savings time due to their relatively stable hours of sunlight.

Daylight saving time started this year on March 9, and Sunday marks its earliest end since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the end date from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November, starting in 2007.

The act also changed its start date to the second Sunday in March, which extended daylight saving time by about four weeks per year.

Daylight saving time returns at 2 a.m. on March 8, 2026.

Germany was the first nation to adjust its clocks in 1916 during World War I, with the goal of reducing its energy usage.

Other nations, including the United States, soon followed.

Daylight saving time became a requirement in the United States upon the adoption of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, but states have the ability to opt out.

No state, however, has the option of permanently setting their clocks on daylight saving time.

Acceptance of the annual fall and spring time changes is not universal.

A CBS/YouGov poll in 2022 showed 80% of respondents favored keeping daylight saving time in effect all year, and the Senate that year passed the Sunshine Protection Act.

The measure died in the House of Representatives, however, as it chose not to bring it up for a vote.

Nineteen states, though, are prepared to eliminate the time change if Congress passes enabling legislation to do so.

A measure that would do so has been introduced in the Senate, but it has not been put up for a vote.