He Effed Around, Now He’s Finding Out: War Secretary Hegseth Drops Hammer On ‘Seditious’ Mark Kelly

They were dubbed the “Seditious Six”—a half dozen lawmakers, all with prior service in the intelligence community and/or the military, who released a video on November 18 urging active-duty troops to refuse orders they personally deemed unlawful. To many observers, it looked like exactly what it was: a thinly veiled invitation to rebellion within the ranks.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was clearly having none of it. On Monday, he dropped the hammer in a blunt social-media post, calling the video exactly what it was: “seditious” while singling out Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired US Navy captain, who just found out after he effed around:

House Poised To Extend ACA Subsidies As Hope Grows For Deal

The House is set to approve legislation on Thursday afternoon that will extend controversial Obamacare tax credits for three years, representing a significant triumph for Democrats and fostering optimism among centrist Republicans that it may facilitate a bipartisan agreement to restore the subsidies.

The proposal is unlikely to progress through the Senate in its current form. The identical three-year extension was defeated by Senate Republicans in December.

However, the impending vote prompted a coalition of bipartisan senators to formulate a compromise capable of garnering support from both legislative chambers.

Republican supporters in the House, including centrist dissenters who endorsed a Democratic discharge petition to compel the vote, are optimistic that a bipartisan vote in the lower chamber on Thursday will prompt the Senate to expedite its consideration of the issue.

Representative Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of the four Republicans who diverged from leadership to endorse the discharge petition, stated he anticipates “a substantial number of Republicans” will support the bill to advocate for a bipartisan agreement to renew, reform, and prolong the subsidies.

“We’ve been working with the senators for weeks, and the framework that they are … trying to finalize is very much in line with what I have been saying from the start, about a two-year extension with reforms,” Lawler added. “I think that’s ultimately where we can get.”
The dispute regarding the augmented Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies has persisted on Capitol Hill for several months, revisiting previous conflicts concerning the government’s involvement in the national health care system and directly resulting in the Democrat-led 43-day government shutdown last fall.

In the absence of an agreement, approximately 22 million individuals receiving subsidies will experience a surge in their healthcare expenses in the initial months of this year.

The prospect of cost increases prompted the Republican moderates to compel Thursday’s vote. Democrats, perceiving health care as a favorable electoral issue in November, are advocating from the periphery, cautioning of a political debacle if GOP leaders fail to extend the subsidies that lapsed on December 31.

“Something better happen,” Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) said. “I don’t think that Trump will be able to Venezuela his way out of the problems around not extending these credits.”

The bipartisan initiative has underscored the difficulties confronting President Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and other Republican leaders regarding health care, an issue that has long divided the party and represents a significant impediment to their efforts to maintain control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections in November.

A significant number of Republicans sought to circumvent the issue entirely by permitting the enhanced ACA subsidies, instituted by former President Biden as an emergency measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, to lapse permanently.

Numerous contentious issues must be resolved by lawmakers to achieve any compromise, the most significant being Republican demands for prohibitions on federally funded ACA marketplace plans from providing coverage for abortion services.

“You’ve got to deal with the Hyde issue,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday when talking about what he wants to see in the bill, in reference to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from going directly to abortions.

Plans in some states, though, cover abortion — with Democrats and moderates arguing state and private funds cover those plan costs.

This is unacceptable for Democrats, who assert that existing legislation adequately guarantees that only state and private funds are allocated for abortion services.

President Trump bolstered the aspirations of GOP moderates to resolve the deadlock on abortion and achieve a bipartisan agreement by urging House Republicans in a speech on Tuesday to exhibit “flexibility on Hyde” regarding health care discussions.

The Hyde Amendment is not the sole obstacle, as Thune stated on Tuesday that any agreement capable of securing a “healthy majority” in the Senate must encompass several reforms.

He seeks to establish income thresholds for eligibility for subsidies.

He indicated the necessity of prohibiting ACA plans from providing $0 premiums to mitigate issues related to automatic enrollees who are oblivious to their coverage, thereby ensuring that insurance companies cannot exploit the system by auto-enrolling individuals and subsequently receiving direct financial benefits.

Thune expressed a desire for a “bridge” to health savings accounts, facilitating increased financial resources for consumers to purchase plans directly, rather than directing funds to insurance companies.

CHAOS On the Set! House Minority Leader Explodes At CNBC Host After He's Cornered Over Obamacare Subsidies

NEW YORK, NY — The polished veneer of the Democrat healthcare narrative shattered on national television this week as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries suffered a visible and vocal meltdown on CNBC’s "Squawk Box." In a segment that has quickly gone viral across the 2026 digital landscape, host Becky Quick executed a clinical cross-examination of the Democrat strategy to ransom the U.S. government over the sunsetting of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

The confrontation marked a pivotal moment in the post-government shutdown political theater, exposing what Speaker Mike Johnson has termed the "Politics of Fear." As Jeffries pivoted, deflected, and eventually erupted in anger, the cold hard reality of the 2026 healthcare crisis was laid bare: a system defined by 60% premium increases, a trillion-dollar price tag, and a Democrat leadership more interested in political leverage than bipartisan solutions.

I. THE CNBC CORNER: "LET’S NOT GO BACK TO THE PAST"

The tension began when Becky Quick pressed Jeffries on the necessity of a bipartisan approach to the looming expiration of taxpayer-provided ACA subsidies. These subsidies, which have artificially suppressed the soaring costs of Obamacare premiums, were strategically set to sunset on December 1, 2025, by the Biden-led Congress—a move critics say was designed to create a "cliff" that would force a Republican-led House into a spending trap.

1. The "Hang Themselves" Accusation

The debate reached a boiling point when Quick directly challenged Jeffries’ motivations for refusing to negotiate on a sustainable, bipartisan reform.

“I don’t think you want to get a deal done,” Quick said, looking directly at a stunned Jeffries. “I think this is something where you’d like to see the rates go higher and allow Republicans to hang themselves with it.”

The assertion struck a nerve. Jeffries, visibly frustrated, abandoned his usual measured tone. “That is a ridiculous assertion! Shame on you!” he shot back, his voice rising as the set descended into chaos. For the American public, the explosion was a tell—a sign that the host had accurately identified the Democrat "Lawfare" strategy being applied to the healthcare sector.

II. THE 60 PERCENT REALITY: OBAMACARE’S FAILED PROMISE

While Jeffries focused on rhetoric, Speaker Mike Johnson utilized his weekly press conference to provide the devastating statistics that have defined the ACA in 2026. The "Affordable" Care Act has become anything but, with the GOP majority revealing that by some estimates, premiums have risen an average of 60% since the program's inception.

1. Subsidies for Insurance Giants

Johnson argued that the "trillion dollars in new spending" demanded by Democrats to reopen the government was not going to patients, but was instead a direct transfer of wealth to insurance companies.

“The Democrats don’t reform Obamacare. They want to subsidize it,” Johnson explained. “That goes mostly to insurance companies, which makes the cost rise further. That’s the Democrats’ plan.”

By continuing to pump taxpayer billions into a broken system, the GOP argues that the radical left is merely inflating the bubble while masking the true, unsustainable cost of the healthcare mandates passed without a single Republican vote in 2010.

III. SAVING MEDICAID: THE AUDIT OF INELIGIBILITY

One of the most significant achievements of the 2026 Republican House has been the aggressive "cleanup" of the Medicaid system—a move Johnson cited as proof that the GOP is the party "fighting to save healthcare."

1. Removing Millions of Ineligible Enrollees

The Speaker revealed that the GOP has successfully moved millions of ineligible enrollees off the Medicaid rolls. This audit was not a cut to services, but a restoration of the program’s original intent.

“We got millions of ineligible enrollees off the program and it preserved it,” Johnson said. “It strengthened Medicaid for the people who rely upon it, which is the elderly, disabled, and young pregnant women.”

By eliminating the fraud, waste, and abuse that had bloated the system under the previous administration, the GOP has ensured that the safety net remains solvent for the most vulnerable Americans. The Democrat opposition to these common-sense audits, Johnson argued, is further evidence that they prioritize "raw numbers" over "quality care."

IV. THE POLITICS OF FEAR VS. THE MANDATE FOR REFORM

The recent government shutdown, which many in the media attempted to frame as a Republican failure, was re-categorized by Johnson as a "false claim" induced by Democrat intransigence. He asserted that the conflict was never truly about healthcare, but about the Radical Left’s fear of losing control over the taxpayer purse.

1. Ransom and Leverage

The December 1 sunset was a "timed bomb" left by the Biden administration. By refusing to work on a bipartisan fix throughout 2025, Jeffries and the House Democrats hoped to use the resulting premium spikes as a political weapon in the 2026 Midterms.

“No, [the shutdown] is not about healthcare,” Johnson declared. “This is about FEAR. Everyone in America understands that this is about something else.” That "something else" is the continued attempt to expand the "Deep State" bureaucracy into every facet of the American economy, using the health of the citizens as collateral.

V. THE 2026 RENAISSANCE: A NEW HEALTHCARE DOCTRINE

As the 2026 Renaissance continues to sweep through Washington, the Trump-aligned GOP is proposing a total shift away from the "subsidy-and-spend" model of the last 15 years. The new doctrine focuses on:

Reducing Costs through Competition: Moving away from state-mandated monopolies.
Increasing Access and Quality: Allowing for more diverse and affordable plan options.
Eliminating Fraud: Continuing the aggressive audits started by Speaker Johnson.

The confrontation on CNBC served as a microcosm of the national debate. On one side, Hakeem Jeffries represents the "Old Guard" of the DNC—relying on explosions of anger and accusations of "shame" to deflect from the fiscal failure of their policies. On the other side, the GOP majority is presenting a "Victorious American" vision: a healthcare system that is sustainable, accountable, and actually affordable.

CONCLUSION: THE END OF THE HEALTHCARE GRIFT

Hakeem Jeffries’ explosion at Becky Quick was not just a moment of bad television; it was the sound of a narrative collapsing. For over a decade, Democrats have used the "Affordable Care Act" as a moral shield to justify trillions in spending. In 2026, with premiums up 60% and the GOP exposing the "insurance company payday," that shield has shattered.

Speaker Mike Johnson and the House GOP have called the Democrats' bluff. By reopening the government without surrendering to the trillion-dollar subsidy demand, they have forced the discussion back to actual reform and fiscal reality.

The era of "subsidizing the failure" is over. As we head toward the 2026 Midterms, the American people are seeing the difference between those who want to "hang" their opponents with higher rates and those who are doing the hard work of saving the safety net for the elderly and disabled. The chaos on the CNBC set was the beginning of the end for the Obamacare grift.