US Vice President JD Vance looks on as US President Donald Trump announces a deal with Pfizer to sell medicines at lower prices in the Oval Office of the White House on September 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
Vice President JD Vance said Sunday there is “a lot of waste and fraud” in the Affordable Care Act tax credits that are at the root of the congressional funding crisis that has led to government shutdown.
“The tax credits rightly benefit some people, and we believe that the tax credits actually lead to a lot of waste and fraud in the insurance industry,” Vance said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“We want to make sure the tax credits go to the people who need them,” he said.
Democrats in Congress are demanding that any legislation funding the government include an extension of expanded Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. Republicans, meanwhile, want to pass an interim measure that would restore federal funding at current levels by November 21st.
Both bills failed in the Senate for the seventh time on Thursday, extending the federal shutdown that began Oct. 1.
With neither party backing down from their respective demands, both Republicans and Democrats say the other party is responsible for the shutdown.
About 22 million of the 24 million people who signed up for Obamacare health insurance plans sold on government marketplaces received expanded ACA credits that lower the cost of that insurance.
The expanded loans were introduced during the Covid pandemic in 2021. They increased the amount of financial support for students. Additionally, more middle-income students were eligible for the subsidies.
The KFF health policy research group recently said the average premium for an ACA plan would more than double in 2026 when the expanded tax credits expire.
Read more about the government shutdown on CNBC
Vance on Sunday accused Democrats of “hostage taking” and told CBS News that there was “a great willingness” among moderate Democrats and in the White House to negotiate and compromise.
“But when the far-left Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, shut down the government and refuse to open the government unless they get everything they want, that is not a negotiation. That is a hostage situation and we will not reward such behavior from Washington, DC,” Vance said.
Earlier Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Democrats “have made it clear repeatedly that we will sit down with anyone, anytime, anywhere.”
“This is not about partying. This is about the American people,” Jeffries told “Fox News Sunday.”
“If Republicans continue to refuse to expand the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of people will face dramatically increased premiums, copays and deductibles, causing the cost of health insurance to double, triple or quadruple,” Jeffries said.
He also called the Republican proposal a “partisan, Republican spending bill” and said the current spending levels the Republican bill would resume are “unacceptable.”
The fallout from the shutdown escalated in recent days after the Trump administration began mass layoffs of federal workers on Friday.
President Donald Trump – who has repeatedly threatened to use the shutdown to cut programs popular with Democrats – said Friday that the layoffs were “Democrat-leaning.”
Employees of the Departments of Finance, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education, Energy, EPA, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior received notices of permanent job cuts, officially known as “Reductions in Force.”
The Trump administration on Saturday reversed layoffs of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where hundreds of scientists had received “false notifications” that they were included in the mass layoffs, an official familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The layoffs were caused by a “flaw in the system,” the official said. Affected CDC employees included people working on measles and Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as so-called disease detectives working at the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a source familiar with the situation told NBC News.
Asked about the reversing layoffs at the CDC, Vance told CBS News on Sunday that “the government shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos” and placed the blame on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats.
“If Chuck Schumer and the radical left Democrats in the Senate overthrow the government, chaos will result,” Vance said.
– CNBC’s And manganese contributed to this story.
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