Rep. Don Bacon said Sunday that Congress must move quickly to extend key health insurance tax credits set to lapse, warning that millions of Americans will face steep premium hikes if lawmakers fail to act.
Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and member of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that both parties agree that allowing the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire would be “untenable,” given rising healthcare costs.
“We need a temporary extension of these tax credits to keep these prices down,” he said. “Republicans nor Democrats want to see premiums skyrocket, and they will if these expire with nothing in their place.”
Bacon said he has been working with New York Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi and others on a compromise approach centered on a “clean extension,” but with changes designed to ensure that the subsidies reduce premiums directly.
“We want to ensure all these credits go directly to lowering people’s premiums,” he said. “Right now, about a third of the money doesn’t make it to the premiums.”
He added that income caps are also needed to prevent high-income households from receiving benefits.
Extending the credits, Bacon argued, would buy Congress time to pursue deeper, long-term reforms to Obamacare.
“The Affordable Care Act is unaffordable,” he said. “We need this extension to give us time to work on something bigger and deeper that will help lower costs overall.”
Bacon also pushed back on the idea that Republicans alone should offer a replacement plan for the health law, saying any lasting reform must be bipartisan.
“We can’t do a Republican-only fix,” he said. “You’re not going to get 60 votes in the Senate to do it.”
Some GOP lawmakers have pushed for a Republican-written overhaul, but Bacon insisted it is “not going to work” without Democrat buy-in.
He pointed to ideas such as subsidizing high-risk patients through separate insurance pools as a way to relieve pressure on premiums for others.
Bacon also addressed the political fight over the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents.
He said Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to put disclosure measures on the House floor recognizes the reality that public pressure will force the files to be released.
“The train has left the station on this,” Bacon said. “Let’s rip the Band-Aid off and get it done.”
He criticized the White House for resisting broader disclosures, calling the administration’s shifting stance a “PR blunder.”
The Oversight Committee, he noted, has already begun issuing subpoenas and releasing documents.
“We want to protect the victims, but everything else should be open,” he said.
Bacon, who chairs the House Cyber Subcommittee, also warned that China has overtaken Russia as America’s top cyber threat, especially as Beijing deploys artificial intelligence tools to accelerate hacking operations.
He said the U.S. is unprepared, pointing to several top vacancies in the federal cyber-command structure.
“We’ve had no commander in charge of Cyber Command for over eight months,” Bacon said, adding that the top two positions at the National Security Agency are also vacant.
“Our cyber capabilities are going backwards,” he said. “We’re rudderless in a time where China is attacking us every day.”
Bacon said he has urged the administration to restore leadership and strengthen defenses.
“It’s something that really concerns me,” he said.
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