While “Morning Joe” discussed the ongoing government shutdown on Tuesday, the Joe Scarborough-led panel found itself in surprising agreement with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) about her party’s refusal to meet with their Democratic colleagues on a solution: It “isn’t good” for Trump voters.
“Talk about an interesting bellwether, Marjorie Taylor Greene saying to Republicans, ‘Guys, this isn’t good for us,’” co-host Willie Geist said, paraphrasing the congresswoman’s perspective: “We want to expand Medicaid benefits. My constituents like the Affordable Care Act, it allows them to have healthcare, you’re taking that away from them. This is bad.”
Tuesday marked Day 7 of the government shutdown, which went into effect on Oct. 1 after Democrats and Republicans failed to pass a funding bill by the Oct. 1 deadline. The sticking point largely related to a Democrat-supported extension of enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
As it relates to Greene, the longtime ally to President Donald Trump took to X Monday night, expressing that she is “absolutely disgusted” that insurance premiums could double in numbers if those tax credits expire.
“I was not in Congress when all this Obamacare, ‘Affordable Care Act’ bulls–t started,” she wrote. “I got here in 2021. As a matter of fact, the ACA made health insurance UNAFFORDABLE for my family after it was passed, with skyrocketing premiums higher than our house payment.”
Greene continued: “But I’m going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district.”
Later on in the conversation, “Morning Joe” co-host Scarborough added it’s more than just Greene’s constituents who will be impacted; American hospitals are depending on Medicaid benefits for proper healthcare.
“The hospitals are overwhelmingly dependent on that funding and that funding has been slashed,” Scarborough said. “So you have hospitals administrators calling you up going, ‘Hey, can you come into my office. I need to show you what we’re going to have to close down if these cuts go through,’ and suddenly you see that your constituents aren’t — they’re going to get sub-standard healthcare because there’s some people that are trying to make this point.”
Watch the full “Morning Joe” segment in the video above.
