Mike Johnson Sits Stone-Faced as GOP Voters Plead With Him to Cave to Dems' Healthcare Demands

House Speaker Mike Johnson has stuck to the Republican Party's script regarding the US government shutdown that began more than a week ago when the GOP refused to include an extension of healthcare subsidies in a spending bill—but voters from both sides of the aisle made clear to him Thursday on "Washington Journal," the C-SPAN call-in show, that they aren't buying the claim that Democrats are holding crucial spending hostage.

“I’m begging you to pass this legislation,” said a Republican caller named Samantha, who identified herself as a military mom from Virginia. “My kids could die.”

Samantha explained that her children are "medically fragile" and said a missed paycheck for her partner, a service member, on the 15th would be catastrophic for her family.

“If we see a lapse in pay come the 15th, my children do not get to get the medication that’s needed for them to live their life,” she said. “As a Republican, I am disappointed in my party and I’m very disappointed in you because you do have the power to call the House back."

Johnson (R-La.) has not called the House back into session since September 19. Military members' paychecks are affected by government shutdowns like the one that began October 1 after the GOP refused to sign on to a Democratic stopgap proposal to keep the government funded through the end of the month, with $1 trillion in the Republicans' Medicaid cuts restored and Affordable Care Act (ACA) chbsubsidies extended.

Republicans including Johnson have persisted in claiming the Democratic proposal would give free healthcare to undocumented "non-Americans" and have demanded that Democrats relent and vote for a continuing resolution to keep the government funded for seven weeks.

Johnson told Samantha that "Democrats are the ones preventing you from getting a check"—but she made clear that she wasn't convinced of that.

“You could stop this and you could be the one that could say: ‘Military is getting paid,'" said the caller. "And I think it is awful and the audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane.”

Johnson said earlier this week that he supported calling the House back to vote on a stand-alone bill to ensure service members and air traffic controllers are paid during the shutdown, but walked back his support on Wednesday.

Another Republican caller from Texas asked Johnson, considering that the GOP passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allows the ACA subsidies to expire and could raise monthly premiums by an average of 75% for millions of households, whether the party has a plan to improve the program.

The House speaker offered only more claims that "illegal aliens" and "able-bodied men without dependents" have been "draining the resources" in the Medicaid program and said the Republicans "have a lot of ideas to fix" the ACA.

Mimi Gergees, the host of "Washington Journal," pressed Johnson on whether there is "a plan that we can read and find out more about," but the GOP leader replied only that congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump are "setting up the conditions" to develop a healthcare proposal.

A poll by KFF found last week that 78% of Americans want Congress to extend the enhanced tax credits for people who buy their health insurance through the ACA's exchanges. A CBS survey released this week showed that more Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats.

Other callers lambasted Johnson on Trump's efforts to federalize National Guard troops and deploy them to cities including Chicago and Portland, Oregon, where Republicans have insisted the White House is responding to crime, chaos, and "war-ravaged" conditions caused by immigrants and anti-fascist protesters.

“Everybody is smiling here" following Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Washington, DC, said Johnson. "The sun is shining again.”

A Democrat from Colorado called in to say that the comment, made amid reports of federal agents pointing weapons at civilians and using force against protesters and journalists in Chicago, was "dystopian and insane."