Stop Holding Taxpayers Hostage to Pandemic-Era ACA Subsidies They Can’t Afford2 min read

Congresswoman Celeste Maloy

On September 30, Senate Democrats blocked our clean continuing resolution to keep the government open – holding the American people hostage to their political demands. Their price tag for reopening the government was over a trillion dollars in new spending, including an extension of pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies. 

Pitched as temporary aid 5 years ago, these subsidies have quietly become a permanent drain on taxpayer dollars— threatening our fiscal health and distorting the original intent of the ACA. 

In 2021, Democrats passed a sweeping expansion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies under the banner of pandemic relief. At the time, the country was reeling from COVID-19, and Congress hastily deployed emergency support. 

However, the expansion removed income caps, allowing families earning up to $500,000 a year to receive taxpayer-funded subsidies. It became a giveaway to the wealthy, paid for by working families in Utah and across the country. 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2025 alone, 2.3 million people received credits they weren’t eligible for, often by misreporting their income. The federal government is now paying out more in subsidies than the total number of people who qualify for the program. 

Extending these emergency ACA subsidies would cost taxpayers an estimated $400 billion over the next four years. That’s too much for a program most Americans don’t even know is expiring. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that the majority of voters have heard little or nothing about these subsidies—a far cry from the media narrative that Americans are demanding their continuation.

From the beginning, these subsidies should have been targeted, temporary, and transparent. Instead, Democrats have turned a short-term fix into a long-term liability. They used the pandemic as political cover to expand the ACA far beyond its original scope. Now, they’re using these subsidies as a bargaining chip in negotiations over the government shutdown, holding essential services hostage to preserve a bloated entitlement that was never meant to be permanent.

Republicans must resist the bait. We cannot allow temporary emergency measures to become permanent entitlements. We must protect taxpayers, restore fiscal discipline, and ensure that government programs serve those truly in need—not those who game the system or fall far outside its intended scope.

The path forward is clear: reject the reauthorization of pandemic-era ACA subsidies, reopen the government, and finish the appropriations process. Let’s get back to governing with integrity and fiscal responsibility. 

Congresswoman Celeste Maloy represents Utah’s Second District in the United States House of Representatives. She also serves on the House Appropriations Committee.