As the government shutdown drags into its second week, Georgia’s congressional delegation is locked in a partisan struggle over who is to blame, with one of the state’s most high-profile Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, seemingly charting her own political path by challenging both parties on the issue of rising health care costs.

Greene, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, broke with her party’s leadership and declared, “I’m carving my own lane” in an online post this week. She said she would go “against everyone on this issue” because the premium hikes would impact “my own adult children” and her constituents in northwest Georgia.

She criticized the Republican-controlled Congress for prioritizing “foreign countries and foreign wars” over domestic health care affordability concerns.

At the core of the dispute in Washington is the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, which would significantly increase health insurance costs for Georgians if allowed to expire at the end of the year. According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 per year would see their monthly premium more than triple.

While Greene provided a rare moment of agreement with Democrats — “I never thought I’d say this, but Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is right,” Sen. Raphael Warnock posted online Tuesday — she offered no clear legislative solution, maintaining a deep ideological opposition to the program itself. Greene called the ACA a “disaster” and the insurance industry a “scam.”

Greene said she was “absolutely disgusted” by the lack of a Republican plan to prevent the doubling of health insurance premiums for Americans.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

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Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.