US Vice President JD Vance looks on as US President Donald Trump announces a deal with Pfizer to sell drugs at lower prices, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 30, 2025.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
Vice President J.D. Vance said Sunday that there is “a lot of waste and fraud” in the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are at the center of Congress' government-shut-down funding standoff.
“The tax credits rightly go to some people and we think the tax credits actually lead to a lot of waste and fraud within the insurance industry,” Vance said on CBS News' “Face the Nation.”
“We want to make sure the tax credits get to the people who need them,” he said.
Democrats in Congress are demanding that any legislation to fund the government include an extension of the increased Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Republicans, meanwhile, want to pass an emergency measure that would resume federal funding at current levels through Nov. 21.
Both bills failed to pass the Senate for the seventh time on Thursday, extending the federal shutdown that began on October 1.
With neither party giving in to their respective demands, Republicans and Democrats both say the other party is responsible for the shutdown.
About 22 million of the 24 million people enrolled in Obamacare health insurance plans sold on government marketplaces received enhanced ACA credits, lowering the cost of that insurance.
The enhanced credits were introduced during the Covid pandemic in 2021. They increased the amount of financial support for enrollees. and also made more middle-income enrollees eligible for the subsidies.
The KFF health policy research group recently said the average premium paid for an ACA plan will more than double by 2026 when enhanced tax credits expire.
Vance on Sunday accused Democrats of “hostage-taking” and told CBS News that there is “a lot of willingness” among moderate Democrats and the White House to negotiate and compromise.
“But if the far-left Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, want to shut down the government and refuse to open the government unless they get everything they want, then that is not a negotiation. That is hostage taking and we are not going to reward that kind of behavior from Washington DC,” Vance said.
Earlier on Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Democrats have “made it clear repeatedly that we will sit down with anyone, anytime, anywhere.”
“This is not about celebration. This is about the American people,” Jeffries told Fox News Sunday.
“If Republicans continue to refuse to expand the Affordable Care Act's tax benefits, tens of millions of people are about to experience dramatically higher premiums, copays and deductibles that will result in a doubling, tripling or quadrupling of the cost of health insurance,” Jeffries said.
He also called the Republican proposal a “partisan, Republican spending bill” and said the current spending levels the Republican bill would resume are “unacceptable.”
The fallout from the shutdown has escalated in recent days after the Trump administration began mass layoffs of federal workers on Friday.
President Donald Trump — who has repeatedly threatened to use the shutdown to cut programs popular among Democrats — said Friday that the layoffs would be “Democratic-oriented.”
Notices of permanent job cuts, formally known as “Reductions in Force,” were received by employees of the Departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education, Energy, EPA, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior.
The Trump administration on Saturday reversed layoffs of workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where hundreds of scientists received “false reports” that they were involved in the mass layoffs, an official familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The layoffs were caused by a “flaw in the system,” the official said. The affected CDC employees included those working on measles and Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and so-called disease detectives working at the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a source with knowledge of the situation told NBC News.
Asked about the reverse layoffs at the CDC, Vance told CBS News on Sunday that “the government shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos” and blamed it on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, and Democrats.
“If Chuck Schumer and the far-left Democrats in the Senate start to shut down the government, it will lead to some chaos,” Vance said.
-CNBCs Then Mangan contributed to this story.
