WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., criticized the expiring Obamacare subsidies at the core of the government funding dispute, calling them a “boondoggle” as the shutdown nears the two-week mark with no resolution in sight.

“The Covid-era Obamacare subsidy, which seems to be the hot topic, doesn’t expire until the end of December. Importantly, it was the Democrats who crafted this subsidy and set its expiration,” he mentioned to reporters during a press conference on Monday, marking the 13th day of the shutdown.

“They included an end date because it was intended to be Covid-related, and now it’s become a boondoggle,” Johnson stated. “When the health care system is subsidized and insurance companies receive more payments, prices tend to rise.”

Johnson’s remarks intensify the conflict just one day before the Senate is scheduled to reconvene in Washington, though there’s no clear plan to resolve the shutdown. This situation tests the patience and resolve of both parties as federal workers — including law enforcement officers, air traffic controllers, and TSA staff — are poised to miss paychecks.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has asserted that Democrats will not support a short-term Republican funding bill running until Nov. 21 unless it accommodates their priorities, particularly extending health care funds. The funding issue, initiated in 2021, caps premiums of a standard insurance plan at 8.5% of the purchaser’s income.

“Speaker Johnson opted for vacation over resolving this healthcare crisis,” Schumer recently expressed on X. “In Louisiana alone, 85,000 people risk losing their health insurance, and many others will face rising premiums. Yet, he is keeping the government closed instead of addressing this issue.”

Johnson has kept the Republican-led House out of session since Sept. 19, and he is continuing the recess through this week, drawing heavy criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans who say they want to return to work.

The speaker said Monday that at a minimum, “If indeed the subsidy is going to be continued, it needs real reform. But there’s a lot of ideas on the table to do that.”

He didn’t get specific, but Republicans have discussed a range of ideas such as an income cap for eligibility, a requirement that every Obamacare enrollee pays something into the system, a phaseout after two or three years and stricter abortion limits.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the author of a bill to extend the Obamacare, or Affordable Care Act, funds permanently, said she’s open to a negotiation on the details.

“There are a number of changes that can be made to the program to address some of the concerns,” she said. “One of the things, though, I think we need to be very thoughtful about is where you start to make changes that show a dramatic drop-off in numbers of people who are helped. And that needs to be a longer discussion that people need to really look at some data and get the information before making decisions about that.”

But Shaheen flatly ruled out stricter abortion restrictions, saying existing law already blocks Obamacare funding for abortion — despite some conservatives wanting to make it more stringent.

“That’s a nonstarter,” she said. “It’s not an issue. We already dealt with that issue.”

Shaheen, a longtime critic of shutdowns who is standing with Schumer in opposition to the GOP bill, said it’s not viable to wait until the end of the year to act on the Obamacare funding, as insurers are setting rates for 2026 now.

“People are getting their premium increases right now, and it’s one more thing on top of the cost of food and electricity and rent and child care and all the other expenses that people are incurring,” she told NBC News.

Republicans control the Senate by a margin of 53-47, but they need 60 votes to break a filibuster and pass a funding bill. They are currently five Democratic votes short, and have seen no movement since the shutdown began Oct. 1.

In response to Republicans branding it the “Schumer shutdown,” the Democratic leader replied, “Republicans control the Senate, the House, and the White House.”

Implied in Schumer’s comments is that Republicans can abolish the 60-vote threshold in order to reopen the government if they refuse to negotiate to get Democratic votes. But GOP party leaders are deeply reluctant to use the “nuclear option” on the legislative filibuster, as that would permanently change the Senate and set a precedent conservatives fear they’ll regret when Democrats return to power.

“The super-majority requirement is something that makes the Senate the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Friday. “And honestly, if we had done that, there’s a whole lot of bad things that could have been done by the other side.”

“If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would have tried to nuke the filibuster, and then you’d have four new United States senators from Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. You’d have a packed Supreme Court,” Thune said. “You’d have abortion on demand.”

Johnson also weighed in on growing calls on the right to repeal Obamacare, a long-standing goal of conservatives, and said in a lengthy answer to NBC News that “Obamacare failed the American people” and that the system needs “dramatic reform.” He said he has “PTSD” from the GOP’s repeal effort in 2017 and remains frustrated that it failed.

“Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare? Many of us are skeptical about that now, because the roots are so deep. It was really sinister, the way, in my view, the way it was created,” he said Monday. “I believe Obamacare was created to implode upon itself, to collapse upon itself.”

Justin Chermol, a spokesman for the House Democratic campaign arm, responded, “Mike Johnson just admitted the GOP’s ‘health care plan’ isn’t only about slashing Medicaid and shuttering rural hospitals. Republicans are still desperate to repeal the Affordable Care Act and rip away protections for people with pre-existing conditions — as the Speaker made clear this morning while reliving his trauma after failing to take away health care in 2017.”

One day earlier, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., posted on X, “House Republicans are now scheming to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And take away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans.”