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12/11/2025 Obamacare Subsidies and Religious Liberty Concerns in Sudan
December 12, 2025 · 54 min
Tony and guests dive into the expiring Obamacare subsidies, the DOJ's backing of Virginia school students, the NDAA, and the civil war and religious liberty concerns in Sudan.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio
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December 12, 2025 · 54 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio
Tony and guests dive into the expiring Obamacare subsidies, the DOJ's backing of Virginia school students, the NDAA, and the civil war and religious liberty concerns in Sudan. ...more Show the full description Show less Tony and guests dive into the expiring Obamacare subsidies, the DOJ's backing of Virginia school students, the NDAA, and the civil war and religious liberty concerns in Sudan.
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In this video 0:00 Obamacare Subsidies Stalemate and Republican Pushback13:43 National Defense Act Victory and Sudan Crisis24:38 Panel Insights on Policy Battles and Cultural Wins33:53 Exposing SPLC, Empowering Faith, and Global PersecutionComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Obamacare Subsidies Stalemate and Republican Pushback 0:00 From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, DC, bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers,0:13 biblical world view. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.0:19 The perverse incentives it provides to insurance companies to enroll Americans, some of whom don't even know that they've been enrolled. So the insurance companies can rake in even more, So the insurance companies can0:29 rake in even more subsidies. And then this so called plan is rampant, and I say rampant, with fraud and abuse.0:40 That was senate majority leader John Thune speaking earlier today during the vote to the Obamacare extensions. Welcome to this December eleventh edition of Washington Watch, coming to you from the FRC Media0:52 Center in front of a live audience. I'm your host, Tony Perkins. Thanks for joining us. Well, coming up, enhanced Obamacare subsidies are set to expire at year's end, and the senate has now failed to1:04 advance either party's competing health care plans. Maryland congressman Andy Harris joins us to break down what the house will do next. And Texas congressman Chip Roy joins us to discuss new house efforts to1:16 cut federal ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has repeatedly targeted conservative organizations, including Family Research Council.
1:29 Well, Congress is running out of time to stop health care premiums from spiking on January first. With the senate deadlock, tax credits for 24000000 Americans are set to expire. So Republicans say
1:41 their plan would deliver targeted relief while blocking taxpayer funding for abortion and gender transition procedures, but Democrats have rejected it outright. So what happens next? Joining me now
1:53 is Washington stand reporter Casey Harper, who has been following today's stories from Capitol Hill. Casey, where does this leave the negotiations, and what are the Republicans saying as the deadline
2:04 approaches? What's the next step?
2:07 Yeah. Well, thanks, Tony. Well, this breakdown came after both parties blocked each other's bills in the senate. Republicans pushed a plan offering up to 1500 dollars in direct help for middle income families
2:19 with guardrails to prevent funds from being used for abortion or gender transition procedures. Those are provisions, of course, that Democrats refused to accept. Here's what majority leader John Thune said about
2:31 Democrats today.
2:32 Well, I hope that after today, they'll feel like they've checked the messaging box and will get serious about actually doing something about the
2:44 spiraling health care costs under Obamacare. Republicans are ready to get to work, mister president. I'm not sure yet
2:56 the Democrats are interested.
3:00 Now Democrats instead want to extend the COVID era Obamacare subsidies for 3 more years. With premiums expected to jump dramatically, even Republicans like senator Josh Hawley warned that Congress
3:12 can't walk away without a fix. But GOP leaders say Democrats created this crisis and now refuse to negotiate. For now, there's no deal, but the house is considering several plans that could be debated
3:24 and voted on as early as next week, Tony.
3:27 Alright. Thanks, Casey. Last night, it took the house a little longer to pass the National Defense Authorization Act. Speaker Mike Johnson had to use his negotiating skills once again to convince 5 GOP holdouts to get
3:39 the bill across the finish line. Give us a brief update on this and what next steps are.
3:47 Yeah. Never a dull day for the speaker, Tony, but you're absolutely right. The house passed the nearly 1000000000000 dollar 20 26 National Defense Authorization Act after speaker Johnson convinced those 5 holdouts to
3:58 support the bill, marking 65 years of annual approval.
4:02 On this vote, the yeas are 3 12, the nays are 1 12. The bill is passed without objection. A motion to reconsider is laid on the table.
4:10 No. The NDAA provides full support for Israel's missile defense systems, including Iron Dome, and it calls for reviews of international arms embargoes. Attempts to mandate coverage for IVF and
4:22 transgender related procedures were left out of the final bill, a move that was applauded by pro life and family policy advocates. The bill now heads to the senate next week, Tony.
4:33 Alright. Earlier today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Africa held a hearing on Sudan. I had the privilege of testifying. Casey, from your perspective as a reporter, what are the key takeaways
4:45 from that important discussion about what's happening in Sudan right now?
4:50 Yeah. Major hearing, Tony. And as you know, New Jersey congressman Chris Smith, who's been a longtime champion of human rights, chaired the hearing today. Now 1 of the most shocking statistics he raised is that since 20
5:01 23, up to 150000 civilians have been slaughtered, and over 10000000 have been displaced in Sudan. Killings, rapes, abductions, and child soldier recruitment
5:13 continue. US officials condemned atrocities by both Sudan's rapid support forces and armed forces. They stressed that attacks on aid convoys must stop, and a ceasefire is urgently
5:24 needed. Congressman Smith also gave a special shout out to you, Tony, while raising alarms about the persecution of Christians in Sudan. Here's what he had to say.
5:34 Former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Tony Perkins, has also led a delegation to Sudan. And in 20 20 and today, will testify, that both the RSF and
5:45 the SAF have a common enemy in Christians. Christians have been denied food aid and told, unless you leave your Christianity, you will not get any
5:57 food.
6:00 Now the US has provided 4, 400000000 dollars in humanitarian aid and sanctioned over 40 individuals fueling the conflict while negotiating a truce with regional partners. Former ambassador for
6:11 International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, warned that a civilian led government protecting religious freedom is essential, and ending the war is crucial for millions of lives and US global
6:23 leadership. Tony?
6:24 Oh, thanks, Casey. Sudan has certainly slipped backward, and, Christians, among others, are once again facing fear, pressure, and open persecution. But it's just 1 spot, just 1
6:36 spot, in the world. The world is on fire. A lot to be praying about. You know, I've seen how much hope there was 1 there was at 1 point and how quickly it has been lost. Now my prayers that America will stand
6:48 with the innocent people of Sudan, support a future where they can live and worship freely again. But part of the conversation we had this afternoon was there we have to address those underlying issues, and, that's not
7:00 just the immediate crisis. We've been here before. It's the underlying lack of a foundation of a civil society large in large part because they do not have that religious freedom. Alright,
7:12 Casey. Thanks for the update. I I would ask you for a weather report, but I could tell you're already cold, so I don't guess I need it.
7:18 My lips are frozen.
7:20 Alright. Thanks so much for joining us. Alright. As we were talking about earlier, we're talking about the issue of the battle over health care. I wanna go back to that topic and get a second opinion from a doctor.
7:31 Joining me now is, congressman doctor Andy Harris, who is the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. He represents the first congressional district of Maryland, and he is a
7:43 medical doctor. Doctor Harris, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
7:48 Good to be with you, Tony.
7:49 So let me ask you, what does it mean that the senate has now rejected the 2 rival health bills? What are the next steps?
7:58 Well, I I do think the house may take action next week. We're gonna take action if we do to actually help, lower the cost of, health care insurance premiums, for, you know, basically all of Americans who are on,
8:10 private health care insurance, not just, the small number that are on Obamacare. This is a this is a problem that goes, well past the Obamacare, increase in premiums, and we need we need to address it for many
8:22 more Americans than just the narrow, the narrow bill that the Democrats put forward in the senate.
8:28 Let me ask you, congressman Harris, what it says about the Democrats in the senate that they had an opportunity to extend these if they would have allowed for hide type protections
8:40 for taxpayers, not forcing them into funding abortion and gender transition procedures. They rejected that. What's the real issue here?
8:50 Well, I'm I'm not sure what the real issue is. I think they just want a health care issue because I'm not sure they wanna solve it because if they did, it would be very simple. Let's just put hide into it, and then we'll
9:00 we'll take it under consideration, because we really shouldn't be spending, taxpayer dollars on abortion. That that that's a view of the majority of Americans, whether you're in a pro choice or pro life state. The bottom
9:12 line is a majority of Americans believe you shouldn't be using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. And, of course, that's what the Hyde Amendment does.
9:19 I I have to say, I think it was a pretty generous move on behalf of Republicans who have never voted for Obamacare nor did they vote for these COVID era subsidies, but yet they're willing to say, if we put
9:31 these life protecting provisions on there, we'll do some extensions till we have time to address the underlying issue of health care and the reform that's truly needed to bring it back to the private sector.
9:44 That's absolutely right. We're willing to come to the negotiating table, but, again, a precondition is that it has to include hide protections. Nothing coming out of a Republican house is not gonna have hide protections
9:54 attached. Because the bottom line is we do believe very strongly, not only that we're pro life, but that, we shouldn't be spending taxpayer dollars, to fund abortion.
10:04 Yeah. This has been alluded to, and I think we've talked about this on the program before. These are COVID era subsidies, premium subsidies.
10:16 They we were told they were needed because of COVID. Of course, everything is needed because of COVID. But this was needed. But in reality, it was propping up a failed health care system. And that's the real issue here
10:27 for Democrats is they have to prop this up because their house of health care cards are about to come tumbling down.
10:35 That's absolutely right. You know, the 3 promises of Obamacare, 1 is that if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, not true. If you like your insurance company, you can keep your insurance company, not true.
10:44 And, oh, by the way, this is gonna bring down premiums for each family by 2500 dollars, not true. It greatly increased premiums. So Obamacare is a huge failure. This would, in fact, prop it up. It would be sending,
10:56 you know, good money after bad. And, the the fraud rate is probably on the order of 25 percent of the, 24000000 people who are on Obamacare, because of these
11:07 COVID era enhanced subsidies. So, there is no way we were gonna consider an a a clean extension at all. But even to consider any kind of extension, even taking
11:19 measures against fraud into account, you'd have to include real hide, not hide light, not, you know, some promise like Obama made when he passed Obamacare in his executive order that said, oh, no. This this is
11:31 all compliant. No. No. We we wanna put Hyde in statute, and it actually would be in statute for the first time, Tony.
11:38 That would be a, a great advancement forward. But re in reality, doctor Harris, I mean, we have basically a week left congressionally of and then we've got the Christmas break
11:50 come back next year. Is there time really for congress to to solve this crisis created by the Democrats and these subsidies?
12:01 Oh, well, if the if, again, if the Democrats really don't want to do anything about it and not include high, there probably isn't gonna be time. But the bottom line is we could we could do this in January because this is
12:11 a tax credit. It could always be given retroactively. So we could actually, assemble a much larger package. Again, taking care of the over 100000000 people who have private health insurance who are not on Obamacare, but,
12:23 dealing with some of the the the true hardship cases that will come, from a step change in the ex expiration of the COVID era and enhanced subsidies.
12:32 Alright. Doctor Harris, final question for you. I wanna step back from the, debate over health care Affordable Care Act or the not so Affordable Care Act. And I wanna talk about the appropriations because when you come
12:42 back from Jan from the break in January, you've just got about 3 weeks to deal with the appropriations bill. We've got the CR that will be expiring.
12:54 Will we be able to get the appropriations bills through?
12:57 I think we will get a a large number of them through. Hopefully, we get them all through by January, but I think the senate's gonna take action. If they don't take action, this week, and they time is running out for
13:07 them. They will take action next week. Send us a package of 5 bills. The house will probably work on 2 or 3 of those bills pretty quickly. We might even be able to pass a another 2 or 3 bill package by next Friday before
13:19 we leave, home for the Christmas holiday. But if we don't, we would take it up immediately in January. The Senate could take that package up, and then that would leave only half the bills, to be resolved, in those
13:31 last 3 weeks in January. Certainly something that could be done if we put our, mind to it, and I'm hoping that we do.
13:38 Alright. Doctor Andy Harris, always great to see you. Thanks so much for, taking time to join us today.
National Defense Act Victory and Sudan Crisis
13:43 Thank you, Tony.
13:44 And, folks, I wanna encourage you to weigh in on this debate over the Affordable Care Act and the extensions whether we have them or not, but that the fact that we need hide. Text ACA to 6 7 7 4
13:55 2. ACA to 6 7 7 4 2. Alright. Don't go away. Hello. I'm Tony Perkins, and I wanna invite you to join me for stand on the word, a daily journey through the bible, 10 to 15 minutes a day.
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17:01 Well, Merry Christmas, and welcome back to Washington Watch. Hey. We're coming to you from our media center in, our headquarters in Washington DC before a live audience of our supporters.
17:14 Good to have them here. We've been spending a couple of days together. It's always great to have, friends in town. Well, this has been a busy week. Next week will be a busy week, but we wanna kind of unpack what's
17:26 happened this week. So our, in house studio panel, Kena Gonzalez, senior director of government affairs at the Family Research Council, and Suzanne Bowley, editorial director and
17:37 senior writer at the Washington Stand. Kena, Suzanne, thanks so much for joining me this evening.
17:43 Thanks, Tony.
17:44 Alright. So, in last segment, I was talking with, congressman Andy Harris, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, also a medical doctor, about the battle over the, health care. Kana, what are you and your team tracking
17:56 with regards to this? Is something gonna happen before the end of the year?
18:00 Oh, goodness. Predicting Congress, Tony. Good luck. There is a strong push in in, some quarters, even of the Republican Party, to try to extend these COVID era Obamacare subsidies.
18:12 And conservatives like Andy Harris and many, many others are hoping that that does not happen, or if it does, that it's either time limited, that we sort of ease into a new model, and that, as you have already said,
18:25 that we make sure that these subsidies do not fund abortion and gender transition procedures.
18:29 I mean, Suzanne, this creates a problem politically for Republicans. As I talked with doctor Harris, no Republicans ever voted for Obamacare. They have never voted for the subsidies
18:41 that came during COVID in the Biden administration. If they were to vote for something like this right now,
18:48 they would be, they they would be challenged by their by their own party
18:53 back in their Of
18:54 course, the media is not gonna be their friend in this, and that's just 1 of the challenges that Republicans face right now. You talked with doctor Harris about Democrats who basically just wanna extend the subsidies and
19:04 have no interest in bipartisan compromise on this issue. You also mentioned time is short. We're looking at the end of the calendar year for the subsidies to expire. There's 1 week left of in congress for them to
19:15 negotiate something that seems unlikely, especially considering, third, Republicans aren't on the same page themselves about what they wanna do for an alternative. And lastly, getting some of those moderate Republicans
19:26 along with Democrats to to agree on something like the high protections, which for us is nonnegotiable, that is a tall, tall battle even for Mike Johnson.
19:34 Yeah. I I mean, I don't see anything happening before the end of the year. If they're gonna do if they're gonna do real change, it's gonna require some diligence, some work, and and I don't think they should put a band
19:46 aid on this. I think they should, they should really go in and provide as, senator Rick Scott has proposed using the health savings accounts, making this more of a doctor patient
19:58 transaction as opposed to a insurance company.
20:02 Yeah. Tony, you're absolutely right. This sort of end of year urgency to get just get something done so we can go home for Christmas and say we did it is a really, really dangerous time in Washington.
20:12 But that but that's how they operate.
20:13 That's yes. That's the memory muscle we have here. But the speaker and others are trying to break that and reshape the way congress thinks.
20:20 And the reality is when it comes to Obamacare, we actually have the opportunity to do that. The plans for 20 26 have already been written, have already been promulgated, and so this end of year urgency to please do
20:32 something is much more political than it is an actual reality.
20:35 They've known all this time that this was gonna sunset, and they had plenty of time to do something. They shouldn't have shut the government down.
20:40 They could
20:41 have been negotiating.
20:42 Democrats set this sunset 3 years ago. We've known this was coming. So the urgency is in some ways a false 1 and a purely political 1.
20:49 Yeah. But, again, I go back to the point I made with, doctor Harris. I think the Obamacare or maybe the Biden era subsidies for COVID was simply to prop up a failing system. And
21:01 this if they don't do something, it's going to expose that Obamacare does not work.
21:07 That's right.
21:07 The Republicans have been saying that all along, but the American people are going to see it. Alright. I wanna move on to another topic, the Defense Authorization Act, a little bit of, wrangling there to, to get that
21:18 out. Finally got it out. Out. Who wants to, to tackle that?
21:21 Tina, you go first.
21:22 The NDAA, as it's called, the National Defense Authorization Act, passes every year. It's 1 of the few pieces of legislation that we can count on, Tony, that passes every single year. It's called must pass legislation,
21:33 and it's because it has pay raises and other necessities for military families and for the military itself. And so everybody and their mother tries to attach whatever they're trying to get through Congress to this.
21:44 Because so so few bills actually pass.
21:47 And this bill must pass every year. And once again, we're down to the wire on the NDAA. And coming down to this wire, we were very concerned at FRC because we knew that there had been some things that had been inserted
21:59 into the NDA that really don't belong there, and some of those affect our pro life, pro family policies, and they we've been watching those very closely.
22:06 Able to get some out.
22:07 Yes. Very exciting.
22:09 Yeah. So it was, overall a good bill. Never perfect, but, some years better than others. I would put this in what category, Suzanne?
22:17 I would say great. Yeah. I mean, there are things that we wish were in there, but, gosh, I mean, when you consider they've prohibited all the DEI, we got out taxpayer funded IVF, which, as we know, destroys embryos. We
22:28 also have family leave now, not just if you're adopting a child, but for foster families. I mean, there's a lot of good in this bill.
22:36 Alright. Suzanne, I'm gonna go to, a a non Hill story that you've been tracking that's, worth noting. Fill us in.
22:43 Right. I think a lot of people are aware now of the controversy that's been happening in Loudoun County. I mean, it's hard to keep track of the controversies in Loudoun County where the school district is concerned. You
22:51 know, we've had some teachers who've been suspended and for using wrong pronouns or for fighting the transgender policy there. But earlier this year, there were 2 Christian boys who were in a locker room, and a
23:03 biological girl came in and began filming them. Naturally, they were extremely uncomfortable. They went and talked to p school administrators, and actually it was the boys that ended up getting in trouble. They were
23:14 suspended under the auspices of sexual harassment because they referred to this girl, biological girl, in their locker room as a girl. So the parents have now sued the school district, but what happened this week, which
23:26 is which is absolutely awesome and just it's a great sign that we have the Trump administration here to do things like this, but the DOJ is joining this suit. They have a motion to intervene, which will really help these
23:36 boys out. I mean, this never should have happened.
23:38 Again, this goes back to what it looked like a freight train coming, you know, just a few years ago with all this gender, ideology that was
23:50 being forced down the throats of children and parents as a result of the the Obama administration. But because parents stood up and pushed back at local school boards, they risked
24:02 being called domestic terrorists, but it was for their children, and they did not stop. We have we have seen a reversal of that that cultural push.
24:13 Right. And this is actually 1 of the few holdouts remaining. I I feel like Virginia is really standing alone when they're protecting these really unpopular, controversial policies.
24:22 Yeah. Yep. But it's it's a it's a good news story that when we stand up and speak truth, eventually you'll get enough people who say, yeah, they're right. They their warning was correct.
24:34 Suzanne, cana, thanks so much for joining me.
24:36 Thanks, Tony.
24:38 Alright. Alright, folks. When we come back, I'm not sure what we're gonna have, but we're gonna have somebody. We've got several members of congress still to come, but they are coming off Capitol Hill to, to join us hereShow more
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