You can’t say that Team Trump is in denial about the extent and the implications of the electoral rebuke its party received on November 4. All of a sudden, from the president on down, Republicans can’t stop talking about affordability. Donald Trump himself alternates between claiming he’s already pushed the cost of living way down and publicly mulling ways to convince Americans to feel better about their ability to make ends meet. Obviously Republicans need to improve the president’s sinking job-approval numbers in anticipation of high-stakes midterm elections. But more immediately, the GOP must decide how to deal with the health-insurance “cliff” it created by failing to extend Obamacare premium subsidies in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and then refusing Democratic demands to fix the problem in legislation reopening the government.

Republicans clearly can’t bring themselves to just extend the subsidies, even with the concessions on their cost and eligibility that Democrats would almost certainly accept. The Senate vote they........

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