Greene: GOP will lose House if it doesn’t tackle cost of living

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) ramped up her criticism of House Republican leadership, saying the GOP will lose the House if the cost of living does not decrease.

“I can’t see into the future, but I see Republicans losing the House if Americans are continuing to go paycheck-to-paycheck,” she told Semafor in an interview published Monday.

“They’ll definitely be going into the midterms looking through the lens of their bank account.”

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) directed The Hill to an interview he did with CNBC last Thursday.

“I’m very bullish about the midterms,” Johnson said. “I’m absolutely convinced that we’re going to grow the House majority here and keep the Senate, of course, and we’ll be able to give President Trump four years and not just two.”

Johnson also claimed that Republicans are “doing the right thing” in pushing for a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government.

Republicans hold a 219-213 edge in the House; Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has been pushing to be sworn in after she won a special election to fill her late father Raúl Grijalva’s seat, but Johnson maintains he’ll swear her in when the House returns.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, household debt, mortgage balances and credit card balances rose by $185 billion, $131 billion and $27 billion, respectively, in the second quarter of 2025. Since the end of 2019, household debt has increased by $4.24 trillion.

Greene has blasted Johnson and House GOP leadership throughout the ongoing government shutdown, which began Oct. 1. The conservative congresswoman has repeatedly called on the Speaker to bring the lower chamber back to resolve the funding stalemate.

Earlier Monday, Greene said on the social platform X that the House “should be in session working” and that she has “no respect for the decision to refuse to work.” In keeping the House out of session during the shutdown, Johnson has argued the chamber “did its job” in passing a GOP-backed funding bill on Sept. 19. 

During the first week of the shutdown, Greene also said on X that she was “absolutely disgusted” that health insurance premiums are projected to more than double for millions of people if Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits expire. The Georgia lawmaker, while noting she’s “not a fan” of the 2010 law, slammed Republicans for not having a concrete plan on the impending increase in premiums.

Johnson told Fox News days later that he had a “thoughtful conservation” with Greene regarding her concerns. 

“There’s a lot that can be done, but you have to build consensus in a large, deliberative, public body like this,” the Speaker added.

However, Greene told Semafor “there is intense frustration within our conference that we aren’t passing our appropriations and we’re not in session.” She also said there has not been “one single GOP conference call” on health care.

“The Republican Party is failing,” she said.