Shutdown appears inevitable after Senate fails to pass funding plans
Office of Management and Budget orders federal agencies to launch shutdown plans From CNN's Kaanita Iyer Hours ahead of the midnight government shutdown deadline, the Office of Management and Budget is asking federal agencies to launch their shutdown plans, blaming Democrats for the upcoming lapse in funding.
“President Trump supports passage of H.R. 5371, but it is now clear that Democrats will prevent passage of this clean CR prior to 11:59pm tonight and force a government shutdown,” OMB Director Russell Vought’s letter to agency heads reads. “As such, affected agencies should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.”
The letter also asks federal employees to “report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities.”
Several agencies have announced their shutdown plans, which includes furloughing thousands of federal workers, while many others will have to continue working without pay.
Vought said earlier today that the government has the authority “to make permanent change to the bureaucracy,” such as cutting jobs and programs rather than just furloughing government workers.
Nothing that comes out of Maxine Waters' mouth should shock anyone at this point. Making her into a mouthpiece for the DNC is one of the shrewdest political moves I've seen out of the RNC/MAGA.
I would argue that 'blaming the Dems' when the other side has a stranglehold on every branch is equally head-scratching... but that's the playbook these days.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
So they are showing the country who they really are. They will shut down the government and stop real citizens from government aid because they want to give illegals healthcare. They simply do not acre about their own citizens!!!
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." Margarat Thatcher
Based on recent reports, millions of Americans will face significant increases in their healthcare premiums in 2026 if enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans are allowed to expire. The claim that a Republican plan is causing this can be tied to the expiration of these subsidies under legislation passed by a Republican-led Congress, and the party's general opposition to extending them.
You want working people to have huge increases in their healthcare costs because Republicans are telling you to. People who make too much money for medicaid but who do not make enough money to buy private health insurance and their employers offer no healthcare.
Murica! Freedumb!
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
No they did not. They voted it down to protect over 20 million Americans on Obamacare from having huge increases in their healthcare premiums. Try to keep up for a change.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
So no matter what's in a spending bill, no matter who it hurts, the only one's to blame are those who voted no?
Yes, they voted to shut down the government to protect illegals.
George Stephanopoulos humiliates Mike Johnson TO HIS FACE with brutal on-air fact check over his shutdown lies!
Contrary to what the GOP says, the government is shut down for one reason and one reason only — because Republicans won’t extend the healthcare subsidies keeping millions of Americans on their healthcare.
Stephanopoulos put the question directly to Johnson, asking him straight-up why he doesn’t want Americans to have health insurance: “The Democratic proposal is designed to prevent millions of Americans from losing their health insurance, losing Medicaid coverage, or paying higher health care premiums. Why are you against that?”
Johnson sputtered “that’s an absurd statement. Let's be clear about what happened last night, George” — but before he could get to his lies, Stephanopoulos informed him and everyone watching that “That’s a factual statement.”
The House Speaker rolled out the GOP’s Big Lie Of The Week, saying “The Democrats said instead that they wanted to give health care to illegal aliens instead of keeping critical services provided for the American citizens. That's what happened, plain and simple.”
But Stephanopoulos set the record straight. “Here are the facts. The proposal does NOT provide health care for illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants cannot buy health care under the Affordable Care Act. They cannot receive health care subsidies. Immigrants are ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Program. The Democratic bill does not make them eligible.”
I find it a little nauseating that congress members continue to get paid during a shutdown but folks like janitors and park rangers don't.
AMEN
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
So no matter what's in a spending bill, no matter who it hurts, the only one's to blame are those who voted no?
I think you need to think more about the people being hurt by a shutdown.
Holding up a spending bill just because you didn't get something through the legislative process is a bad look.
If you want to hold things up just so illegals get free health care, go for it.
Not to mention, without congress, President Trump is free to doge any "unnecessary" workers he wants.
Face it, the Dems can claim anything they want. They can post up bogus poll after poll but when people stop getting paychecks in a few weeks, if this lasts that long, the vast majority of those people are going to blame the no votes.
Backpay sounds great but it doesn't help if you have bills due today.
I don't care which side plays this game, but Congress shouldn't keep being paid in a shutdown, and I would be in favor if they didn't get any backpay as well. Do that and this silliness would stop.
I would be more in favor of a shutdown if the goal was to reduce spending, not increase spending.
Call me insensitive or anything you want, but I don't care a whole lot about the free healthcare for illegal aliens.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
Holding up a spending bill just because you didn't get something through the legislative process is a bad look.
According to who? You think huge increases in 20 million Americans healthcare premiums is simply "didn't get something"?
There was no "legislative process". And that's the problem. Republicans wrote this up and said take it or leave it. That's an ultimatum not a process.
There is no "free healthcare for illegal aliens"...................................
GOP misleads with claim that Democrats shut down to give health care to 'illegal immigrants'
U.S. law prohibits federal health care benefits for undocumented immigrants. Democrats want to return benefits for those with lawful presence, like DACA recipients and asylum-seekers.
The sooner we quit with the pearl-clutching over political maneuverings that each party has done, the sooner we can get to the real root cause. You had it exactly right in one of your previous posts... it's ludicrous that the same politicians throwing the temper tantrums and holding everything up make up the few that continue to get paid into the shutdown.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Hiltzik: The GOP says the Obamacare subsidies at the center of the shutdown are unimportant. Millions of Americans would disagree Michael Hiltzik Thu, October 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT
1.3k Vice President JD Vance talks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington, as House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., listen. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Vice President JD Vance, center, tries to blame Democrats for the government shutdown while speaking Monday at the White House, flanked by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), left, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-S.D.) (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) More Republicans on Capitol Hill and at the White House have been working assiduously to belittle the concerns of Democrats about healthcare subsidies that are scheduled to expire at the end of this year and have become the central issue provoking the government shutdown that began Wednesday morning.
Democrats thus far have held fast to their demand that the subsidies be extended as a condition of their voting for the GOP's budget plan. But their position has been wildly misrepresented by the GOP.
The Democrats' demands would fund "free healthcare for illegals," Vice-President Vance said Monday, after a meeting of GOP and Democratic congressional leaders at the White House broke up without a compromise. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and others in his caucus have maintained that the "policy debate" about extending the subsidies should wait until December, while funding the government must take priority.
Premium tax credits for ACA marketplace coverage provide the greatest benefit for people who need the most help. The tax exclusion for employer health coverage does the opposite.
Gideon Lukens, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Both GOP assertions are wrong — so wrong that, given how thoroughly the truth about subsidies for "illegals" and the effect of delaying a decision has been aired in the press and in the government's own data, they rank not as mistakes or misrepresentations, but outright lies.
For one thing, Vance must know that undocumented immigrants aren't eligible for federally paid ACA health benefits. How do we know that's the case? It's stated by, among other government sources, the website for healthcare.gov, the federal ACA marketplace. I asked the White House to explain Vance's claim, but got no reply.
As for the timing of subsidy discussions, could Johnson be unaware that ACA insurers need to know what the subsidies will be in 2026 in order to estimate their costs and therefore set their premiums? Insurers have been screaming about this from the rooftops for months. I tried to reach Johnson's office to comment, but the office was closed due to the government shutdown.
The Republican position depends on a well-known phenomenon: Most Americans don't know much if anything about the subsidies, which reduce premium payouts for middle- and lower-income Americans in the Affordable Care Act (call it "Obamacare," if you prefer) marketplace.
Those who benefit from the subsidies — 13.4 million Americans, of whom two-thirds have household income up to $96,450 for a family of four — know, or will find out, that losing them will drive their healthcare costs up to or beyond affordability.
Sample 40-year-olds with income of $23,475, or 150% of the federal poverty level this year, would see their annual premiums increase from zero under existing subsidies to $920 a year without them, according to an estimate by Drew Altman of KFF. That's the rough equivalent of about one-fourth of their annual food budget and one-third of their spending on utilities and fuel.
Couples earning about 400% of the federal poverty level, or household income of $84,600, the annual premium for a benchmark Silver-tier ACA plan would rise to about $21,340, Altman estimates, up from $7,225 under current rules. The new figure would be more than double their food budget and more than four times their utility and fuel spending. For many such households, the increase would force them to choose between healthcare and food and utilities.
"This is how almost 24 million moderate-income working people will experience the loss of the enhanced tax credits — in the context of family budgets already straining to pay for food, utilities and housing," Altman wrote. "They don’t look at it the way we often do in health — 'it’s X dollars more.' They experience it as X dollars more on top of everything else. And right now, most everything else is also going up."
For those not in the ACA market, including recipients of Medicare and Medicaid and families receiving coverage via their employers, the subsidies are a black box. That makes them vulnerable to GOP misrepresentations.
Accordingly, it behooves me to provide this simple explainer. What's important is the bottom line: If the subsidies are allowed to expire, Obamacare premiums are likely to soar by at least 20%. Families that are currently paying nothing for their healthcare will be hit with premium bills reaching tens of thousands of dollars per person. As many as 5 million Americans are expected to lose or abandon their coverage due to its increased cost.
So let's start with the fundamentals.
When the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, it emerged with several well-known flaws resulting from partisan compromises. Perhaps the most important shortcoming was the structure of its premium subsidies, which were designed to make ACA plans affordable for middle- and low-income households.
Read more: Obamacare has been an economic boon, but some red states still don't get the message
The original ACA subsidies capped premiums on a sliding scale ranging from 2.07% of income for those earning 138% of the federal poverty line to 9.83% of income for those at 400% of the poverty line. This year, 138% of the poverty level for a family of four is $44,367 and 400% is $128,600.
The ACA's architects knew these subsidies were inadequate. Especially troubling was the sharp cutoff of any subsidies for families earning even a dime more than 400% of the poverty level. This became known as the "subsidy cliff." But it was an artifact of budget politics; the expectation was that Congress would get around to fixing the cheeseparing subsidy schedule at a later date.
Nothing happened until the pandemic. In the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Congress refashioned the subsidies so that families with income up to 150% of the poverty level ($56,475 for a family of four this year) could find decent Obamacare plans for free. For those above that level and up to 400%, the subsidies were significantly increased, though the change was set to expire as of this Dec. 31.
premium credits The pandemic-era enhancements to Obamacare's premium tax credits, or subidies, nearly doubled enrollments within three years. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) The act eliminated the subsidy cliff by limiting the premiums for families at 400% or above to 8.5% of applicable income. More importantly, they turbo-charged ACA health plan enrollments, which roughly doubled to 19.3 million from 9.7 million in the three years after the subsidies were increased. Unless you think that more Americans getting health coverage is a bad thing, this makes the case for extending the subsidies past Dec. 31.
Republicans and conservatives have misrepresented the pandemic-era change as a handout to millionaires. Perhaps the quintessentially mendacious treatment of the subsidy issue came from Dean Clancy of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded right-wing think tank. In a screed published in the Hill on Sept. 18 advocating the subsidies' expiration, Clancy attacked what he labeled "Biden's health insurance handouts" as benefiting "even millionaires."
Basic math exposes that claim as balderdash. Someone earning $1 million a year would have to pay no more than $85,000 per person for an ACA plan.
Is this a handout? ACA expert Charles Gaba tested the claim by hunting for a benchmark Silver ACA plan, on which the subsidies are based, costing that much anywhere in the U.S. The highest-cost plans he found anywhere are in four counties of West Virginia, where a Silver plan for a 64-year-old couple tops out at $63,100 a year — in a state with the highest ACA premiums in the nation.
Via AfP, I offered Clancy an opportunity to respond to analyses of his article by Gaba and others, but got no answer.
What the conservative hand-wringing over the Obamacare subsidies overlooks is how they compare to the subsidies enjoyed by the majority of American households that get their health coverage through their employers. Their premiums are exempt from federal income tax and payroll tax. The cost of those exclusions comes to about $200 billion a year, according to a Treasury report in December. The ACA subsidies cost only $121.3 billion annually.
More to the point, the employer-coverage subsidies are heavily skewed toward more affluent households. Only 11% of employee-coverage households with income of $64,300 or less (that's 200% of the poverty level for a family of four) receive them, but nearly one-third earn more than 700% of the poverty level ($225,000 for a family of four). By contrast, two-thirds of the families receiving ACA subsidies earn less than 300% of the poverty level ($96,450 for a family of four) and only 8% earn more than 700% of the poverty level.
"Premium tax credits for ACA marketplace coverage provide the greatest benefit for people who need the most help," observed Gideon Lukens of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in December. "The tax exclusion for employer health coverage does the opposite....The improvements to premium tax credits made them much more progressive."
Under the circumstances, the GOP's insistence that the healthcare subsidies be taken out of the current budget debate and deferred to the end of the year looks like a cynical ploy. There's no guarantee, obviously, that the Republicans will be more willing to accept an extension months from now, when they've put the budget conflict behind them. Their ploy is to deprive Democrats of leverage. And why should Democrats give that up?
Let's make no mistake about the broader context: The GOP has had its knives out for the Affordable Care Act since its enactment. In the intervening 15 years, the law has only become more popular, but that hasn't kept the Republicans from looking for more ways to sap its value for the millions of Americans who depend on it. The attack on subsidies is a stalking horse for their long-term project of killing Obamacare. This is not the time to let them do it.
As one of the co-authors and chief architects of Project 2025, Russell Vought helped shape its proposals to drastically shrink the federal government and expand presidential power. He is now implementing these policies as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the second Trump administration..............................
Trump, Vought to decide which "Democrat Agencies" to cut during shutdown "opportunity"
President Trump said Thursday he will meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, "of PROJECT 2025 Fame," to discuss agency cuts on day two of the government shutdown.
The big picture: The White House, already waging a precedent-shattering messaging war, is seeking to make the shutdown as politically painful as possible for Democrats, threatening mass firings that labor unions say are unlawful and turn federal workers into pawns.
Trump is signaling the administration will begin to lay off "a lot" of federal workers, despite a union lawsuit arguing such actions are "contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious."
Driving the news: Trump said in a Truth Social post he and Vought will decide "which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent."
He added, he "can't believe the Radical Left Democrats" gave him the "unprecedented opportunity" to do so.
Yes, but: The president doesn't have the authority to unilaterally eliminate agencies created by Congress.
The intrigue: In his post, Trump referenced Vought's ties to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint to reshape life for millions of Americans and expand executive power.
Trump repeatedly distanced himself from the plan, which became a centerpiece of Democrats' 2024 opposition.
But on Wednesday, he recognized his OMB director's long-reported ties to the playbook as a key co-author.
Catch up quick: Ahead of the shutdown, Vought instructed agencies to prepare "Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees" in programs that are "not consistent with the president's priorities."
Democrats largely downplayed the threat, but it seems the White House is barreling forward with its drive to further hollow out agencies already pummeled by DOGE cuts. The shutdown could see approximately 750,000 federal employees furloughed each day.
The labor unions who sued the administration argued that "carrying out RIFs is plainly not a permitted (or 'excepted') function that can lawfully continue during a shutdown."
Yes, they said he was just trying to pwn the dems and not serious about almost everything he has done so far. The first president to act like a king and rule via social media. Murica! Freedumb!
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Anybody who thinks dems caused this is delusional. Dems are fighting to keep people’s insurance via ACA (Obamacare) renewal and reversing any cuts to medicaid that they can. So cynical… Trump is a straight trash negotiator… maga republicans think they can bully there way to a new America. Idots.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
There is another issue that the Dems are pounding pretty hard to have incorporated into any spending bill and that is to have trump stop using rescission bills to remove money that was already approved in congress in bills that were approved into law.
That is a over reach of executive to remove the funding that you don't like-There are a number of examples already including US Aid and public broadcasting
It's especially hilarious when not very long ago trump claimed he had never heard of Project 2025.
I would think that repubs in close races would start getting cold feet as some of the policies start clobbering the poor as elections approach-bot vought and peter thiel and some others behind project 2025 don't really give 2 craps about backlash-what they want is very clear if anyone spent the time to purview project 2025
I believe that would depend a lot on what area of the country they are running in. As in Nashville is a liberal city but the surrounding suburbs are more conservative. The Republicans split the districts in the area to where Nashville is now split between three GOP districts. Nashville voters no longer hold any power outside of the city itself.
When watching local political commercials it seems the GOP candidates here argue about who is the Trumpiest. The most MAGA. "I'm more MAGA than he is! I'm the most MAGA of the MAGA's in the world of MAGA!"
But their constituents by and large aren't poor and aren't really being hurt by the things trump has done.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
President Donald Trump said he would not sign legislation that calls for cuts to Social Security or federal health coverage for older and low-income Americans.
“If it cuts it, I would not approve,” the president said in an interview with TIME magazine published Friday, where he was repeatedly asked about cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.
Asked about broader spending cuts … Trump said we’ll “love and cherish” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the last of which insures more than 70 million Americans. “We’re not going to do anything with that, unless we can find some abuse or waste,” Trump said. “The people won’t be affected. It will only be more effective and better.”
– Politico January 31, 2025
“We’re not going to touch it. Now, we are going to look for fraud,” Trump said Wednesday when asked about Medicaid.
Looks like early polling isn't quite going the way the repubs thought and senate repubs are talking to dems about a 2 year subsidy extension with reform.
You know what? If Trump starts firing govt workers I’m hoping a bunch of maga trump supporters get caught up and get the axe as well and start crying like the babies they are.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
The truth about the shutdown and health care for immigrants Analysis by Aaron Blake 6 hr ago
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson during a news conference in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol on Friday. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images The shutdown messaging war is in full effect, and early indications are that Republicans have been put in something of a bind, given the Democrats’ demand to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies appears quite popular.
So Republican leaders have returned to a very familiar strategy – making false generalizations and misleading claims about undocumented immigrants, in an attempt to center the debate on more favorable terrain.
They’ve argued over and over again that Democrats are trying to provide health care to undocumented immigrants.
In fact, as CNN’s Tami Luhby has fact-checked, the changes Democrats are seeking on Obamacare and Medicaid would not directly provide coverage to undocumented immigrants, since they aren’t and still wouldn’t be eligible for either program.
That’s not to say there aren’t kernels of truth behind their claims, and the issue is complicated. Medicaid dollars do, in some situations, end up paying health care costs for those in the country without documentation as a matter of longstanding federal law. But the GOP’s political strategy to cast Democrats as holding government funding hostage over the issue rests on a rather Machiavellian and factually challenged effort to demonize migrants.
Let’s break it down.
After Republicans spent days largely just making this claim without detailing it, Vice President JD Vance stepped forward at Wednesday’s White House press briefing to at least put some meat on the bone.
His case boiled down to two things.
His first point was that the asylum-seekers and others with temporary legal status who would be eligible for these programs under the Democrats’ shutdown-ending proposal should nonetheless be treated as “illegal aliens.” He said this was because the Biden administration granted such designations too freely.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has also been vehement about this claim.
“Joe Biden used executive orders, and he expanded benefits, health care to illegal aliens in his four-year term,” Johnson said Thursday. “That was an outrageous violation of the existing federal law and of the principles of good stewardship.”
It’s an argument that could seemingly have plenty of appeal. Americans turned very sour on the Biden administration’s handling of immigration and asylum in recent years, before Biden moved to toughen up his approach. A Reuters-Ipsos earlier this year showed 56% of Americans wanted to “dramatically reduce” the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border.
But saying these migrants should be considered “illegal” – even if Republicans genuinely believe that – doesn’t make them so, at least under current law.
To the extent Republicans want to treat them as illegal, they could take other steps to try to strip them of legal status. Unless and until they do, though, these people have legal status under US law and aren’t “illegal aliens.”
Vance’s second point was that there is at least one way in which federal dollars can be used to pay for the health care of immigrants who are actually undocumented – i.e. not just classes of people who he would prefer to treat as such.
A federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) mandates that any hospital that receives Medicare funds must treat anyone requiring emergency treatment, regardless of ability to pay, insurance or legal status. And the federal government reimburses hospitals for this treatment.
Vance painted undocumented immigrants in emergency rooms as a scourge, connecting it to longer waiting times because “very often, somebody who’s there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien.”
But in fact, new data shows federal reimbursements for emergency care for undocumented migrants is a minuscule portion of emergency Medicaid spending – only about 0.4% in Fiscal Year 2023, according to KFF.
And beyond that, it’s worth noting that this is not just a matter of federal law, but a federal law signed by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan. Republicans in their agenda bill earlier this year sought to reduce federal Emergency Medicaid funding; their argument is essentially that the move reduced a possible incentive hospitals might have to prioritize care for undocumented immigrants. But Democrats point out that just shifts costs to states and hospitals themselves, given they are still legally required to provide the care. That’s unless and until EMTALA is repealed.
That also raises some perhaps uncomfortable questions for the administration.
For one, the next logical question is whether Vance and Republicans would prefer that hospitals not provide potentially life-saving care to undocumented migrants who are severely ill, perhaps just allowing them to die.
An answer Thursday from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt showed how difficult these questions become. She was asked if hospitals should ask for proof of citizenship before treating a dying patient, and she responded, “That’s probably not a question for me to answer.”
And secondly, it reinforces that even Trump’s agenda bill still allowed for federal money to flow to giving undocumented migrants emergency health care. It was just a more restricted amount that shifted the burden to states and hospitals.
Republicans have also increasingly argued that some blue states are moving money around in such a way that they’re effectively using federal Medicaid funds under the guise of state funding for undocumented health care. Leavitt on Friday accused California of “a gimmick that funds its Medicaid for illegals program.”
But as Luhby noted, a provision that would have penalized states that purportedly do this was stripped from Trump’s agenda bill. The law does eliminate states’ ability to get a certain waiver related to the taxes that states can charge certain providers to help pay for Medicaid, but the provision isn’t specifically about undocumented immigrants.
As these claims have been fact-checked, Republicans have increasingly turned to another, separate argument.
They’ve noted that, during the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, most of the top candidates supported covering undocumented immigrants with government health care. Vance, Leavitt and many other Republicans have pointed to a clip from a debate, in which the candidates all raised their hands in support of such a policy.
And this is true. It’s one of a number of positions Democrats staked out during that campaign to appeal to the political left that they probably wish they hadn’t. (Many such answers came back to bite Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential campaign.)
“Don’t let the Democrats lie to you,” Republicans Rep. Pete Stauber of Minnesota said Thursday on X. “In a 2019 debate, every Democrat candidate raised their hand in support of taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants. Now, they have shut down the government over it.”
Johnson added Thursday: “Those hands included Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Now, what did they do? Did they follow through on that promise? Yeah, they absolutely did.”
He clarified that he meant Biden expanded those who were eligible for such coverage by allowing them to obtain at least temporary legal status. So again, the argument seems to be more that these people shouldn’t have been given legal status rather than that they are currently undocumented in a legal sense.
And just because those Democrats expressed that view back then doesn’t mean it has any impact on the current debate. Republicans would argue that this betrays Democrats’ long-term intentions. But it’s not what Democrats are currently asking for out of a shutdown deal; they are primarily pushing for more generous federal subsidies to help Americans afford Obamacare policies. (And indeed, it seems highly unlikely that Democrats would view any move to shut down the government over undocumented immigrants’ health care as smart or practical politics today.)
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona has even said Democrats would support language making doubly sure that any coverage wouldn’t be extended to the undocumented.
“We are willing to pass anything in law that says people in this country illegally should not be receiving any benefits, subsidies, anything,” Gallego told Semafor.
It’s not uncommon for politicians to try to spin debates in terms that are more favorable to their side. To a certain degree, it’s politics as usual.
But what we’ve increasingly seen in the Trump-era GOP is a more shameless and almost unflinching willingness to say whatever is most advantageous in the moment, no matter if it misleads Americans about the very real issues in an important debate.
The party has increasingly warmed to the tactics of a president who not only uttered more than 30,000 false and misleading claims in his first term, according to the Washington Post, but actually got significantly more counterfactual as time went on.
Perhaps the epitome of this approach came in 2024. The Trump campaign not only spread unfounded claims about Haitian migrants in Ohio eating people’s pets that even local Republicans rejected; Vance effectively acknowledged willingly spreading misinformation – while arguing that the ends justified the means.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people,” Vance told CNN’s Dana Bash, “then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana. Because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast.”
You could understand why Republicans feel the need to adjust the terms of the debate here, given the enhanced Obamacare subsidy extensions Democrats are pushing for are overwhelmingly popular.
A KFF poll released Friday showed 78% of Americans and even 57% of MAGA Republicans supported extending them. A Washington Post poll released a day earlier showed 47% of Americans believed Trump and the Republicans were “mainly responsible” for the shutdown, compared to 30% who blamed Democrats. That’s somewhat counterintuitive, given Democrats are the ones who won’t sign on to a clean bill to keep the government open.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Americans aren’t getting a complete and accurate picture of the stakes.
A very Typical Trump/Maga trick.... to get to the truth it means paying attention to details. Something a lot of people are too lazy or stupid to do. People would prefer and gravitate to splashy sound bites ... "$50 million for condoms for Hamas" - "DOGE will save $2 Trillion" - "Democrats want free healthcare for illegals".
The more things change the more they stay the same.
A very Typical Trump/Maga trick.... to get to the truth it means paying attention to details. Something a lot of people are too lazy or stupid to do. People would prefer and gravitate to splashy sound bites ... "$50 million for condoms for Hamas" - "DOGE will save $2 Trillion" - "Democrats want free healthcare for illegals".
"War will be over in 24 hours" , "Biden let it 21 million criminals", "They were eating dogs" , .......
[quote=Day of the Dawg]So they are showing the country who they really are. They will shut down the government and stop real citizens from government aid because they want to give illegals healthcare. They simply do not acre about their own citizens!!![/
[quote]
That is simply NOT TRUE!
Republicans control the White House, Senate and House.
If they wanna reopen the government, all they have to do is in the senate, employ the Nuclear Option to allow for a Majority vote instead of needing 60 to pass, they would need a simple majority....
As for healthcare, The Dems don't want Illegals to have healthcare. That is the LIE.....
During the Reagan Admin, Reagan passed a bill, (the name escapes me at the moment) that requires ALL EMERGENCY ROOMS to render care to anyone that comes through the doors. Regardless of Age, Color, Immigration Status or ability to pay. But Republicans can't figure that out for some reason.... Now a law put in place by a republican president is being used to lie.
It's damn near the most idiotic thing I've ever seen. Possible that a better word is MORONIC
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
They don't care if it's true. They only know that's the company line they're being spoon fed. Trump already said how much he loves them.
The only money that goes to the healthcare of the undocumented is emergency room money that helps subsidize them for "ALL uninsured patients".
I suppose when a child comes into the emergency room with his appendix about to burst the doctor should check his legal status before saving his life. I mean if he's not documented turn him away and let him die in the street. Isn't MAGA wonderful! Murica!
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Quotes from Trump every time he has implied/stated publicly that a government shut down starts at the top/ends at the top and it will be the POTUS who is remembered for and held responsible for it .... just for some fun reading.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
They don't care if it's true. They only know that's the company line they're being spoon fed. Trump already said how much he loves them.
The only money that goes to the healthcare of the undocumented is emergency room money that helps subsidize them for "ALL uninsured patients".
I suppose when a child comes into the emergency room with his appendix about to burst the doctor should check his legal status before saving his life. I mean if he's not documented turn him away and let him die in the street. Isn't MAGA wonderful! Murica!
They will just take the health care away or make it too cost prohibitive for the poor and then come out and lie and say it was what Obama wanted or it was Biden's fault. just like bessent said last week on Squawk Box lying when it came to why the farmers are getting screwed on China soybean and other product purchases. His one word answer-Biden
Trump has cost American tax payers billions of dollars with unjustified overreaching. I sure hope he goes through with unjustified firing of government workers. Air traffic controllers are not coming into work as it is. Heads up people.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
Yes, those nasty bastages are trying to keep over 20 million Americans healthcare premiums from doubling and the GOP don't give a damn. What will they do next.
Just a reminder, Donald Trump promised to release a healthcare plan "within two weeks" in an interview on Fox News in early August 2020. It's been the longest two weeks in recorded history. .
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
why did the republicans not address this issue previously for months? Why did they implement these changes to begin with? I will tell you why . trump thinks it is a big waste of money to provide healthcare to 20 million of the poorest americans.
trump said helping provide 20 million of the poorest americans with health care is a waste of money. I guess we should just let them suffer and die.
So shutting down the government is going to help them and the rest of the country?
Like it or not, shutting down the govt has risen as an effective negotiating tactic. This is not the first nor the last time this will happen. It's stupid and counterproductive, but I refuse to wring my hands when the same people keep flipping roles in the same story and we're supposed to believe that they're being sincere.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
How many families would there need to be before it mattered? 30 million? 50 Million? 60 million? How many times does trump have to lie before he is held accountable? The only "healthcare plan" trump has come up with is cutting almost a trillion dollars from healthcare. Does that sound like a "plan" to you?
He's been promising a plan since 2016. At what point is enough, enough?
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
White House deletes reference to 2019 law on back pay for federal workers from shutdown FAQ
The White House Office of Management and Budget has deleted a reference to a 2019 law on paying government workers after a shutdown from its FAQ on the current impasse.
The Trump administration on Tuesday threw into question whether the law guarantees back pay for furloughed workers in its latest effort to pressure Democrats in the shutdown, which began October 1. President Donald Trump doubled down on the issue in remarks Tuesday, suggesting it could depend on the worker.
The original OMB FAQ, posted September 30, referenced the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 in a section about whether essential federal employees who must work without pay during a shutdown would receive back pay. The paragraph mentioning the law, which Trump signed during a record shutdown in his first term, said that both furloughed and essential workers would be paid after the shutdown ends.
The updated FAQ, posted October 3, removed the paragraph about the law.
You see, when a law is something trump doesn't like and he wants to punish people, he pretends the law no longer exists and just does what he wants to anyway. That law was posted until he started threatening not to give those workers back pay. Then, just like that, POOF it was gone.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Greene doubles down on remarks about Affordable Care Act subsidies
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) doubled down on recent remarks about Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies amid a government shutdown battle centered around health care.
“The issues of the subsidies are real. It’s not something that anybody can say is made up,” Greene told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill. “Also, people with regular or private plans, their premiums are looking to go up a median of 18 percent, that’s brutal. I know a lot of small business owners, like a family of four, and they’re paying $2,000 a month.”
“If you double their health insurance, or even triple it, these people are going to they’re either going to have to drop it, or they’re going to be choosing between rent and their insurance,” Greene later added.
She also said she thinks Republicans “got to get real and actually come up with a solution.”
“I’m literally here in Washington saying, you guys, if we don’t fix this right now, Americans are going to be hurting, and they really don’t care about R and D. They’re going to be talking about what’s happening to their bank accounts, what’s happening to their family, and that’s how they’re going to vote,” she told Burman.
Greene indicated on Monday a willingness to negotiate with Democrats on health care demands. The Georgia Republican said she was “absolutely disgusted” that health insurance premiums could double in the case of ACA tax credits expiring
“But I’m going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district,” Greene said in a post on the social platform X.
“No I’m not towing the party line on this, or playing loyalty games. I’m a Republican and won’t vote for illegals to have any tax payer funded healthcare or benefits,” she added.
On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) argued the end-of-year deadline to extend ACA subsidies was an “eternity” away.
“We have effectively three months to negotiate. In the White House and in the halls of Congress, that’s like an eternity,” Johnson told MSNBC’s Ali Vitali.
The subsidies were introduced amid the COVID-19 pandemic and extended through the end of 2025 via the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Open enrollment in most states begins on Nov. 1, and insurers may raise premiums if they believe the subsidies will expire.
Johnson, in shift, signals no vote during shutdown for military pay
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday signaled opposition to moving a stand-alone bill to pay military service members during a government shutdown, walking back his Tuesday statement saying he was open to holding such a vote.
If the shutdown drags on and Congress does not pass a bill to pay the troops or reopen the government, Oct. 15 will mark the first time in the modern times that service members missed a paycheck during a government shutdown. In previous shutdowns, Congress had either already funded the military or passed a measure to ensure troop pay.
Asked in a press conference Wednesday if he would move a bill by unanimous consent to pay the troops if the shutdown drags into next week — which would not require bringing back all House members to vote if there were no objections — Johnson signaled he would not.
Democrats, the Speaker alleged, “are clamoring to get back here and have another vote, because some of them want to get on record and say they were paying the troops.”
“We already had that vote. It’s called the CR [continuing resolution],” Johnson said, referring to the House-passed, GOP-crafted stopgap to fund the government through Nov. 21.
Senate Democrats have blocked that measure repeatedly in the Senate as they push for the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year.
“They voted that they did not want the troops to be paid. They did not want TSA [Transportation Security Administration] agents to be paid. They did not want air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents and all the rest. They live with that vote. They made that decision. The House is done. The ball is now in the Senate’s court,” Johnson said.
“It does us no good to be here dithering on show votes,” Johnson said.
His comments in the Wednesday press conference mark a walk-back from what he said in a Tuesday joint press conference with Senate GOP leaders, where a split emerged when a reporter asked about a bill to pay the troops and air traffic controllers.
“We’re monitoring that day-by-day. I’m certainly open to that. We’ve done it in the past. We want to make sure that our troops are paid,” Johnson said Tuesday.
Johnson mentioned that Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) previously filed a bill to ensure troops are paid in a government shutdown, adding: “We’re looking forward to processing all this as soon as we gather everybody back up, but again, the most important thing is to turn the lights back on here.”
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) then signaled a different strategy.
“The simplest way to end it is not try to exempt this group or that group or that group, it’s to try to get the government open and then all the adverse consequences of this go by the wayside,” he said.
Kiggans, for her part, is calling on GOP leaders to pass her bill to pay the troops.
“The President has made it clear: we must pay our troops. I’m urging the Speaker and our House leadership to immediately pass my bill to ensure our servicemembers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck while supporting their families, receive the pay they’ve earned,” Kiggans said in a statement. “Military pay should not be held hostage due to Washington’s dysfunction!”
Trump in a speech to members of the Navy on Sunday told them to not “worry about” missed paychecks amid the shutdown, and they will get “every last penny.”
"I'm refusing to hold a vote to pay the troops which has always been done in every previous shutdown and I'm blaming the democrats for my actions or lack there of."
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
SNAP benefits face 'insufficient funds' in November if shutdown continues, USDA warns Melina Khan Mary Walrath-Holdridge USA TODAY
Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy food may be affected as soon as November if the ongoing government shutdown continues.
In a letter to state agencies dated Oct. 10, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said there will not be enough funding to pay the entirety of November SNAP benefits if the shutdown continues.
"If the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation," reads the letter, which was signed by SNAP development director Sasha Gersten-Paal and provided to USA TODAY by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS).
Some government agencies effectively shut down beginning Oct. 1 after congressional leaders failed to agree on federal funding allocations for the 2026 fiscal year. Without an end in sight, the shutdown appears slated to continue further into October. The longest government shutdown lasted 35 days between December 2018 and January 2019.
Here's what to know about SNAP benefits during the shutdown.
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States brace for possible SNAP benefit shortage in November State health officials across the country, including in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Minnesota, have begun warning recipients of the possible lack of funds for November.
Normally, states send data about eligible households' SNAP benefits to its Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) vendor each month. But the USDA is directing states to pause on sending that information "until further notice," the agency's letter reads.
The USDA said its Food and Nutrition Service has begun gathering information for a potential contingency plan regarding SNAP benefit operations, should the shutdown continue.
In the meantime, state officials are still grappling with what an extended shutdown would mean for SNAP recipients in their state.
"We are working to get a better understanding of exactly what that disruption will mean for North Carolina," NCDHHS said in a statement to USA TODAY.
USA TODAY has reached out to USDA for more information.
What happens to SNAP during a government shutdown? Information about SNAP benefits sits on the front desk of Garfield Unity Pantry in Garfield, New Jersey, on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. Programs like SNAP rely on cooperation between states and the federal government, which, during a shutdown, may not have the personnel or funds to keep things moving.
SNAP benefits are allocated the month prior, meaning October payments were not impacted. However, without regular funding available for November, it remains uncertain if all benefits will be paid.
According to the USDA's government shutdown contingency plan, the department has multiyear contingency funds meant for administrative expenses and/or to pay participant benefits directly. It is unclear how much money is currently available in that reserve.
If the shutdown lasts beyond October, it could exhaust the USDA's contingency plan, and the Trump administration could decide whether to tap into the multiyear fund, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Food Research & Action Center.
During the 2018-2019 shutdown, the USDA paid February benefits early, at the end of January, and Congress passed emergency funding to keep payments going out in March.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, sometimes known as "food stamps," is a U.S. federal program designed to help low-income individuals and families afford nutritious food.
It provides monthly benefits via an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, which works like a debit card that can be used to buy groceries at authorized retailers, including supermarkets and convenience stores.
In 2024, SNAP was used by a monthly average of 41.7 million people, or about 12.3% of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
trump said helping provide 20 million of the poorest americans with health care is a waste of money. I guess we should just let them suffer and die.
So shutting down the government is going to help them and the rest of the country?
it sure will if they get the health care provisions back
It'll help the insurance industry at least.
How so? Please elaborate. Or is that something you are just assuming?
I think he means that the more people that have healthcare insurance the more premiums and profits the healthcare insurance companies will make. As you can see for at least one poster that seems to be a higher priority than Americans having healthcare. You can tell where a persons priorities lie based on their comments.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
If that’s what he thinks he’s wrong. Americans on ACA will loose their federal subsidies. Americans on AHC will need to make up the difference. Insurance companies and their employees are hardly affected.
But yeah you’re right his priorities are screwed.
Trump and his brigade of fascists think they are saving $$$$. At the cost of our health.
Last edited by PerfectSpiral; 10/19/2509:03 AM. Reason: Add content
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
I'm not sure how sending 40 billion dollars to Argentina saves them money. Once again you can see their priorities based on their actions and or lack of spine to speak out about it by others within their party and voters. Take your pick.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
trump said helping provide 20 million of the poorest americans with health care is a waste of money. I guess we should just let them suffer and die.
So shutting down the government is going to help them and the rest of the country?
it sure will if they get the health care provisions back
It'll help the insurance industry at least.
How so? Please elaborate. Or is that something you are just assuming?
I think he means that the more people that have healthcare insurance the more premiums and profits the healthcare insurance companies will make. As you can see for at least one poster that seems to be a higher priority than Americans having healthcare. You can tell where a persons priorities lie based on their comments.
Healthcare and insurance aren't the same thing. In our jacked up system people see them as the same, but it's an exploitative system. Just because taxes are paying for the insurance rather than out of pocket doesn't mean people aren't paying for it. And the fact that insurance exists leads to Healthcare charging more because they can. Another part of the shady underbelly of capitalism in modern practice.
You mess with the "Bull," you get the horns. Fiercely Independent.
You are trying to paint a portrait as you wish it to be. I guess we could go down the rabbit hole of what ifs but that has nothing to do with the reality we live with. I don't disagree with you about what the system is but it is the system we live under.
Healthcare insurance is needed to pay major medical bills. That's the reality. If you wish to climb down the rabbit hole I won't be joining you.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
The White House said today that starting end of this week, SNAP benefits will not go out-and the USDA will not use the contingency fund to pay for November. 1 in 8 people in this country rely on SNAP for food.
Roll Call Vote 119th Congress - 1st Session Question: On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture: Motion to Proceed to S. 3012 ) Vote Number: 585Vote Date: October 23, 2025, 12:38 PM Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Cloture on the Motion to Proceed Rejected Measure Number: S. 3012 Measure Title: A bill to appropriate funds for pay and allowances of excepted Federal employees for periods of work performed during a lapse in appropriations, and for other purposes. Vote Counts:YEAs54 NAYs45 Not Voting1
We've heard it from Trump's own mouth - we heard it from MAGA when the Dem's were in the WH ... it is the responsibility of the PoTUS and his party to get a bi-partisan solution. The issue is at the foot of the President. What you post here is noise and revisionist history.
Last edited by mgh888; 10/28/2509:28 AM.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Yes they should just let Republicans double the healthcare premiums for over 20 million Americans. That must be the new Republican healthcare plan. The plan trump has been promising since 2016 would be coming out in a very short period of time. Since you seem so concerned about accountability and all.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
This is surprising? I mean, people are actually shocked that months and months of screaming like toddlers and the ensuing temper tantrum to shut down the government isn't paying off at the polls?
Maybe go back to the not-stop "Nazi!" and "threat to democracy!!".
This is surprising? I mean, people are actually shocked that months and months of screaming like toddlers and the ensuing temper tantrum
While it's accurate to state this about trumpians it's not nice and goes against everything it seems you have stood for lately.
Quote
Maybe go back to the not-stop "Nazi!" and "threat to democracy!!".
Someone needs to keep telling the truth. It might as well be us. You do realize the more he does and the more he opens his mouth the easier it is for most people to see this, right?
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
All this fake outrage from the MAGA Karens .... the Dems doing EXACTLY what the republicans have done multiple times in the past. It would be funny if it wasn't for the results and impact on the country.
But ... blaming the Dems for everything no matter what is very much a Rep play ... reminds me of denying Obama his supreme court nominee then rushing thru those under Trump in less time. The hypocrisy is STRONG.
And another post from another rando. The trifecta!! Whoop Whoop.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Yes let's end it. Stop trying to double insurance premiums on Americans and then blaming others for trying to stop you. Trump used to say a president should negotiate with the other side to find a solution. Now that he is president he says something else. That all begins and ends at the top.
Which time was he lying............ again?
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
What is the dems' plan for getting rid of Fetterman? He's been making way too much sense lately.
I'm not sure yet. Maybe they should look at trump's playbook of how he got rid of government oversight, gets rid of using congress to enact laws or orders and has the DOJ arrest his political opponents. That may be a good starting point.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
With SNAP benefits set to halt, Thune says he can't clarify Trump's plan to fund program
Trump signaled his administration may find a solution to help fund SNAP.
With critical food assistance benefits set to run out in just a few days, Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Wednesday weighed in on President Donald Trump's comment that his administration may find a solution to help fund the program, as lawmakers appear sympathetic, but still entrenched.
The Department of Agriculture said earlier this week that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, which serve roughly 42 million low-income Americans, will not be issued on Nov. 1 amid the ongoing government shutdown.
On Tuesday night as he traveled to South Korea, Trump signaled his administration may find a solution to help fund SNAP, saying "we’re going to get it done," without offering any details on how.
At the same time, Trump blamed Democrats for putting Americans at risk of losing critical federal food assistance this weekend.
"The Democrats have caused the problem on food stamps ... because all they have to do is sign, and, you know, they sign, I'll meet with them,” Trump said.
Asked about Trump's SNAP benefits comments, Thune told reporters on Wednesday that he spoke to Trump on Tuesday, but didn't have insight into what his comments meant.
"I think that what he is saying consistently is 'Open up the government and then we' -- and that's the way to fund SNAP," Thune said.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has a new bill that would fund SNAP during the shutdown. While several Republican senators support it, Thune has appeared lukewarm about bringing it to the floor.
Asked if Trump's comments were an endorsement of bills like Hawley's that would fund SNAP during the shutdown, Thune said he wasn't sure if that's what Trump was referring to.
"I think the message that he and the rest of the White House, including JD yesterday, have delivered pretty clearly is 'Open up the government and that's the way to fund SNAP and everything else.' If he's got something else he's thinking about, I'll certainly be open to listening to that," Thune said.
On Wednesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that the impacts of the government shutdown this week -- including a possible food crisis as well as missed paychecks for federal workers and air traffic controllers -- are "getting really tough for the American people," placing the onus squarely on Democrats.
"The Democrats are coming near now to a cliff that they will not be able to turn back from,” Johnson said at a news conference in the Capitol. "You've got families and children that rely upon SNAP benefits that are going to go hungry here at the end of the week."
As Democrats continue their fight over health care subsidies as the Nov. 1 open enrollment date approaches, Trump said Tuesday night that he would work with Democrats -- as long as they vote to fund the government.
"I’d say, open up the government and we’ll work it out," Trump told reporters.
Democrats are working to balance their health care demands and find solutions for SNAP, with Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján on Wednesday introducing legislation that would direct the USDA to release available contingency funds to ensure benefits under SNAP and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program continue during the shutdown.
Thune blocked the effort Wednesday afternoon -- shouting at times as he argued on the Senate floor that if Democrats want to fund SNAP and other programs, they ought to vote to reopen the government to fund all programs.
"Let me just point out if I might that we are 29 days into a Democrat shutdown. And the senator from New Mexico is absolutely right. SNAP recipients shouldn't go without food. People should be getting paid in this country," Thune said before escalating his voice to a full scream. "And we've tried to do that 13 times and you voted no 13 times. This isn't a political game. These are real peoples lives that we are talking about and you all have just figured out 29 days in that, 'Oh there might be some consequences, that people are running out of money.'"
Lujan's bill came as 25 states have filed a lawsuit on the issue ahead of the halting of benefits at the start of November.
"The Trump administration has the authority and the funds to keep SNAP running during this shutdown," Lujan said. "Any failure to do so right now falls squarely on the Trump administration and Republicans."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said health care and SNAP together need to be addressed.
"Right now, we're staring down the barrel at two crises at once. A health care crisis and a hunger crisis,” Schumer said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
"We don't want to pit health care and food. Thank you. We think you can have both," he later shouted.
Schumer has continued to call on Republicans to “sit-down and negotiate with us” to reopen the government and address the health care crisis.
Thune told reporters Wednesday morning that discussions over a path out of the shutdown have "ticked up significantly" and that he's "hopeful" that something fruitful will soon emerge.
"It's ticked up significantly," Thune said of talks among rank-and-file members. "And hopefully that'll be a precursor of things to come. But yeah, there's a lot of higher-level conversation."
Thune stressed that conversations are going on among rank-and-file members and not among leadership.
"There are a lot of rank-and-file members that continue to, I think, want to pursue solutions and to be able to address the issues they care about, which is including health care, which as I just said right there we are willing to do, but it is obviously contingent upon them opening up the government."
Thune refuses to take a vote to fund SNAP when enough Republicans supported it to have enough votes to pass. Willing to starve Americans in a political game while claiming they shouldn't be playing political games. The bill was brought before him by a republican, Hawley, not a Democrat.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Judge in SNAP Case Tells Trump Admin To ‘Stretch That Emergency Money’
A federal judge in Boston signaled Thursday that she may order the Trump administration to pay food assistance benefits to tens of millions of Americans who are at risk of not getting their November payments because of the government shutdown.
Why It Matters
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments are issued monthly to nearly 42 million low- and no-income Americans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed these benefits will not be paid until the shutdown ends.
That decision has prompted legal action from state leaders over whether contingency funds—estimated to be between $5 billion and $6 billion—held by the USDA can be used to pay for food stamp benefits in the absence of regular appropriations. Leaders from 25 Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C., have sued the federal government over the matter.
What To Know
Speaking at a hearing in litigation brought by state leaders on Thursday, Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts said: “Right now, Congress has put money in an emergency fund for an emergency, and it’s hard for me to understand how this isn’t an emergency when there’s no money and a lot of people are needing their SNAP benefits."
“Congress told you what to do if there is no money. You need to figure out how to stretch that emergency money for now," Talwani, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in September 2013, continued.
USDA vs. The States
SNAP is a mandatory program, but it depends on federal appropriations for funding. With those funds on hold during the ongoing shutdown, the USDA has said benefits cannot be issued.
A September 2025 USDA shutdown plan states there is a "bona fide need to obligate benefits for October—the first month of the fiscal year—during or prior to the month of September, thereby guaranteeing that benefit funds are available for program operations even in the event of a government shutdown at the beginning of a fiscal year. These multiyear contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year."
But an October 24 USDA memo argues that "SNAP contingency funds are only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover, benefits. The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists."
The states’ lawsuit counters that "USDA suspended SNAP benefits even though, on information and belief, it has funds available to it that are sufficient to fund all, or at least a substantial portion, of November SNAP benefits."
It also notes the USDA has used other funds to continue certain services during the shutdown, such as redirecting money to deliver farmer aid and reopen roughly 2,100 Farm Service Agency offices, and using Section 32 funds to temporarily support the WIC program. However, the lawsuit says the USDA has opted not to use similar authorities to continue SNAP benefits.
What People Are Saying
Dottie Rosenbaum, senior fellow and director of federal SNAP policy and the center-left think tank The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said: "Under past shutdowns, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, SNAP benefits have always been provided using available funding sources to prevent a break in benefits. While it is not clear whether past administrations used the contingency reserve or instead used other available funding sources, making use of the contingency reserve unnecessary, the guidance documents from past shutdowns or near-shutdowns make it clear that the SNAP contingency reserve was available to cover regular SNAP benefits."
Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson said earlier this week: "There has to be a preexisting appropriation for the contingency to be used, and Democrats blocked that appropriation when they rejected the clean continuing resolution.
"The best way for SNAP benefits to be paid on time is for the Democrats to end their shutdown."
What Happens Next
As it stands, unless the government shutdown ends or the legal intervention by state leaders is successful, SNAP benefits for November will not be issued.
It seems like the Republicans are using the Netanyahu approach. If you can't beat them by fighting fair just starve them out. The money is there but they refuse to use it. Choosing to starve Americans as a political ploy? I'll let all of you determine what to call that.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Meanwhile Thune refused to bring a Republican sponsored bill to the floor for a vote which had the votes to pass in order to feed needy Americans which had never been done in the history of government shutdowns. SNAP and food benefits have always been made available during government shutdowns. Meanwhile trump is firing federal workers during the shut down which has never been done during a government shutdown before. Pretending that Republicans aren't using this shut down to punish America is a foolish notion while trying to place all of the fault on the democrats.
#truthbomb
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Other than the increasing duration of the shutdowns (which seems to be following a consistent trend), can someone explain to me why we should disagree with the reasons behind this shutdown vs the reasoning behind the last one?
My understanding is that, in general, people agreed/disagreed with the political arguments that led to their respective shutdowns along party lines.
Why would one feel the need to shut down the government over ACA and NOT over funding the Border Wall (or vice-versa)?
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Judges say Trump administration must continue paying some SNAP benefits during shutdown
Washington — Two federal judges on Friday said the Trump administration must tap into contingency funds to make payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown, ruling against the government in a pair of suits over the imminent benefits lapse. Roughly 42 million Americans rely on SNAP to help buy food.
In a case brought by a coalition of states in federal court in Massachusetts, Judge Indira Talwani ruled that the government is required by law to tap into the emergency money to make at least partial payments, and gave the administration until Monday to tell the court whether it planned to do so.
In Rhode Island, another federal judge granted a request for a temporary restraining order from a group of municipalities and nonprofits who sued to block the imminent funding freeze, according to attorneys for Democracy Forward, the group leading the suit. The ruling was made from the bench. An entry on the case docket said the court "orders the USDA to distribute contingency funds" and report back to the court by noon on Monday.
In her ruling, Talwani stopped short of ordering the administration to send SNAP payments on Saturday, but she rejected the government's argument that the $5 billion contingency fund cannot be used to fund benefits during the lapse in appropriations.
"At core, Defendants' conclusion that USDA is statutorily prohibited from funding SNAP because Congress has not enacted new appropriations for the current fiscal year is erroneous," Talwani wrote. "To the contrary, Defendants are statutorily mandated to use the previously appropriated SNAP contingency reserve when necessary and also have discretion to use other previously appropriated funds."
Talwani wrote that "the court will allow Defendants to consider whether they will authorize at least reduced SNAP benefits for November, and report back to the court no later than" Monday.
SNAP benefits provide eligible families with an average of $187 a month on a prepaid card for food purchases. Many families rely on those benefits as their main source of money for food. The Trump administration said money for the program was due to expire on Saturday because of the ongoing government shutdown, now on its 31st day.
The suit in Massachusetts was brought by two dozen states and the District of Columbia earlier this week. They asked the court to require the administration to tap into the emergency funds to keep SNAP money flowing to states, which administer food stamp programs. The states argued that the administration's decision to cut off payments was unlawful and threatened to deprive millions of Americans of essential food benefits that help protect against food insecurity and hunger.
"Shutting off SNAP benefits will cause deterioration of public health and well-being," state officials wrote in their lawsuit. "Ultimately, the States will bear costs associated with many of these harms. The loss of SNAP benefits leads to food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, which are associated with numerous negative health outcomes in children, such as poor concentration, decreased cognitive function, fatigue, depression, and behavioral problems."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, said in a memo last week that "the well has run dry" and that November benefits would not be paid without an end to the shutdown. Administration officials and Republicans in Congress have said that the roughly $5 billion in the contingency fund could not legally be used to cover the shortfall.
"By law, the contingency fund can only flow when the underlying fund is flowing," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at the Capitol on Friday.
Talwani, the judge in Massachusetts, rejected that argument in her ruling: "[U]nder Defendants' statutory construction, the use of the separately appropriated contingent reserve to fund SNAP benefits is somehow predicated on Congress's annual appropriation of funds to the SNAP program. Congress placed no such restrictions in the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act."
She wrote that the suspension of SNAP payments to the states was "based on the erroneous conclusion that the Contingency Funds could not be used to ensure continuation of SNAP payments."
"This court has now clarified that Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program," the judge wrote. "And while these contingency funds reportedly are insufficient to cover the entire cost of SNAP for November, Defendants also may supplement the Contingency Funds by authorizing a transfer of additional funds ... to avoid any reductions."
It's hard to answer that question in a legitimate fashion without acknowledging the absolute ridiculousness of a "government shutdown" in the first place.
To be true to your questions is to simply admit that from top to bottom we tend to toe the line with our tribe. I'm also not real sure what you mean by "people", whether it's John Q or the dolts in Washington. I could get into the differences between the last shutdown and this one, but it really wouldn't solve much. If you want to discuss the ACA debacle, I'll do that in another post.
The first thing we need to do is have automatic CRs to keep the gears turning when these petulant children in Washington can't agree on implementations of new appropriations.
The next thing we need to do is take away the pay of these whiney-ass puppets that play games with American's well-being. And by that I also mean they get paid LAST, because nobody seems to remember the damage this caused to the SNAP infrastructure last time and the fact that people in need had several payments delayed by up to 50 days during the reconciliation. I don't know how that's possible, but we're talking about a government that's run about as well as a crack addict could run a pharmacy.
So, while we're at it, let's stop payment to these idiots if they don't adhere to stricter and clearer deadlines and add consequences for missed deadlines when it comes to budget appropriation as a whole.
Along those lines, we really need to get rid of all these end arounds and poison pills that exist in Washington as a whole. This isn't dungeons and dragons.
We also need to streamline spending bills and make these packages much smaller. I don't care if they have to vote on new $%$ every week. I'm tired of omnibus spending bills and 8000 page encyclopedias that are handed to congress. Quit bundling everything. Cap these bills at 100 pages. I know it sounds extreme and someone much smarter than me will pat me on the head and try to explain that this streamlines things; no, it doesn't, it complicates everything and allows these snakes to pull the wool over our heads while they waste all of our money. Want to pass a bill? Not until someone has stood at a podium and read the entire thing on CSPAN -- and if you don't attend and listen to every word, you don't get paid for that month.
I actually agree with most of what you posted. I will make a comment about your tribe comment. I think for the most part you are correct. In a lot of cases I think that has to do with both sides trying to paint things as black and white without admitting there are shades of gray which there certainly almost always is. At that point I think everyone tends to pick a side.
Yesterday provided evidence to me that's not always the case however. Some of them think there are certain things that outweigh the tribe. It's true that's not nearly the case as often as it should be or that enough of them act that way but it was evidence that it happens.
Yesterday Republican Josh Hawley introduced a bill to extend SNAP benefits before the senate. There were a total of 15 Republicans willing to vote for the bill along with all Democrats which would insured it would pass.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune refused to bring the bill up for a vote.
At the point when it comes to feeding hungry Americans it appears that at least for some, certain things take priority over the tribe.
Now we can sit here and play the tribe game as to how we got to this point but what we can't ignore is when there was an opportunity to solve it some stepped up and some didn't.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
You might want to rethink your beliefs on this video.
It's not an indictment of Dems, it's a continuation of an indictment against MAGA.
Without a doubt, it's saying, Dems are holding out to continue the ACA subsidy. That's absolutly true 100%.
What's wrong with that? They wanna keep premiums low.. MAGA wants nothing more than to find a round about way to kill the ACA even if most of those on it are Republican voters that supported Trump and his sick agenda.
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
I wondered how brilliant MAGA minds would twist this to ‘protect the pedos’ shut down that Trump INITIATED and is now ready to end democracy to keep going. I guess pedos are only bad when they are dems…. Because MAGA protects them all.
I did mean the dolts, but also those adjacent to them (the mouthpieces and those beholden to their tribe).
I'm not sure there's a better example of Repubs and Dems being the same than what we're seeing here. It's not (and never has been) a "right vs left" thing. It's politicians against the people. It's politicians not being able to execute the absolute bare minimum of their job descriptions, giving the illusion of necessitating extreme measures like a govt shutdown. It's so obvious having experienced a couple of these go down and watching politicians play the same character(s) as those from across the aisle during the previous shutdown... they put the masks on that their adversaries had just put down. Each time, the two sides follow the same script, even though they're playing different parts each time.
And the citizenry, overall, keeps falling for it.
Yes, we are essentially saying the same thing... but your post looked fun and I wanted to rant too.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
SNAP benefits must be fully paid by Trump administration by Friday, judge orders
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to pay full SNAP benefits for November by Friday, rejecting the administration’s plan to partially fund the food stamp program for 42 million Americans during the U.S. government shutdown.
“People have gone without for too long,” Judge Jack McConnell said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, where he issued the order.
McConnell said the Trump administration, which had already agreed to tap a congressionally authorized contingency fund to pay partial SNAP benefits, must also use so-called Section 32 funds that it had refused to tap earlier this week.
“The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur” if SNAP is not fully funded, said McConnell.
He noted in a written order that more than half of the program’s recipients are children, seniors and veterans.
“While the President of the United States professes a commitment to helping those it serves, the government’s actions tell a different story,” McConnell wrote.
“Faced with a choice between advancing relief and entrenching delay, it chose the latter — an outcome that predictably magnifies harm and undermines the very purpose of the program it administers.”
The order came after plaintiffs in the case urged him to reject the plan to pay only partial benefits, which the administration disclosed in a court filing in Providence on Monday.
The Trump administration later Thursday asked the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the judge’s new order, as well as an order he issued Friday directing the administration to make partial benefit payments as soon as possible.
McConnell at the hearing pointed to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday said that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
Trump’s post seemed to contradict statements by administration lawyers that the benefits would be partially paid for the month.
The White House later said there was no change in that plan, but also said it would take time to issue the partial benefits to recipients.
McConnell said that Trump’s post was effectively an admission that the administration intended to defy his prior order to seek out all possible funding sources so that full benefits could be paid.
The Trump administration last week said it would not use the contingency fund containing $4.65 billion to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in November. The total cost of full SNAP benefits for the month is around $8 billion.
The program, like other federal programs, has no currently appropriated money, as a result of Congress failing to pass a spending bill. That failure led to the U.S. government shutting down on Oct. 1.
Past presidential administrations have continued paying SNAP benefits during prior shutdowns.
A group of cities, charitable and faith-based non-profit groups, unions, and business organizations sued the administration, seeking to force it to use the contingency funds and potentially other money to fund SNAP.
SNAP benefits have always been paid before during government shutdowns because no former president has been disgusting enough to make Americans go hungry as a political tool. But this waste of flesh is.
40 billion dollars to Argentina? No problem. Feeding hungry Americans? Appeal it in court! What a POS.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
SNAP Benefits: Trump Admin Tries to Block Full Payments in November
The Trump administration has requested an emergency stay of a court order that requires it to pay the full SNAP benefits for November by transferring funds from elsewhere amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.
"This is a crisis, to be sure, but it is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure, and that can only be solved by congressional action," said the administration's latest appeals court filing in the first circuit.
"Instead, a single district judge has devised his own solution: ordering USDA to cover the SNAP shortfall by transferring billions of dollars that were appropriated for different, equally critical food-security programs—and to do so within just one business day (i.e., by today).
"This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend."
Trump Admin Says It Will Pay SNAP Benefits in Full in November
The Trump administration said in a memo to states Friday that it is working to comply with a federal court order requiring full November food Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments.
The Agriculture Department (USDA) said it would “complete the processes necessary” to make funds for SNAP available later in the day, according to a memo obtained first by Politico and posted to X by members of the Washington, D.C., media.
The announcement followed the administration’s request Friday for an emergency stay from the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.
Payments have been halted as the federal government shutdown drags into its second month, with the USDA saying in a notice on its website that “the well has run dry” and no benefits would be issued on November 1.
Here is why trump claimed Republicans lost those elections. Of course the first one was ego driven surprise, surprise. But anyway................
Quote
“‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.
You don't lose an election over a government shutdown unless you are the party most voters blame for a government shutdown. Maybe someone actually managed to get the message through that making all these people go hungry actually hurts not only himself but the Republican party as a whole.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Say what you want about the whole back-and-forth regarding the shutdown itself (I would bet I agree with you more than not), but the Trump admin has doubled down on using SNAP as a bargaining chip... going as far as to refuse a court order to fund food stamps.
A judge has told this admin that they need to fund the SNAP program, and they said no.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Never before during any government shutdown had anyone ever denied SNAP benefits. Nobody conceived people would be that much of a scum bag. They were wrong. This scum bag took it all the way to the SCOTUS to starve 42 million Americans. You seem quite proud he used the starvation of Americans as a political weapon to get what he wanted. It amazes me what used to be normal people have become.
Meanwhile that same scum bag gave Argentina 40 billion dollars. America first my azz.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
DNC looking really weak... especially their leadership.
It's best for everyone if the government opens back up... but then what was all this for if the party NOT in power comes out of a shutdown with no clear wins on the stuff it was pushing for?
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
I think at the point when the SCOTUS allowed trump to withhold EBT payments they knew they had been beaten. Someone needed to be human enough to see that 42 million Americans had food. Trump fought in court to refuse feeding people. That's just disgusting.
At some point people needed to put feeding people over their tribe. I'm not so sure I would consider that a sign of weakness.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Yes $15.00 an hour will solve everything. Approximately 70% of adult workers receiving federal food and health assistance (like SNAP and Medicaid) work full-time.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
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