[FoxNews] Democrats demand subsidy extensions as Nov 1 open enrollment approaches
A looming deadline in the ongoing government shutdown is being eyed by Democrats as an inflection point for millions of Americans, though the fiscal standoff shows no signs of slowing.
Nov. 1 marks the first day of open enrollment for Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Democrats have warned for weeks that healthcare premium prices are expected to skyrocket for Americans who rely on the program if Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, set to expire at the end of 2025, are not extended. Expired by design, without a single Republican vote
That extension has emerged as the left’s main demand in the shutdown fight, now in its fourth week. Democrats have largely refused to agree to any spending bill that does not extend the subsidies.
"In just a matter of a week or so, tens of millions of Americans are going to wake up to the reality, because of the open enrollment period beginning on November 1st, that their premiums, co-pays, and deductibles are about to explode," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Thursday.
"In many cases, everyday Americans having to pay $1,000 or $2,000 more per month in order to access health insurance that's affordable, and many people are going to have to go without the ability to see a doctor. The Republican health care crisis grows more urgent by the day."
He denied on Wednesday that Democrats were using healthcare as a "strategy" to win the shutdown, however, telling reporters, "Our position is not about strategy … What we're focused on as Democrats is making a difference in the lives of the American people."
But the looming enrollment period does appear to be an inflection point that could potentially turn the tide for Democrats — and both sides are paying attention.
"It looks like, at least right now, what they're simply doing is trying to keep the government shut down long enough to get past the enrollment deadline so they can have the political issue," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital.
"I don't think they're interested in the solution. I just think they want to, they want to have the issue. But if they want to argue about the failure of Obamacare, if I'm out there on the campaign trail, bring it on," he said.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] When Donald Trump warned that wind farms were 'eagle graveyards' he was mocked by liberals, but now a cabinet secretary is warning that as well as harming wildlife, they threaten America's troops.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum warned that the towers — which dwarf the Statue of Liberty — can interfere with critical military radars.
Burgum said the Department of Defense is investigating the potential threat, while the FAA fears they could disrupt systems at commercial airports along the East Coast, particularly in the densely populated northeast.
The man in charge of America's 2.5 billion acres of offshore land also chided Democrats for turning a blind eye to the ecological concerns posed by renewable energy sources while sprinting away from fossil fuels.
'The Biden administration bypassed serious biological opinions that were putting out warnings about these offshore wind towers,' Burgum shared.
'Offshore wind is some of the highest cost electricity we can produce. Now it's becoming quite clear that there's enormous damage to marine fisheries, to marine mammals like whales.'
The secretary in charge of US federal lands, natural resources and cultural preservation stressed how the projects need to be re-examined due to threats to marine animal welfare and the efficacy of offshore energy.
'When you're pounding into the ocean floor to build a pillar for one of these gigantic wind towers, many of them taller than the Seattle Space Needle, when you're doing that, it can produce decibels up to 220 decibels,' the secretary explained.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Environmental Protection Agency boss Lee Zeldin and Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy are also involved, the New York Times reports.
Their effort makes good on an executive order signed by Trump on his first day in office to review the many offshore wind projects approved by Joe Biden.
In total, at least 11 different offshore wind leasing projects with over 1,000 turbines were approved to be built along US coastlines under Biden.
The projects, some of which have been canceled or paused amid the Trump administration's review of the impacts of offshore wind, were estimated to bring in enough power for millions of homes.
Under the Democrat, permits were approved for projects in Alaska, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and more.
Trump and Burgum are now trying to reverse many of those green energy deals.
'Since day one, President Trump has reversed Joe Biden's Green New Scam to restore America's energy dominance,' White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the Daily Mail in a statement.
Though Trump has attempted to halt offshore wind projects, many of which have already been approved with construction underway, some of his attempts have not been successful.
Despite efforts to stop the wind projects in New York and Rhode Island, both are going forward.
But it's not just the damage to animals or the ugly appearance of turbines in coastal waters that are worrying the administration officials.
'There's a lot of reasons beyond just the aesthetics to be very concerned about offshore wind, but the number one for U.S. taxpayers is we were subsidizing with taxpayer dollars, massively, a source of electricity that is completely intermittent and weather-dependent,' Burgum warned.
'We've got to get back in the game now of having baseload power that's affordable and reliable.'
#4
Re #3) I saw more ads than usual for stuff made in the USA this weekend. Perhaps made in the USA is coming back.
Perhaps the penchant for cheap goods (Hecho in Chine) is changing as well.
I do not prize the word "cheap." It is not a badge of honor. It is a symbol of despair. Cheap prices make cheap goods; cheap goods make for cheap men; and cheap men make for a cheap country.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
