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Australian prisoner sues for right to eat Vegemite

admin - Latest News - November 19, 2025
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Australian prisoner sues for right to eat Vegemite



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Nov. 18, 2025, 6:40 PM ESTBy Sahil Kapur, Melanie Zanona and Julie TsirkinWASHINGTON — Inside a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, Rep. Jen Kiggans, a swing district member who is a linchpin of the party’s narrow majority, stood up and made a plea. “Doing nothing on health care is not the right answer,” the Virginia Republican later told NBC News, summing up her message to colleagues. “I would really appreciate if we could have a timeline because we know that the end of the calendar year is coming, and I don’t want to see people’s premiums go up. I don’t want to see people lose their health insurance.”The remarks drew an unspectacular reception.“Average,” Kiggans replied when asked how it was received. “We line up, we have our one minute to state our case. Usual reaction.”Republicans seek an alternative to Obamacare03:33Republicans are careening to a health care cliff with no solution in hand. An estimated 22 million people in the U.S. are about to see their health insurance premiums soar by, in some cases, thousands of dollars per month, as billions in funding for the Affordable Care Act expires on Dec. 31. The expiring funds, costing about $35 billion per year, were first passed during the pandemic to subsidize insurance payments, capping premiums for a “benchmark” ACA, or “Obamacare,” plan to 8.5% of income.Kiggans has offered a bill to extend those funds for one year, as a stopgap option to prevent cost increases while Congress haggles over a longer-term solution.But just 14 Republicans have signed on. And her plea appears to be falling on deaf ears with the rest of the party.President Donald Trump and Republicans have dialed up their attacks on that pot of funding, making increasingly clear they won’t allow an extension in its current form.“It’s going to end,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said Tuesday evening, citing Trump’s opposition as part of the reason.Instead, Republican leaders have deputized committee chairs and rank-and-file members to draft alternative options that would give the funds directly to people, perhaps through tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible savings accounts (FSAs) or even direct cash payments.“The only healthcare I will support or approve is sending the money directly back to the people,” Trump wrote Tuesday in all caps on social media, saying he won’t accept a continuation of the ACA structure where the funds are provided to insurance companies to keep premiums down. “Congress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else,” Trump added.Party leaders have taken note.House Republican leadership railed against the ACA during a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday and made a forceful case against extending the subsidies, according to two lawmakers in attendance. Instead, Republican leaders presented other potential ideas to help lower health care costs.But at least one House Republican expressed frustration with how little time they have left to write, much less pass, an alternative before the looming ACA cliff. During Tuesday’s meeting, Rep. Nathaniel Moran of Texas stood up and complained that Republicans could have been working on their own health care plan “for months,” the two lawmakers in the room said, instead of six weeks before the tax credits expire.Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach on Sunday that he is talking with Democrats about a direct health care payment plan, saying: “I’ve had personal talks with some Democrats.”But a senior White House official on Tuesday could not identify a single Democrat with whom Trump has discussed the issue. On a call with reporters on Monday, Senate Health Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., couldn’t name a Democrat who is even open to the idea.“I’ll let Democrats speak for themselves, because I can’t tell you that they’ve all bought in,” he said.Any plan would require 60 votes to advance in the Senate, which means at least seven Democrats would have to support the legislation. Republicans have floated the prospect of using the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to push through a health care solution without Democrats, but a variety of their proposals would be deemed ineligible for that.Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., who narrowly won a competitive district around Scranton, said expiration of the ACA money without a replacement plan would harm his constituents.“My district is especially hit hard on this. Ripping the rug out certainly is not the solution,” Bresnahan said. “So I am in support of extending the ACA, the enhanced premium tax credits, for some period of time.”Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., said he’s certain ACA funds won’t be extended in their current form.“There is no way a clean extension comes to the House floor,” Harris said Tuesday after the GOP meeting, even suggesting that it would spark a revolt. “The business would stop in the House completely if an attempt was made to bring that to the floor.”Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., who represents a competitive district that Democrats are targeting in 2026, blasted the law he called the “Unaffordable Care Act” as a failure. He said the subsidies prove that.“If you have to subsidize something, by definition, it’s not affordable,” Van Orden said, arguing that Democrats don’t “give a s—” about health care beyond their ability to benefit from it politically. “It’s all about their political survival, and it’s, quite frankly, revolting.”Cassidy said it’s “incorrect to assume that a temporary extension” of ACA funds “can be quickly implemented,” suggesting it’s too late because insurers have set rates for 2026. And even if Democrats prefer a short-term extension, he said, “the president’s not going to sign it.”Michael Linden, an economic policy expert who worked in the Biden White House budget office while the enhanced health care tax credits were crafted, said Republicans missed their chance to extend the subsidies earlier this year.“If Republicans in Congress had wanted to avoid big spikes in health care premiums, the logical moment for them to have done so was in the midst of their massive reconciliation bill,” he said.There may yet be an eleventh-hour push if Republicans are sitting on the brink of the new year with no health care plan.Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., a co-sponsor of the Kiggans bill, said he might consider signing a “discharge petition” to end-run party leaders and force the measure to a House vote.“I would only think of it if nothing is done that’s satisfactory, and we just have some concepts, but nothing specific,” he said.Bresnahan didn’t shut the door to supporting a discharge petition but said that one offered by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to extend the subsidies for three years is “a little bit too long.” He said he’s also open to ideas to reform the existing ACA tax credits.Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said he supports a one-year extension of ACA subsidies to give his party time to work on “longer-term issues” with the health care plan.“Right now, this should be negotiated between the House and the Senate. That will be the fastest way to get an agreement on this,” he said. “A discharge [petition] may move it out of the House, but if the Senate is not in agreement, it’s not going to go anywhere. The objective here is to get this done before the end of the year.”Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Melanie ZanonaMelanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Peter Alexander contributed.
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Oct. 21, 2025, 2:41 PM EDTBy Ryan NoblesWASHINGTON — As the government shutdown barrels along, the impact on everyday Americans is growing.It’s creating additional stress on social service programs, which are now bracing for an increased need, including from people who don’t normally rely on their support.Food banks from coast to coast were already seeing an uptick in visits from federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay. Now, they are preparing for an additional influx from Americans who rely on federal food benefit programs, which are set to run out of funding at the end of the month, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, and WIC, the food program for women, infants and children.“When food banks serve families, it’s usually a 1-to-9 ratio, so one meal provided by food banks versus nine provided by SNAP dollars. If those SNAP dollars get cut in half, that would mean that a local food bank quadruples their output just to meet that need,” Craig Rice, CEO of Manna Food Center in Maryland, told NBC Washington.Manna Food Center serves a significant federal workforce population, and the ongoing shutdown has forced it to make additional preparations to meet the increased need.“We’re going to be adding emergency bags so federal government employees will be able to come and ask for emergency assistance, and we’ll be able to assist them,” Rice said.Federal workers will be reimbursed at the end of the government shutdown, under a law passed by Congress in 2019. But Congress hasn’t made any progress toward reopening the government, leaving federal employees with no certainty about when they’ll get paid again.In Nevada, the Clark County Aviation Department is reaching out to the public, asking for help for its employees who are working without pay and will soon be in need of basic essentials to get through the day.“We’re gonna be opening it up for our federal employees to come get the essentials that they need. Nonperishable food items, we’re accepting gift cards for retail, for gas, for grocery stores, baby supplies, all the things that they need to help get them by during this government shutdown,” Luke Nimmo, the department’s public information officer, told 3 News in Las Vegas.And it’s not just food and hygiene items; counties across America will also be facing the possibility of a child care crisis. Programs like Head Start could soon be out of funding. In Kansas City, 17 Head Start-supported child care sites are in danger of closing at the end of the month, forcing families to quickly find alternatives, which may not be available.“I think families need to be prepared and not rely on things that can just be pulled out from under them,” Demetria Spencer, owner of Delightful Learning Center childcare in Kansas City, told KSHB.In some areas, state and local governments are finding ways to close the federal funding gap to continue to provide services that millions of Americans rely on. Authorities in Johnson County, Missouri, for example, have tapped some funds to help with administrative costs for WIC if federal funding runs out. But even that would only be a temporary reprieve.“We’re gonna continue to operate and provide services as long as we’re able to,” Charlie Hunt, director of the Johnson County Health and Environment Department, told KSHB.Ryan NoblesRyan Nobles is chief Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.
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