• Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
  • Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
  • Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
  • Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

Be That ! Menu   ≡ ╳
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics Politics
☰

Be that!

C-SPAN caller confronts Johnson about shutdown effects

admin - Latest News - October 9, 2025
admin
33 views 5 secs 0 Comments



C-SPAN caller confronts Johnson about shutdown effects



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 9, 2025, 3:20 PM EDTBy Sahil Kapur and Scott WongWASHINGTON — Eight days into the government shutdown, Senate Democratic communications directors received a private briefing and a memo from pollster Geoff Garin.The crux of the message: Stay the course because Democrats are winning the battle of public opinion.“Voters continue to blame Trump and Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown,” said the memo, which was obtained by NBC News and featured new polling data conducted by Hart Research, with findings that are backed by other public national surveys on the shutdown fight.It added that voters are siding with Democrats’ health care funding demands, that “Republicans are starting the feel the heat” on the issue and that the GOP’s political pain will worsen “the longer and more aggressively” Democrats litigate it.ACA subsidies set to expire fueling government shutdown01:48The memo helps explain why Democrats are refusing to blink in the staring contest, defying predictions by the White House and Republican leaders that they would have backed down by now.Republicans need five more Democratic votes to break a filibuster and pass their bill to reopen the government on a temporary basis and buy time for a larger spending deal. On Thursday, the Senate voted again — for the seventh time — on that plan and a Democratic alternative. No senators budged.Instead, Democratic leaders, emboldened and energized, are taking every opportunity to highlight their central demand: extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies to avoid health insurance premium hikes or coverage losses for millions of Americans next year. Insurers are already sending out notices of upcoming rate hikes in the mail, and bringing costs back down will get messy if Congress waits until the end of the year to act.We’d like to hear from you about how you’re experiencing the government shutdown, whether you’re a federal employee who can’t work right now or someone who is feeling the effects of shuttered services in your everyday life. Please contact us at tips@nbcuni.com or reach out to us here.The health care subsidies are used by scores of working-class voters, including Trump supporters. Enrollment in Obamacare is about 24 million, and an estimated 92% of those insured benefit from the enhanced tax credit, which was first passed in the 2021 Covid-19 relief bill.A KFF national poll showed that 57% of “MAGA supporters” favor extending the subsidies, while 43% are opposed. Overall, 78% of U.S. adults said they favor extending the funding, while 22% say it should expire.But Republican leaders, facing a divided conference with many members who want to end the subsidies, are refusing to make any promises on the issue. Instead, they say, Democrats must vote to reopen the government, and then the two parties can discuss the subsidies.The pivot to health care has frustrated House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.“They’re trying to make this about health care. It’s not. It’s about keeping Congress operating so we can get to health care. We always were going to. They’re lying to you,” Johnson told reporters on Thursday. “The health care issues were always going to be something discussed and deliberated and contemplated and debated in October and November.”Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has referred to them as “Covid subsidies” that were designed to expire for a reason, and insisted on imposing new restrictions on the funding in order to have any chance of preventing a full sunset.Democrats are refusing to settle for assurances of a debate or a future vote. They say they want an extension attached to government funding legislation in order to win their votes. They have offered their own government funding bill, which includes attached Obamacare funding and repeals President Donald Trump’s recent Medicaid cuts and changes.Republicans, meanwhile, have seized on a quote published in Punchbowl in which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, “Every day gets better for us.”Thune had a poster made of the quote and brought it to the floor on Thursday. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., made his own poster of Schumer’s face with the quote.“He said, ‘Every day gets better for us.’ Who is us?” Barrasso asked on the floor. “Not better for the American people. Who does he mean by us? Not the military who’s not getting paid. Not the Border Patrol who’s not getting paid. Not the traffic controllers who aren’t getting paid.”On the Senate floor Thursday, Schumer attempted to clarify his remarks, arguing that with each passing day of the shutdown, Democrats’ “case to fix health care and end the shutdown gets better and better, stronger and stronger.”This is now the eighth-longest government shutdown in history, according to an NBC News analysis. If the government is still closed at the end of Friday, it will become the seventh-longest shutdown.#embed-20251002-shutdown-milestones iframe {width: 1px;min-width: 100%}Federal workers, including members of the military, are working without pay and will begin to miss paychecks in the coming days if the government remains shuttered. The direct deposit deadline is Friday, while physical checks are scheduled to go out on Oct. 15; those payments will not occur during a shutdown.With Johnson keeping the House out of session for a third consecutive week, tensions are running high among the few lawmakers running around the Capitol. On Wednesday, Johnson and fellow Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York sparred with Arizona Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly over Johnson’s delay in seating Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz.Later, Lawler, a Republican representing a swing district, confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., after his news conference over Democrats’ refusal to back the GOP funding bill or a one-year extension of Obamacare subsidies. The debate devolved into a shouting match about Trump’s “big bill,” health care cuts and Lawler’s chances for re-election.Johnson and Senate Democrats argue about government shutdown and health care03:20There are some signs that House Republicans are beginning to grow restless and feeling pressure from constituents back home.Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a onetime Trump loyalist who has recently broken with the president, has faulted Johnson and her party for having no plan to address the expiring health care subsidies.And Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., who, like Lawler, faces a tough re-election fight in next year’s midterms, is one of a handful of Republicans who have called on Johnson to reconvene the House. She represents a military-heavy district in Virginia Beach and is demanding a vote on her legislation, the Pay Our Troops Act.“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 wrote on X. “Military pay should not be held hostage due to Washington’s dysfunction!”Responding Thursday, Johnson said that House Republicans already passed a bill on Sept. 19 to fund the entire government, which includes paying the troops, through Nov. 21.“We put that bill on the floor, and the Republicans voted to pay the troops, TSA agents, border patrol, air traffic and everybody else,” Johnson told reporters. “The Democrats voted no.”Asked about his confrontation with the Democratic senators a day earlier, Johnson acknowledged that “emotions are high” between the parties.“And so is it better for them, probably, to be physically separated right now? Yeah, probably is, frankly,” the speaker said. “I wish that weren’t the case, but we do have to turn the volume down. The best way to turn the volume down is to turn the lights back on and get the government open for the people.”Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Kyle Stewart and Frank Thorp V contributed.
NEXT
Lion cubs make their public debut at the Denver Zoo
Related Post
October 5, 2025
Bad Bunny jokes about Super Bowl and speaks Spanish during 'SNL' monologue
November 3, 2025
Nov. 3, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Erika EdwardsTaking melatonin for long periods of time could be a sign of underlying heart problems.Long-term use of the popular over-the-counter sleep aid has been linked to a higher risk of heart failure and early death in adults with insomnia, according to research released Monday.There’s no evidence that melatonin supplements themselves cause heart problems, the researchers said. But a need to take them on a regular basis to help with falling and staying asleep could be a signal that the body is experiencing cardiac issues.“Insomnia can increase blood pressure, stress hormones and inflammation,” said Dr. Ekenedilichukwu Nnadi, lead author of the new study and an internal medicine resident at SUNY Downstate/Kings County Primary Care in New York City.Nnadi and colleagues looked at five years of electronic health records from 130,828 adults, average age 56, finding that people who took melatonin regularly for at least a year were nearly twice as likely to develop heart failure compared to those who didn’t use the supplement, though the actual rates were relatively low: 4.6% of people in the melatonin group developed heart failure, compared to 2.7% among those who didn’t take melatonin.They were more than three times as likely to be hospitalized for the condition (19% versus 6.6%), and nearly twice as likely to die during the study period, compared to people who didn’t take melatonin regularly.It’s unclear, however, whether the data captured outcomes of all people in the U.S. who take melatonin long term. Researchers identified people as chronic users of melatonin based on medical records only — that is, if they’d been prescribed the supplement. In the U.S., the supplement is available over the counter and isn’t often reflected in medical records.“I caution people against drawing concrete conclusions based on this study alone,” said Dr. Nishant Shah, a preventive cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, who wasn’t involved with the study. “But now that we have this observation, this is prime time to figure out whether there’s actually a direct association of harm with sleep agents. That would be practice-changing.”Nnadi’s research is scheduled to be presented in New Orleans at an upcoming meeting of the American Heart Association. It has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.Heart failure occurs when the heart can’t pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body’s organs for them to function properly. Nearly 7 million Americans have the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.While the study found that long-term melatonin use was an indicator of potential heart problems — and not causing the problems itself — experts agreed more research is needed into the supplements’ possible side effects.“We have patients using all kinds of supplements without understanding the risks,” said Dr. Martha Gulati, a preventive cardiologist and the incoming director of the Davis Women’s Heart Center at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Institute in Texas. “If there is harm from a supplement, it means the cost could be far more than simply expensive urine.” Gulati was not involved with the new study.Melatonin is a hormone made naturally by the body that helps regulate sleep and wake cycles. Synthetic versions, sold widely over the counter as dietary supplements, are marketed to help people fall asleep faster or overcome jet lag. Because supplements aren’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, doses and purity can vary widely among brands.Use of the supplement has increased in recent years. A 2022 Sleep Foundation survey found that up to 27% of U.S. adults take melatonin, as well as 4% of kids. The new study didn’t include children.People taking melatonin for sleep for more than a year should talk with their doctor, experts said.“People should be aware that it should not be taken chronically without a proper indication,” Marie-Pierre St-Onge, director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, said in a press release. St-Onge was not involved with the new research.Erika EdwardsErika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and “TODAY.”
November 18, 2025
Acting head of FEMA David Richardson resigns
November 29, 2025
Trump administration vows for immigration changes
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved