Health beat: Time To Take on Obamacare

The Wall Street Journal editorial board points out that Democrats are leveraging the government shutdown to pressure Republicans into extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies, originally introduced as temporary pandemic relief. This strategy, however, might not be as effective as intended, given the growing public awareness of the Affordable Care Act’s impact on healthcare costs and quality.

Recent voter sentiment suggests discontent, as many perceive that the ACA has led to higher expenses and diminished care. By pushing for these subsidies, Democrats inadvertently highlight the law’s inherent flaws and the negative incentives it has created within the healthcare system.

For instance, as Democrats vocalize their concerns over increasing premiums, they inadvertently critique the very system their party implemented. This situation presents an opportunity for Republicans, who are steadfast in their refusal to extend subsidies they never supported, to stand firm against reopening the government under these terms.

Fifteen years after the passage of Obamacare, the political landscape has shifted. The current shutdown debate raises the question of whether the GOP will seize this moment to challenge the ACA’s shortcomings and take a more assertive stance on healthcare reform.

Times have changed since Obamacare passed 15 years ago; “the question of the shutdown is whether the GOP” will now “go on offense” over its failures.

Conservative: Dems’ Cruel Food-Stamp Game

If the shutdown continues, the government “will run out of funding for food stamps in early November,” but it’s “misleading to blame the president and his fellow Republicans,” as the media are doing, argues Tarren Bragdon at The Hill.

Republicans have passed a bill in the House “that would fully fund the government, including food stamps” aka SNAP.

But “Democrats are blocking” a Senate floor vote that would pass the bill because “they have a $1.5 trillion wish list” of ridiculous demands.

“Democrats and their allies are saying that Trump could easily step in to keep” SNAP funded, since his team has prevented other cuts “by reallocating money from tariffs.”

But the same can’t be done for SNAP, because the “spending is far bigger.”

Dems are cynically using “food stamp recipients as leverage to extract concessions from Republicans.”

Culture critic: Nihilistic Extremist Firestarter

Jonathan Rinderknecht “hiked into the Santa Monica Mountains” where he allegedly started what would become “the much bigger Palisades fire — the most disastrous blaze” in Los Angeles history, groans Peter Savodik at The Free Press.

He’s a type “increasingly familiar to Americans: young, angry, rudderless, very online, very political, but whose agenda was difficult to discern,” indeed he’s “defined more by what he was against — climate change, Donald Trump,” carnivores, believers in God — “than what he was for.”

He fit “a new category of criminal: What the FBI called Nihilistic Violent Extremists.”

Later arrested “for ‘maliciously’ starting the Palisades fire,” Rinderknect had developed a “curdling” worldview where “his hopes for a better future succumbed to his fears of climate apocalypse.”

Republican: Fringe Dominates Democratic Party

“The fringe has gone mainstream” in Illinois’ Democratic Party, warns Richard Porter at RealClearPolitics.

A “substantial minority” supports “political violence (including felonies to stop federal immigration officers)”; 80% say President Trump and his supporters are “Nazis,” per a new M3 Strategies poll.

Millions reject “the primacy of federal law” established by the Constitution.

Gov. JB Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and others who claim Illinois can be a “safe haven” from federal law and the 42% of Dems who say violence against federal officers can be appropriate are “essentially advocating for organized insurrection.”

It “should give pause to Americans of good faith”: The Democratic Party’s leaders “are playing to a base” that’s increasingly “alienated” from other Americans — and “hate those who disagree.”

From the right: Obama the Albatross

Barack Obama, “believing he still has the influence to sway voters on the campaign trail,” is “stepping up his visibility” in key races, smirks The Washington Times’ Kelly Sadler, though his “mansplaining” and “scolding” of black men in particular “didn’t move the needle” in 2024, and Democrats’ “gamble” that he can boost them now “may backfire.”

His speeches have “become less inspiring and more condescending and patronizing,” while his policy legacy “didn’t result in a better America.”

And he did nothing to “build up a new generation of Democratic leaders,” instead “obliterating the party.”

Obama “paved the way for Trump’s ascendancy,” but remains “too arrogant” to consider his role in the equation.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board