Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Nov. 7 proposed a new plan to end the record-breaking federal government shutdown, ahead of another possible vote on a Republican-backed bill to reopen the government. Schumer said on the Senate floor that his proposal would continue expiring premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, for a year, giving lawmakers time to work out a longer solution.They are slated to expire at the end of this year. Open enrollment for Obamacare, when prospective customers first got a look at potential new costs, began on Nov. 1. “That’s not a negotiation....

The lapse in benefits could be temporary if the Trump administration complies with a recent court order requiring them to use emergency money to fund SNAP. The impact of the food aid lapse will sweep across red and blue states alike: Just over half of all SNAP recipients live in states that backed Trump in last year’s election.More than two dozen Democratic state officials — including those in California, Massachusetts, Kansas and Kentucky — sued the Trump administration over the lapse in benefits in a separate lawsuit that is still pending a formal decision. Republican officials have pointed the blame...

More than half of all illegal-immigrant households have at least one U.S.-born child through whom they can receive aid. Nearly 2.7 million households have at least one illegal head and one child, and more than 5.3 million U.S.-born children of illegal aliens hold Social Security numbers. The total estimated cost to American taxpayers of providing SNAP benefits to the children of illegal aliens is almost $5.8 billion. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, data from the 2022 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) indicates that 54 percent of households headed by immigrants—including naturalized citizens, legal residents, and illegal...