America's Talking - Health care policy remains sticking point in Senate's govt shutdown talks

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

(The Center Square) – It’s day three of the government shutdown, and U.S. lawmakers are no closer to a government stopgap compromise, with both parties believing they’ll win the standoff. The Senate is set to vote Friday afternoon on both Democrats’ and Republicans’ competing short-term Continuing Resolutions for the fourth time, but neither is likely to pass. Democratic leaders remain staunch in their demands that Republicans commit to renewing the COVID-19 era enhanced Obamacare Premium Tax Credits, while Republicans are betting that enough rank-and-file Democrats will fold to public pressure to reopen the government as the shutdown drags on.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxRead more: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_75677460-31f8-4232-93d2-93ced1d38ec2.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Republicans and Democrats in Congress did not strike a deal to fund the federal government after the start of the new fiscal year that began October 1st, and a partial government shutdown continues with little to no progress made since then. Joining me to discuss this is the Center Square's congressional reporter, Teres Boudreau. Terese, where are we at in terms of the two sides agreeing on a deal to reopen various government agencies? Well, we're not getting very far. As of today, Friday, there's really not that much talk going on between congressional leaders.

I mean, they're lobbying back and forth on Twitter or X now, I should say, and talking to reporters individually. and both of them are saying that the other side owns this shutdown and it's the other side's fault and that they're not going to move. So it's not looking good right now. So this is day three of the shutdown. And because Senate Majority Leader John Thune, after today's vote canceled votes over the weekend, that means, you know, unless a miracle happens and somehow it passes today in the Senate, which it won't, that we're looking at. at a shutdown of at least six days, which is significant, especially going into next week. And if they don't have any really fruitful negotiations over the weekend and it keeps going,

the longer the shutdown goes, the more that people will feel that. But it's, I don't think a lot of people really thought that actually would happen because it seems like we have these shutdown threats, you know, a couple times a year or something at this point, you know, and they just keep voting on these continuing resolutions to keep the government temporarily funded and there's always demands. And then, but it all, it works out at the end. Well, it didn't this time. The Republicans had a continuing resolution that would just extend government funding, like put it on cruise control, basically, for about seven weeks. And then that would give lawmakers time to finish crafting the 12 appropriations bills that give fresh funding to federal agencies.

for fiscal year 2026. We're now in fiscal year 2026. And because that CR did not pass, the government doesn't have money for this year and the government shut down, or at least partially shut down. And so that's where we're at right now. Democrats are refusing to vote for Republican CR, which passed the House already, unless Republicans sit down with them and talk about certain health care policies that they want extended. For instance, the Obamacare, during COVID, there was a temporary enhancement of the Obamacare premium tax credits. And those were set to expire and Democrats don't want them to expire. They're set to expire in December and Democrats are saying we need to take care of this now.

We need to take care of this through the government, you know, funding stopgap process. We need to have negotiations now. And Republicans are saying that's incredibly costly. You know, that's something that's going to take time. We have months to do that. don't hold the CR and the government hostage over this is what they're saying. So that's where we're at and they're very, they're standoff right now. And president and leaders just seem to think that there's going to wait for the other side to fold.

And that's not happening so far. It doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime soon. So for our listeners' sake, we are recording this on Friday morning. As Torres mentioned, there is a vote scheduled for later today, but it's not expected. an agreement is not expected to be reached because both sides are holding strong. What is this partial government shutdown? Of course, national security, air travel, things like that. Those workers are deemed critical, so they're still working.

But what does this government shutdown mean for everyday Americans, for the folks who are working in non-critical positions in the federal government who are not working? How is this impacting things? Right. Well, as you said, the so-called essential workers. So, you know, our troops, TSA agents, air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents, they're working. They're just working without pay right now. For the military, I think they get their next paycheck October 15th. So if they shut down drags until then, then they're going to actually really start feeling the effects because they're not going to get that paycheck.

As for the average American person who's not a federal employee, because there's going to be thousands of hundreds of thousands in the coming days of federal employees at different positions in the EPA and FDA, et cetera, who are furloughed, if you're just an average American, as of right now, you probably haven't noticed anything because you're still getting your mail. the planes are still planes and trains are still going you know maybe you've noticed some delays but that's still happening the you know Medicaid Medicare Social Security mandatory spending programs like that

which aren't funded through the government funding process they're fun they're it's just automatically renewed those are still going so those aren't impacted veterans benefits those so the postal service like I said that they're getting your mail because

there separately. They kind of self-fund with the taxes on stamps and things like that. So the average American right now probably is not noticed a difference. With government shutdowns, it really just does depend on where you work, where you are in the country in terms of what you're going to feel. Because what happens, if you have a government shutdown that goes on for a long time, like if you, let's say, you know, hopefully not, but let's say this lasted throughout next week or something. You would see some programs like WIC, the women infants and children, food for food assistance program, that could quickly run out of money. And so people who are reliant on that could be harmed by that.

Snap benefits, those are partially state funded as well, and there's a lot of intricacies there. but if this lasted, say, as long as the previous one did, which was 35 days, those snap benefits could also be in jeopardy. And then there's many things that I think the ordinary American doesn't actually come in contact with day to day but is happening and they don't realize they're benefiting from. That could be harmed. So, you know, domestic food facilities, you know, the FDA tests those regularly to make sure that, okay, we're not getting. you know, I mean, sometimes they can't catch everything, but, you know, making sure, okay, the ham that's going to your grocery store doesn't have listeria, you know, in it or something like that, those have to stall during government shutdown. The EPA's water testing or hazardous waste testing or cleanup, you know, pollution, things like that, that also has to stall. Things like clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health, those can also really be impacted.

But because with clinical trials, you can't just put a pause on them, really, without messing up a lot of the data in a lot of these cases. And so that could also be devastating in the long run for some people if there are some, you know, cancer trials or things that are going on that have to pause. And then they essentially have to, NIH has to scrap them. And there could be a lot of families who are waiting on, you know, we're waiting on those results, things like that. So it's not a government shutdown is not something where people are suddenly going to, you know, see something as obvious as, oh, like, I can't buy food or I can't, you know, do something critical like this. If you're every day, day to day things, you're not really going to see much of a difference probably unless, again, you're on, you know, you're receiving food stamps or other government services. But there are things going on behind the scenes, I think, that people rely on that they, don't realize they rely on. And if there is a extended period of time where those things just aren't happening and aren't working anymore, then people might actually start to feel those effects or feel them in the future. So it's not, you know, obviously you don't want to scare people about it or

something like that. I mean, people aren't going to be going to the store and I'm going to worry that everything they buy is going to be tainted by contamination or something. But it is serious. You know, for quite a few people. It can be a serious thing. So both Republicans and Democrats, nobody wants this to last very long, if nothing else because it's not a good look politically. But again, at this moment, it doesn't seem like there's much negotiations really going on. Derez, thank you for joining us today.

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