Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-10-28 Tuesday

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Democracy Now! Tuesday, October 28, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. Oh, HCHR has just a few minutes ago reported on a multitude of reports of summary executions of unarmed men and civilians in our future. The United Nations is repeating its call for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan after the UAE-backed rapid support forces seized control of Alfacer and Darfur after a 17-month siege. Mass reports of atrocities in the city. We'll get the latest. Then the U.S. government shutdown has entered its 28th day. Almost a million and a half federal workers are going without pay.

Many are turning to food pantries to eat as 42 million people will soon lose food assistance through the SNAP program. Millions are also facing soaring health care premiums as Republicans refuse to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Trump and congressional Republicans have refused to extend the enhanced subsidies for Marketplace ACA plans. 20 million Americans get marketplace ACA plans, and they're going to see their premium costs more than double. Then David Soroda of the Lever on Master Plan, the hidden plot to legalize corruption in America. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

Officials in Jamaica are warning of an unfolding catastrophe as Hurricane. Melissa bears down on the island nation with sustained winds of up to 175 miles per hour. The Category 5 storm is the strongest on earth this year, and the most powerful hurricane on record ever to strike Jamaica, likely to trigger widespread flooding and landslides with catastrophic damage to buildings in the path of the hurricane's eye. Some parts of Jamaica could see up to 40 inches of rain, more rain than typically falls, in an entire year. Melissa's already killed three people each in Jamaica and Haiti and one person in the Dominican Republic. Hurricane warnings are also in effect for parts of Cuba and the Bahamas. Meanwhile, many Haitians fear the storm could worsen the humanitarian crisis in Haiti

where residents already face widespread poverty and gang violence. This is Fortune Vitale, a resident of a camp for displaced people in Haiti's western Lake High region. We have nothing in our hands to live on. If a hurricane hits, we're screwed. If the hurricane comes on top of all the problems we already have, we'll simply die. My kids, my wife, and my family are somewhere else. We have nothing to eat to survive. This adds to the problem of bandits shooting all day.

There's no way out except to die. The hurricane exploded in strength from a tropical storm on Saturday to a category four hurricane on Sunday, a rapid intensification made possible by abnormally warm waters in the Caribbean. Climate scientists say human activity is causing oceans to warm dramatically, making rapidly developing storms more common. The United Nations top officials says the world has failed to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The goal set by the Paris Climate Agreement to prevent the most devastating consequences of the climate crisis. Speaking with the Guardian and the Brazilian news outlet,

Summauma, ahead of next month's COP 30 climate summit in Brazil, UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez said it's now inevitable. Humanity will overshoot the 1.5 degree target set by the Paris Climate Agreement with devastating consequences for the world. So overshooting is now inevitable. And so it is absolutely indispensable to change costs in order to make sure that that overshooting is as small as possible. And this is a basic condition to avoid tipping points. We don't want to see the Amazon as a savannah. But that is a real risk if we don't change course

and if we don't take a dramatic decrease of emissions as soon as possible. Democracy now will be in Belém, Brazil, covering the UN Climate Summit. In the Gaza Strip Aid organizations warn the amount of food and other basic goods, Israel's allowed to enter the Palestinian territory continues to fall far short of the six years.

truckloads per day promised under Israel's ceasefire agreement. The U.N. says the daily number of trucks allowed into Gaza has never passed 200 on any single day in October. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians are returning to neighborhoods. Israel forced them to evacuate only to find their homes in rubble, according to the U.N. Migration Agency, an estimated 90 percent of all buildings in Gaza are destroyed or damaged. This is Amal-Talab Al-Anan, a Palestinian from the Al-Shati, refugee camp whose home was flattened by Israeli strikes. We took the house keys. Here they are. The house keys. We took them so we would come back and

find the house. But when the truce happened, we returned and we didn't find the house. We didn't even find the door. Every day when I come here, I feel like my soul leaves me. This is where I used to go, where I used to walk. This is my place, my home, my house. Here I built my life. Here I built dreams for me and the children. It's very hard to lose your home. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian fighters during an early morning raid on a village near the city of Janine.

The raid sparked heavy exchanges of gunfire, prompting Israel's military to call in airstrikes. This comes as the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz. His pledging his forces will remain in Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank until it will leave. least the end of the year. Israeli attacks on the West Bank have killed more than a thousand Palestinians over the past two years, including 213 children. U.S. officials who closely examined the 22 shooting death of Palestinian-American journalist Shereen Abuakla and the occupied

West Bank were deeply divided over the Biden administration's public conclusions, with some officials convinced her killing was intentional. That's according to the New York Times, citing five current and former U.S. officials who worked on the case, including a career military policemen with 30 years' experience. Speaking publicly for the first time, Colonel Steve Gavavik said the U.S. government had soft-pedaled the office's findings to appease the Israeli government. He said he and his colleagues were left flabbergasted by the Biden State Department's statement attributing Abu Aklas killing to, quote, tragic circumstances. The colonel also spoke with journalist Medi Hassan of the news outlets at Teo.

My findings were beyond reasonable doubt that this was an intentional killing of Shrina Bacla. This is on the 19th or 20th of May 22. Yes. This is within 10 days of her killing. Yes. You, on behalf of the United States government, are saying that beyond reasonable doubt, that's a legal standard in a criminal court. Yes, it is.

She was intentionally killed. Correct. Venezuelan officials say they've captured a group of mercenaries tied to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. In a statement, the government of Venezuela said, quote, this is a colonial operation of military aggression that seeks to turn the Caribbean into a space for lethal violence and U.S. imperial domination, unquote. Earlier this month, President Trump acknowledged he authorized the CIA to secretly conduct operations in Venezuela. On Sunday, a U.S. warship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago, leading Venezuela to cancel energy agreements with the Caribbean

nation. Here's Venezuela's vice president and oil minister, Delsi Rodriguez. It's not a conflict. It's aggression from the United States, a militaristic aggression against Venezuela. President Maduroa has said it. It's about Venezuela's oil and gas. The U.S. federal government shutdown has entered its 28th day. On Monday, American Federation of Government employees, the nation's top federal workers union, called on Congress to immediately end the shutdown by passing a spending bill that does not include the health care measures that Democrats want to protect. Everett Kelly, the President of American Federation of government employees, said in a statement, quote, it's time to pass a clean, continuing

resolution and end this shutdown today, no half-measures and no gamesmanship, he said. This comes as the Department of Agriculture posted a notice on its website stating no federal food aid will go out November 1st. Meanwhile, President Trump has stated he will not tap into a contingency fund of $5 billion to keep SNAP, that's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program running. One in eight Americans rely on SNAP food assistance. Indiana's Republican governor called for a special legislative session Monday to redraw the state's congressional maps stating if Indiana doesn't take action, quote, will have consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should, unquote. The proposal could

allow Republicans to win all nine of Indiana's congressional seats. It follows similar efforts by Republicans to successfully redraw maps in their favor in Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas. President Trump's urging the Justice Department to investigate the 2020 election, writing on social media, quote, I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much gusto as befitting the biggest scandal in American history, unquote. Earlier this month, the Trump administration appointed Kurt Olson, a former Trump campaign lawyer, as a special government employee to work on election issues. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, officials said Olson has started asking intelligence agencies about information related to the 2020 election. This comes as the Trump administration's

instructed the Justice Department to send observers to New Jersey and California to monitor polling sites during elections next week. Californians are set to vote on a ballot proposition that would redraw the state's congressional districts, allowing Democrats to possibly pick up five additional seats in Congress. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom called the Trump administration's moves as intimidation tactic, while California's attorney general Rob Bontas said, quote, all indications, all arrow show this is a tee-up for something more dangerous in the 2026 midterms and beyond. President Trump met Japan's newly elected ultra-nationalist prime minister, Sinaya Takeichi,

and Tokyo Tuesday as he continued a six-day trip to Asia. The pair agreed to cooperate on expanding the supply chain for rare earth metals and promised to expand military cooperation, with Takeichi reiterating a pledge to increase Japan's military spending to at least 2 percent of gross domestic product. During their summit, she repeatedly flattered Trump. saying she plans to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. In such a short period of time, the world has become more peaceful. I highly value President Trump's unwavering commitment to world peace and stability.

I myself have been deeply impressed and inspired by you. Earlier today, Japan's first female prime minister joined President Trump aboard an aircraft carrier at a U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, where Trump told active duty soldiers he plans to keep using the National Guard. to occupy American cities and that he might deploy soldiers from other military branches as well. This comes ahead of Trump's trip to a summit in South Korea, where he'll meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. It's unclear if he will also be meeting with the North Korean leader on this trip.

In Cameroon, the world's oldest president, 92-year-old Paul Bea, was reelected Monday to an eighth term in office. This follows days of protest during which security forces killed four people. Cameroon's top court ruled Bia won the majority of the votes, but the opposition contested the result. Recently, dozens of opposition supporters and activists and leaders had been arrested. And in the Ivory Coast, 83-year-old incumbent president Alassan Wattara has won a fourth term in office after an election that saw two of his main rivals disqualified.

About half of eligible voters cast ballots far fewer than the roughly 80 percent who voted in the 2010-11 elections when Wattara was first elected. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. The United Nations is repeating its call for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan.

After the UAE-backed rapid support forces, seized control of the city of Alfacer and Darfur after a 17-month siege. On Monday, the head of the African Union called for the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow life-saving aid to reach those in need. The African Union also condemned reports of war crimes in Al-Fasher. One group allied with the Sudanese military has claimed the RSF has, quote, executed more than 2,000 unarmed civilians, unquote, since taking control of Al-Fashir. The fall of the city is seen as a major blow to the Sudanese military. On Monday, Sudan's army chief, General Abdel Fata al-Barran, announced the withdrawal of a soldiers from their last stronghold in Darfur.

Everyone has followed what has happened in El Fasur. Certainly the leadership there, including security, made assessments that they have to leave the city due to the systemic destruction and killing of civilians. We agreed with them to leave the city and to go to a safe place so as to spare the rest of the citizens and the rest of the city from destruction. On Monday, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Denise Brown, warned of the escalating humanitarian crisis in El Fasher and throughout Sudan. There's been a blockade for now over, over 500 days,

a blockade of humanitarian assistance going in for those civilians. So I just want to reiterate, there are civilians in El Fasher. It is a fact. And once again, and we've said it dozens of times, The UN calls on the RSF to allow safe passage for them to leave, particularly as the fighting has intensified over the past 24 hours. These individuals are increased risk of being injured or killed. Oh, HCHR has just a few minutes ago reported on a multitude of reports of summary executions of unarmed men and civilians in El Fasher.

The Sudanese military and the UAE backed RSF have been fighting since 2023. Since then, more than 150,000 people have died across Sudan. About 12 million have fled their homes. We go now to Marine Al-Neil, a Sudanese activist, usually joins us from Khartoum or in Sudan, but is now in Nairobi, Kenya. Marine, can you talk about the significance of the RSF taking over? Al-Fasher, the role of the UAE, and the level of famine in this city, what it means for the whole country? The most important aspect of the RSF taking control of Al-Fashit is the humanitarian aspect. We've seen the situation in Alfacet in the months of the siege, which were about 18 months of siege.

And during that time, the RSF built barricades from sand that just completely surrounded the city. making sure that no one goes in or out except through one, what they called a safe corridor and it was anything but safe. People were facing multiple violations through that route. And during the time of the siege, we've seen the level of famine in al-Fashid arise to something who have not seen in other areas in Sudan,

even just a stack of millet, which is the staple, or was the staple, Rosed to over $1,000, and people started basically depending on animal feeding to feed themselves and their families. And that has been the situation for months. So now with the RSF taking over the city and entering the city

and taking over the six infantry of the Sunniese armed forces, the biggest fear is what's going to happen to the civilians. We know that the RSF does not, differentiate between military and civilians. And they've been explicitly saying there are no civilians in a fashion, which is not the reality. So this is the fear now what's going to happen to the civilians, and we're already seeing grave violations happening to the people,

executions, detentions, targeting of volunteers, targeting of journalists. We've seen the detention of journalists as well. And when it comes to what does this mean, mean for the war in Sudan and in total, this just shows us that what the Sudanese armed forces have been promising, which is military victory that is going to end the war, is nowhere near happening. And if they keep insisting that they must win with a military victory, then this is just going to prolong the war more and more and causing more civilians harm, because both parties

are indiscriminately attacking, whether these are civilians or from the other war in the party, and also indiscriminately attacking infrastructure. They've attacked healthcare infrastructure. About 80% of the hospitals are out of service now, and let alone all the medical staff that have also fled the country. So we're seeing with the harms that the war, war is causing. We're also seeing the healthcare situation deteriorating very quickly, and this is something that is impacting places like North Def War very heavily, and also impacting the rest

of the country. And could you talk, Marine, about the significance of the city of El Fasher to both sides, why they have fought so hard now for so long over control of the city? Yeah, well, it is the last stronghold of the Sudanese armed forces in that floor. And this is one of the fears that is also a lot of Sudanese people are afraid of facing, afraid that the country will face now, is the prospects of having basically two governments, because already the IRS have announced a parallel government, and now with them taking control of Al-Fashar and also taking control about two days ago of Bara,

which is another strategic city in North Kodokhan. So the fear of having two governments now, which will lead to longer destabilization, that could not being able to end it, whether military or through negotiations, since SAF is not accepting any negotiations at the time. There are no negotiations happening directly or indirectly. So with the RSF taking control of the fashion,

this fear is growing about having the country destabilized for longer, about having two governments and also the fear of the back and forth of RSF taking control and SAF taking control of areas, which causes more and more violations. Every time you have this movement of the two warring parties, you see a spike in humanitarian violations, and you see a spike in gender-based violence and sexual violence. And you see, obviously, a spike in detention and executions,

extrajudicial executions that are being done by both parties accusing civilians, or maybe not civilians, we don't know, because there are no trials, happening, accusing them of collaborating with the other party and executing them extrajudicially based on that. And could you talk about the role of outside powers in this war, specifically United Arab Emirates or other regional powers? What do they have to gain from continuing to stoke this war? Well, the United Arab Emirates is playing multiple roles in this war.

We know that it has been backing the rapid support forces. And on the other hand, it still has relations with the government that is the Sudanese armed forces. And we've seen how big of a role it plays on the other side as well, especially recently when the air flights between Portugal and UAE were stopped. And we've seen the amount of gold imports that have been halted due to that. So the UAE has a vested interest in Sudan, has been supporting the rapid support forces. And at the same time, it is continuing to have relations with the Sudanese armed forces. So I think that the lack of stability does facilitate more, importing of gold from Sudan that is not being regulated.

And at the same time, they're still also importing that legally gold from Sudan. And at the same time, the UAE is part of the quad that is trying to lead negotiations between the two warring parties and the existence of UAE in that quad has been one of the reasons that's being stated by the Sunni's armed forces as a reason that they cannot trust the quad to lead these negotiations. So we know that the United Arab Emirates can have a lot of impact. It can control or at least impact the flow of weapons and ammunition to the rapid support forces. It can also pressure the Sudanese armed forces through their economic relationship.

And it can also impact both parties through its contribution in the quad. So they're able to influence the situation to something better if that was their priority. But we know very well that the priority is the economic gains that they have from Sudan. So finally, Marine Al-Neil, what do you feel can be done at this point? What is civil society calling for? Talk about what the UN and we're speaking to you from the United States, what the United States can do. What does civil society want? At this moment, what's important, we have an urgent situation that is happening now and al-Fashif.

So there is a need for urgent health. There is a need for having the aid reach the people. We've had over 1,000 families fleeing El-Fashid and reaching Tawila and nearby town. and all of these people are in need of, I mean, desperate need of humanitarian assistance. That needs to be organized. There are moves that are working on the ground. There are community-based groups.

There are grassroots groups that are working on the ground and that can be supported. And when we're talking, on the other hand, what can be done from the United States? I think, I mean, the United States is also part of the Quad. So people in the United States can work on influencing the United States by prioritizing the safety of the people

and the livelihoods of the people. We've heard the special envoy of the USA that their main concern, this was before the take over of El Fashid, their main concern is the relations between the Sunnis armed forces and Islamic movements. And I think it's important to move the main concern and from any power-sharing prospects

to what is happening to the people now on the ground, especially when we have such a dire situation. And another area that can be also very impactful is to see some seriousness in the measures that the US is taking. We've seen them impose sanctions on a number of rapid support forces leaders, while at the same time there are reports of rapid support forces leaders, roaming freely in Washington, D.C., actually. So there is a question of how serious are these measures that are being taken

against the perpetrators to try to pressure them to prioritize the humanitarian situation right now and pressure them into at least a humanitarian ceasefire, like the Quad has suggested, for three months, there can be more seriousness taken into these measures. So we can see the warring parties prioritizing also the safety of the Sydney's people because at this moment, and as we've seen for two years, the priority of both warring parties was reaching power, basically while the international actions priorities have been related to economic interests, as well as interest in not destabilizing the entire region. Maureen, I want to thank you for being with us.

Sudanese activists joining us from Nairobi, Kenya. Coming up, the government shutdown enters its 28th day. 42 million Americans will soon lose federal food assistant. We'll look at why millions are seeing soaring health care premiums and what can be done about it. Stay with us. Woke with a feeling, tomorrow is coming,

some new hope is around the bend, and it's beaming through the lens, woke up feeling, I could be all right, under the door is the hallway light. Things have gone to be all right. This is democracy now, this is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. The U.S. federal government shutdown has entered its 20th day.

Friday, more than a million, 1.4 million federal workers miss their first full paychecks. This is furloughed federal worker Anthony Spade in line at a food bank in Washington, D.C. So today is my normally, I would get paid today. I don't have no paycheck in my account. I still have bills that are due. I have a family that I have to take care of. So it's a lot of uncertainty that comes along with this. I'm grateful for these opportunities to receive assistance. But there is a lot of uncertainty that comes along with it, and it causes a lot of stress as well. Now the American Federation of Government Employees, the nation's top federal workers union, is calling on Congress to immediately end the shutdown by passing a bill without agreeing to demands from Democrats to extend health care subsidies from the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire Saturday, November 1st, doubling premiums for some 20 million people. As many federal workers turn to food pantries, the Department of Agricultural says it'll cut food aid to some 42 million people who rely on SNAP, that supplemental nutrition assistance program starting Saturday.

President Trump says he will not tap into a contingency fund of $5 billion to keep SNAP running. This is Jill Dixon, executive director of the Food Depot, a food bank in northern New Mexico. For every meal that a food bank provides, the SNAP program provides nine. There's no way we can replace every single one of those meals. It is not sustainable for food banks to fill this gap. We were not built to do this. On Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders posted on social media, Trump's throwing 15 million Americans off health care. He's doubling premiums for 20 million Americans.

Now he's refusing to use a $5 billion emergency SNAP fund to keep 16 million kids. from going hungry. But the 1% keep $1 trillion in tax breaks. Oligarchy in action, Sanders said. We'll look more at health care in a minute. We begin in Washington, D.C., with Gina Platanino, interim director for SNAP at the Food Research and Action Center, Frack. Thanks so much for being with us, Gina. Lay out what's happening. What is at stake this week? At stake, it is the livelihood. It is food on the table for over 42 million of Americans who are going to lose their faith in government if the Secretary of Agriculture doesn't utilize these contingency reserves that she has in place, that she has been given the authority to utilize to ensure that SNAP benefits in November are not delayed. And, Gina, the Department of Agriculture with Trump's appointing Brooke Rollins put out a quite amazing statement on their website.

They have, in a notice to the public, quote, bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. they can continue to hold out for health care for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance. Have you ever seen such a statement by a government agency? No, and everything's incorrect. I mean, we can go down the line and breaking down every point and to just say, you know, everything's a lie. You know, we can throw out.

data, so much data in terms of who benefits from SNAP, 96% are US citizens, majority of people who utilize SNAP are white Americans. The people who benefit from this program are Americans. But really what it comes down to is unfortunately made individuals who utilize this so that they can pay for rent because they don't have enough money. Majority of people who are on SNAP are working. They live paycheck to paycheck, and this will offset. of them while SNAP is supposed to be a supplemental program. In reality, it's their whole food budget. And when you have to make a decision between making sure that there's food on the table for

your child, while they may be getting food at school, when they come home, they're going to see mommy and daddy skipping meals. So it's just, unfortunately, that they're utilizing human beings, Americans, as a political battle, as a chess pieces, when they are going to have to face their landlord and say, I don't have money for food. I don't know if I can pay my rent. So we're going to see, and we're starting to see a higher utilization of credit card debt. For those who still have credit cards, we're going to see, you know, more people going

into the food banks, but the food banks do not have the resources and they can make up what SNAP does, nine meals for everyone that a food bank does. So we are going to see a decrease in people's well-being, unnecessary mental health and pressure. similarly to what we saw in the previous shutdown under the first Trump administration. But even then, the secretary appointed was able to ensure that benefits went out earlier. So we wouldn't be in the situation where we are now, which is why Congress gave the authority to the secretary through contingency funds that they could utilize them.

And they have been utilizing them to pay administrative expenses for the states. So they just have to tap it into those resources and any additional reserves, for example, in Section 32 that they utilize to fund WIC. The secretary can and she utilize this authority and not play with people's lives, their livelihood, with their food, particularly when everything's

more expensive. And how are some states responding to this looming cutback? Remember that SNAP is a federal program. The state handles all of the federal money. So this idea that like they are

buckets of money sort of laying around, it's not correct. And states already have been trying to figure out how to come back from the reconciliation bill signed by President Trump in the summer in July because they were already trying to figure out how they were going to continue paying for SNAP because for the first time in history, SNAP has to become a line item budget if people want to continue putting this in the program because the reconciliation law takes away. $187 billion from SNAP. So this is in continuation in terms of what the administration finds.

So states were already dealing with this, saying how we're going to implement all of these changes, how are we going to do this with less administrative resources, how are we going to put money up front? And now the shutdown is happening. And people are very, you know, justifiably, very angry and just upset and don't understand that the person that can make all of this go away as the secretary, as the president, by by just the secretary utilizing her power. And some states are saying, should we utilize funding, they can't do it.

They don't have the resources. They are not additional reserves. And USCA sent out two memos on Friday, and one of them said that states will not get reimbursed if they utilize this. So we know that Virginia's governor called it a state of emergency, and they're figuring out how to do this. We've heard from other states as well. the governor of California gave more money to food banks and mobilized the National Guard to help

carry the food and make sure that they process the food. But this is a Band-Aid on a bigger issue, and it just shows the impact that the federal inaction is causing. So finally, Gina Plata Niño, the children, how many children in the U.S. rely on SNAP and what's going to happen now? The majority of people unsnap are children, followed by older adults and followed by people with disabilities. You know, what's going to happen now is that these kids are going to school. Thankfully, there's child nutrition programs. They're going to get their breakfast.

They're going to get their lunch, but then they're going to go home. And people forget that children don't live by themselves, right? They have a caretaker. That caretaker is already incredibly stressed out of how they're going to pay their bill and have food on the table. You know, the children are going to say, you know, mommy, daddy, why don't we have? a Thanksgiving meal? Why don't we have enough food at the table? Why are you eating? Why do you look so stressed? And this is unnecessary burden on children to have to deal with everything else that's going on in their environment. So we're going to see an increase of mental health issues

and a lower well-being for many individuals. And your final comment on the fact that the one trillion dollar tax cut for billionaires remains in place as children go hungry? Yes. And that's what people don't understand that this, that ceiling issue that what happened in July was a policy choice, right? It was to extend these tax credits to incredibly wealthy individuals. It's not working class Americans. It's not middle class American.

It is the wealthiest, the wealthiest, because as all of us are struggling to pay for food that is more expensive, 3% more expensive, 3% more expensive, 3 times, more expensive than it was last year, billionaires are spending more money. There are various stories and research and studies to show that they have more money to spend because this is what the tax break did. While the individuals who are working hard because majority of people on SNAP are working, getting paid less than $1,000, the same corporations that got large tax breaks are not paying people livable wages. And so they have to rely on SNAP. And now they're not, they may not be able to pay for food. They may not be able to pay for rent.

because they need to be able to eat. Gina Platanino, and a thank you for being with us in term director for SNAP at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit working to end hunger in America. This is Democracy Now, DemocracyNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.

As the U.S. federal government shutdown enters its 28th day, we now look at how Democrats are demanding Republicans agree to extend health care subsidies from the Affordable Care Act that are set to explore, Saturday if Republicans want the votes to end the shutdown. Health insurance premiums are expected to more than double for some 20 million people

unless Congress acts. Many have already faced sticker shock when they received letters about their new premiums. The enhanced subsidies were first put in place during the pandemic. For more, we're joined here in New York by Dr. Steffey-Willhandler, distinguished professor of public health at Hunter College, CUNY, co-founder of physicians for a national health program, contributes regularly to top medical journals, co-authored the latest report just out in Lancet,

headlined health care in the USA. Money has become the mission. Welcome back to Democracy Now, Dr. Wallhandler. Explain what you mean. Money has become the mission. Exactly what is happening, what the Republicans are refusing to do right now, to reopen the government

because the Democrats are saying they won't vote for an end to the shutdown until these tax subsidies are extended. Well, the purpose of health care has increasingly become profit-making rather than a public service. Specifically, Congress and Trump have refused to extend the tax credits, which will double the premiums for 20 million Americans who get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act. That's the line in the sand that the Democrats have drawn on the shutdown, but the bigger issues include that the one big beautiful bill that Trump signed into law on July 4th is going to cut $1 trillion out of the Medicaid program, which more than one in every five Americans rely on to make their health care affordable. Additionally, Trump has been giving giveaways to the private insurance industries, private insurance companies that have taken over the Medicare Advantage program. He doubled their pay increase this year, even though we already know that they're being

overpaid by about $80 billion a year because a congressional, official Congressional Medicare Payment Advisory Commission says they're being overpaying. paid $80 billion. Nonetheless, Trump doubled their pay increase, meaning that prices will go up for the taxpayers and will go up for Medicare beneficiaries. So there's many things that Trump is doing. The Republican Congress is doing to accelerate price increases and favor the for-profit provision of health care rather than thinking about health care as the public service. And Stephanie Woolhandler, these cuts will affect not just Medicaid, but also many people who are in, let's say, small business owners or the self-employed, could you talk about that

sector of the population that will be affected? Well, many people are going to be affected by cuts in various ways, but the refusal to extend the subsidies, which is what we're talking about with the shutdown, that affects small businesses. It affects near poor people, middle-income people the most. The Medicaid cuts affect everybody, too. That's not just, the poorest of the poor. Medicaid actually provides subsidies to many people in Medicare to reduce the price of their medications. Medicaid is a major source of funding for most rural hospitals, many community hospitals get a big chunk of their funding for Medicaid. So when that Medicaid funding is cut, it's going to be hard for community hospitals to pay their bills, and that

will affect the health care quality for everyone. So the Trump administration and Congress are cutting in many, many ways. And you were mentioning also a Medicare advantage. We're in this period now with literally on television, cable, social media, all of these Medicare Advantage companies are constantly, constantly, every single day advertising to seniors. It's an enormous amount of expenditure just to create more market. share for each of these companies. Why do we even need to go through all of this every year?

Well, you're correct. The Medicare Advantage program is a giant waste of money. It's raised the cost to the taxpayers by $80 billion last year alone, by over $600 billion over the past 20 years or so. And yet the Trump administration is further encouraging it. It also raises cost to Medicare beneficiaries through the Part B premiums. It pushes them up. So we should have never turned over the Medicare program to these private profit-seeking insurance companies like United Healthcare. It was a giant mistake, and we should be trying to reverse that mistake now, rather than encouraging it as the Trump administration is doing. Dr. Will Handler, put this in a global context. In the industrialized world, where does the U.S.

I mean, in this country, I think people overall believe in public education. I mean, you can go to a private school if you have the money, but that everyone should be able to get an education in this country. Why does that not extend to health care? And explained how we compare to Canada, who Trump is punishing right now, to Britain. I mean, you are the co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. And how do you see us getting there from here? here. Well, every other developed nation has some form of national health insurance or national

health service. When we compare the United States to those other nations, we find that health care costs are more than 50 percent higher in the U.S. than they are in other nations. When we look at outcomes like life expectancy, we find that Americans live four years shorter than people in other countries. We're dying four years younger than people in Canada or France. or Holland. So the national health programs have been much more effective, both in guaranteeing universal access, making healthcare affordable, and also controlling costs. So we really need to be moving in that direction and away from our private, profit-oriented health care system. And how do you see us getting there from here? Well, there had been major

movements for single-payer Medicare for all over time that the issue of health care affordability access is not going away. And I think that that is the vision that Senator Sanders and many others have put forward about where we need to be going. And that is what we need to be doing is keeping our eye on the prize, creating an alternative vision to what Trump is offering right now. Dr. Steffey-Wallandler, physician distinguished professor of public health at Hunter College, CUNY, City University of New York, co-founder of Physicians for National Health Program. We'll link to your latest report in Lancet. Health care in the USA, money has become the mission.

Coming up, David Cerroda of the Lever, a master plan, the hidden plot to legalize corruption in America. Stay with us. It's Christmas time in Washington. Democrats rehearse. Getting in gear for four more years. things not getting worse. Republicans drank whiskey

and eat and thank their lucky stars. They say you cannot seek another term. There'll be no more FDRs. I say home in Tennessee

staring at the screen. And I'm an easy feeling in my chest, wondering what it means. So come back would a guttree. Christmas in Washington by Steve Earle here in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. the rights secret plan to help billionaires by elections.

That's the headline of a recent article by our next guest, David Soroda, editor-in-chief of the lever. In the article, David writes about how two upcoming Supreme Court cases could turn the country into what he calls a kleptocracy. The article's based on Sarota's new book, Master Plan, the hidden plot to legalize corruption in America. David also has a new piece in the United States. also has a new piece in the nation on the New York mayoral race, the real lesson from

Zaraan Mamdani's Ascent. David Serota, welcome back to democracy now. Why don't you start off by talking about how you define the master plan? We talked to you when you did this series of podcasts on it, the hidden plot to legalize corruption in America. So we're immersed in corruption. You see it in the headlines every day. And I think there's this perception that this is.

is a natural course of events in the sense of it's a force of nature. But what we unearth in the book, for the first time really ever, is the secret plan to make this kind of corruption that we're immersed in legal. A plan hatched in the early 1970s to begin deregulating the campaign finance system and narrowing and making essentially unenforceable the anti-bribery laws in America. It started with the Powell memo. There was a lot of organizing this memo written by a soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Louis Powell, who urged a corporate investment and an oligarch investment in politics and media because he was afraid and corporate America was afraid of the rising tide of consumer protection laws and the like. And out of that movement in the early 1970s came the movement to create court rulings and legal precedents, equating money in politics, not with corruption, but with constitutionally protected speech, giving corporations those constitutional rights to spend in elections and in elections and by elections, ultimately culminating in Citizens United.

Meanwhile, a series of court rulings starting in the mid-2010s to overturn corruption convictions to narrow the definition of bribery, leading up to now, as you alluded to in the intro, two cases at the Supreme Court, one spearheaded by Vice President J.D. Vance, to eliminate what was left of campaign finance restrictions after Citizens United, and to further reduce the definition of bribery to make essentially quid pro quo transactions in politics legal. This is all part of a plan by a corporate movement that sees democracy, the government providing what people want sees that as a threat and wants to turn the democracy from a one vote a one vote kind of democracy into a one dollar kind of democracy where money is the decider

but david why do you call it a secret plan if it's basically a class or a group a group of people within a class clearly operating in their in their own interests That's certainly true. What we uncover in the book is from the Powell memo, this memo written by Lewis Powell, came never before revealed a series of meetings and task forces by the country's most powerful people. We're talking about executives at major media companies and Fortune 500 companies forming a task force to implement the Powell memo's demands that corporations invest in and essentially take over American politics. What you saw in the 1970s into the 80s and 90s was the implementation of what the Powell memo had called for. And it was not revealed. It was all, much of it was done in secret. We're talking about investments in motion pictures. We're talking about investments in media entities. We're talking about strategizing for how to implement and put loopholes into campaign finance laws.

One of the first meetings that came out of the palimamo, let me give you one example, was a meeting at Disney World, where they flew in Gerald Ford, who was soon to be the president, at a time when anti-corruption laws were moving through Congress after Watergate, and they ended up slipping in a loophole into that original campaign finance bill, which created the corporate pack for the first time. And, of course, from there we get the rulings that I've just mentioned. You also talk about the Mamdani campaign and a lot of the political pundits ascribing his success to his messaging and charisma. But you raise also the issue of how a public financing of elections has made Mamdani success possible as well.

Yeah, to my mind, having worked on. campaigns and having reported on political campaign finance, there's this debate, right, did Zoran Mamdani ascend because of his charisma, his slick ads, his message? I think all of those were factors, but I don't think there really would be a Zoran Mamdani campaign without New York City's system of publicly financed campaigns, a system that offers candidates like Zoran Mamdani, any qualifying candidates, matching funds, public matching funds for their small donations. So we've seen a lot of oligarch money flow into the New York City mayor's race.

The reason Mamdani has been able to run a well-resourced campaign is because of that public financing system, which gives a candidate like him access to resources that don't come with the demands of legislative favors. They are not private money donations that come from donors who want things from City Hall. So Mamdani, that system has given Mamdani enough money, not to outspend his opponents, but to at least run a competitive campaign. And so I think people looking at that race, wondering what the takeaways are for democracy, how can we have more outside the system candidates who can stand up to billionaires and oligarchs and the like? They should be looking at New York City's public financing system as a replicable model in other cities and other states across the country. If you can talk David Serota about all the latest news, for example, the pardons of the Binance CEO and what this means for the Trump family, you have President Trump last Thursday pardoning the convicted founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Chang Peng Zhao.

He pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while he was CEO of Binance. According to the Wall Street Journal, Binance struck a business deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto startup, which has generated $4.5 billion since Trump returned to office. And then there's a major Reuters exposé, the U.S. President's family raking in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets in the first half of this year alone, if you can explain how that fits into your description of a master plan? For sure. I mean, this is really the culmination of it. Starting in the mid-2010s, there was a series of rulings. This is if people remember, the Virginia Governor Bob McDonald corruption case, where he was convicted in the Supreme Court, the Roberts

Court intervened to overturn that conviction. That became the Chris Christie AIDS case, the Andrew Cuomo AIDS case, a bunch of corruption convictions that were overturned. Culminating in last year's decision where an Indiana mayor was convicted on corruption for delivering a government contract and then getting a payment from the contractor afterwards, that conviction corruption was overturned. The court said, that it wasn't bribery, it was a gratuity. So Trump is operating in a legal environment that has so narrowed down the definition of corruption to make it almost unprosecutable and unenforceable.

So I think when we look at stories of Donald Trump, his business dealings enriching himself through his position as president, we have to understand that they are knowingly operating inside. of a legal environment that has made it almost impossible to prosecute bribery. And that was part of the plan to deregulate

the campaign finance system and to reduce those bribery laws because reducing those bribery laws and deregulating the campaign finance system essentially reduces the power of people. It rigs the democracy.

How can Trump be held accountable if the highest court in the land essentially says that bribery is no longer a crime. And David, could you talk about the intimidation, the changes in ownership in the major media companies to basically bring them under heel to this authoritarian government we have now? I'm so glad you asked this. You know, one of the things that we uncovered that was kind of, in a sense, shocking to me because it was so explicit.

it. Back when Lewis Powell wrote his memo in the early 1970s and there were these task forces about implementing the Powell memo, some of the top executives at the largest media companies in the country participated in that endeavor to implement the Powell memo. We unearth the letter from CBS's president at the time saying not only did he agree with the Powell memo's directives and ideology, but that he was working to correct the situation at CBS News. That's a direct quote. And so I think we have to look at what's gone on in with media consolidation. We have 30 seconds, David. With Donald Trump essentially saying media mergers are predicated on his political ideology,

we have to look at that as the culmination of the government trying to pressure and successfully pressuring media companies to do its bidding. We want to thank you so much, David, for being with us. David Sorota, founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever, speaking to us from Denver, Colorado, co-author of Master Plan, the Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America. That does it for our show. Democracy Now is produced with Mike Burke, Renee Feld, Dina Guzder, Messiah, Roadsner, Meath, Meath, Sarah, Sarah Nassar, Tarina, Nadira, Sam Alcoff, Tay-Marie, A-Sud, John Hamilton, Rabbi Karen, Honey Massoud. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Thanks for joining us.