Is this time different?

[Oscar77]

Recent update:

Pick any source you want, Trump floated it on One America News Network. And he's toyed with it many times in the past, and absolutely loved branding the first progressive stimulus payments with his name.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/02/us-new...for-americans/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-t...102238786.html

This would cost oh, north of 700 Billion, vs the 300 Billion in total tariff revenues this year (which by the way, we had Tariff revenues before Trump, too), and of course, pile onto the deficiet spending we currently have exceeding 2 Trillion in the red every year.

Trump has never been fiscially conservative, he's just excellent at marketing like he is.

What does this have to do with the Shutdown?
Are we thread drifting again?

[Aloha_Shooter]

What does this have to do with the Shutdown?
Are we thread drifting again?

Yes, we are. Trump isn't conservative, fiscally or otherwise. No argument there but that is only tangentially related to whether this shutdown might turn out different from others because this time Republicans have the opportunity to show reduction of government doesn't have to be as painful as Clinton and Obama made it in the past few shutdowns. Doing so depends on many factors including the Republicans in the Senate and House growing some spines, minimizing the amount of irrelevant garbage and cheap shots Trump likes to spew out, etc.

The tangent here that I think FoxtArt is taking is that it could be all theater and for naught if Trump increases spending in other areas so there's no net reduction. I say could be because there are some areas where spending does need to happen but it's not extending Obamacare subsidies for illegal aliens.

[theGinsue]

I say could be because there are some areas where spending does need to happen but it's not extending Obamacare subsidies for illegal aliens.

The Left's Hakeem Jeffey (I know, I did it on purpose) stated in a CNN interview (ran across it on Social Media) that the "subsidies for illegal aliens" is a lie. But, even the CNN interviewer pointed out that the large Medicaid subsidies to hospitals is quite often used to pay for illegals getting treatment. Now I'm not saying someone shouldn't get real emergency care when needed, but how much of the care provided is truly emergency in nature (vs acute)? And emergent, acute, or other - if the oatient is here illegally, they need to be removed immediately following whatever lifesaving care is required (life, limb or eye-sight).

I know that the subsidies can & do help some people who truly need it, but several years back, my son was working full-time for a fence/wall install company. He was earning less, hourly, than most burger flippers earned (as I recall it was somewhere between $16-20k/yr). He also received NO healthcare benefits. I helped him sign up for healthcare on the Exchange and found really shitty coverage, with a really shitty co-pay and deductible. For the honor of this coverage, *I* (because he couldn't afford it) had to pay ~$250//mo. The name of the law has been a lie for most Americans from the very beginning (it didn't make healthcare affordable for most Americans). Maybe it wasn't actually supposed to. Maybe it was meant to make more .med/pharma/insurance/politicians richer.

Even if we block all non-citizens from receiving any assistance, the average American, subsidy or not, is going to be screwed.


ETA:

And like alot of things they doing now, their stupidity is only harming them.

Poll and after poll show people realize the Dems are responsible for this.

Yes, and no (bolded part). The Left has increasingly gone so far off of the rails that a lot of folks are waking up. Traditionally, "Independents" by-and-large tended to support the Left. They're starting to see just how out of touch the Left has become and are moving Right quickly. Many non-radical traditional Liberals are also seeing how bad the Left has become and are leaving the Democratic party. BUT, not nearly enough. The Left still has a huge following. Some are the radicalized and some are just the dyed-in-the-wool Democrats who would stand behind the party regardless of what they say/do. This is apparent to me as I continue to see headlines indicating a Democrat is leading the race in an election (of course, the media claimed this about Biden, then Harris, and we saw how untrue that was), but they're also still WINNING a lot of elections. I just hope that in the next major election cycle enough folks see how bad the Left has harmed us and they don't regain power over Congress or the POTUS.

[FoxtArt]

Both sides solutions to healthcare suck at the end of the day. It's effectively inserting a middleman into an essential commodity and then making the middleman essential, or alternatively, letting the owners of a commodity set prices for necessary services that are entirely billed after the fact. We do both. It needs a redesign.

[TFOGGER]

Wouldn't it be great if Congress actually did what the constitution directs them to do in Article I section 9? It's one of their enumerated jobs to approve a freaking budget before money can be spent.

Yes. Freeze their assets until they do. ALL of their assets.

[BushMasterBoy]

A few years ago VA ER doctor told me they don't have the resources to admit me to the hospital. Then I see Trump fly down to Florida in a 747 to play golf. The local military hospital is just as bad. Maybe I should go to Mexico for treatment? The asshole medical community in the US is a joke. The government is a bigger joke. They just leave their soldiers to rot.

[eddiememphis]

The asshole medical community in the US is a joke.

The entire community, not just proctologists.

[theGinsue]

The entire community, not just proctologists.

Well, I'll say that the institutions are the problem, not the individual providers. I know we have providers here (thinking of one in particular) who actually care about the people they see and treat. For the individual provider, they want to treat the patient and fix what's wrong with them.

Unfortunately, these providers are made to work within a system that is inherently broken. The institutions, the companies - even many claiming to be non-profit, the insurance companies, the equipment providers, "big pharma", are all looking to make a fortune off of the patients that need help - leaving the provider (as the only face the patient typically see's) getting the blame.

As someone who's personally required increased medical interaction over the last 5 years, and who's wife has needed the same for 5+ years, I can say that I greatly appreciate the providers who've been there for us (ESPECIALLY one very special member of this site -- God bless you!!). I don't, however, appreciate the way the hospitals or insurance companies have treated me. For them, it's all been about big money.



Now, back to the OP discussion - This time IS different. As others have pointed out, this time the President isn't trying to make things as painful as possible for the citizens. Federal lands are still open for all to enjoy, all essential services seem to have remained available. For most of us, there really doesn't seem to be any impact, which just proves how much bloat there is within our federal government.

Yes. Freeze their assets until they do. ALL of their assets.

Yes to this, yes! We could freeze their official government income and they'd never feel a thing. When members of Congress come into office barely able to afford their rent, at a salary of ~$172k/yr., then their net worth grows into the millions in just one term, they're clearly not making that money through their government service. Freezing just their government salaries would do nothing to make them honor their responsibilities as they'd never feel it. Freezing ALL of their income would provide them the incentive to get off their asses and do what they were hired to do.