Day: November 16, 2025
Democrats reject ‘current policy’ — unless it pays their base
Washington’s latest fights make one thing unmistakable: Democrats shift their arguments as needed, but always in service of higher taxes, higher spending, and a bigger federal footprint. When the question earlier this year was whether to keep current tax policy and avoid a massive tax hike, Democrats fought against keeping current policy.
Now, after forcing a government shutdown, they claim they must preserve current — but temporary — Obamacare subsidies. Two opposite stances, one consistent goal: bigger government.
On taxes, ‘current policy’ doesn’t count. On spending, ‘current policy’ functions like holy writ.
Earlier this year, Congress faced a hard deadline. Lawmakers had to choose between extending the 2017 American Job Creation Act tax rates or letting them snap back to pre-2017 levels — a $4 trillion tax increase across income brackets. Republicans pushed to retain the lower rates. Democrats pushed for the tax hike.
Democrats insisted the looming deadline was Republicans’ fault and said the surge in revenue would help slow growth in deficits and debt. Republicans ultimately prevailed and passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats erupted.
We all know what happened next. Less than three months later, Congress approached the September 30 deadline for annual appropriations. With negotiations still incomplete, Republicans advanced a clean, short-term extension to keep the government open. The House passed it. President Trump signaled he would sign it. Senate Democrats filibustered it.
Republicans tried over a dozen times to reopen the government. Senate Democrats blocked them every time — until this week. Their central demand: extend the temporary “emergency” premium subsidies that Democrats expanded during the pandemic. Those subsidies, scheduled to expire, broadened eligibility beyond 400% of the federal poverty line and boosted benefits for those below it. Democrats already extended them once through 2025.
Now, with the pandemic long over — President Biden signed the resolution ending it on April 10, 2023 — Senate Democrats want the emergency expansions made permanent.
The inconsistency could not be clearer.
When expiring tax law meant taxes would rise, Democrats described preventing that increase as a tax cut — even though extending the law simply kept existing policy in place. The fact that the policy had been the law for eight years meant nothing.
But when expiring pandemic-era subsidies would return Obamacare to its original structure, Democrats suddenly insist that current policy must prevail. They now treat temporary emergency expansions — linked explicitly to COVID, extended once already, disproportionately benefiting upper-income households — as untouchable programs that must become permanent.
On taxes, “current policy” doesn’t count. On spending, “current policy” functions like holy writ.
RELATED: Trump officially ends ‘pathetic’ Democrats’ record-breaking shutdown
Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The reasoning shifts, but the outcome never does: Democrats always land on whatever argument leads to more government. Their broader shutdown demands confirm it — ending Medicaid reforms and restoring spending levels President Trump and Republicans reduced. Every item points in the same direction: more federal dollars out the door.
Democrats note that Republicans, too, support keeping some expiring policies. True. Which makes the underlying purpose even more important to identify.
Republicans fought to maintain 2017 tax levels so Americans could keep more of what they earn — and keep that income out of Washington’s hands. Democrats want permanent expansion of Obamacare subsidies to preserve and grow benefits for people who were never intended to receive them, locking in a larger federal role.
Future fights will come; today’s climate guarantees them. One more thing is just as guaranteed: Democrats’ arguments will continue to change as needed, and their demands for higher taxes, higher spending, and a larger federal government will not.
Trump admin drops hammer on SNAP scammers after finding 186K dead people collecting benefits
The Trump administration has plans to root out fraud in the country’s food stamp program.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides benefits to approximately 42 million Americans, costing about $100 billion in the fiscal year 2024.
‘Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends.’
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Thursday that the administration will require Americans receiving food stamps through SNAP to reapply.
Rollins told Newsmax that this effort would “make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit … that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”
Rollins explained that she sent letters to every state, requesting data on SNAP benefits. She noted that 29 states, primarily those led by Republicans, responded to the request.
She stated that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”
RELATED: Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump administration to extend pause in SNAP funding
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
“That is what we’re really going to start clamping down on. Half a million are getting two [payments],” Rollins said, noting that this included data from only 29 states.
“Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue-state data what we’re gonna find?” she added.
“It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program,” Rollins continued.
The secretary described one instance in which an individual used the same Social Security number to obtain EBT cards in six states.
Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
She noted that President Donald Trump has made cracking down on SNAP fraud a priority, adding that 120 arrests have already been made.
It is not yet clear when beneficiaries will be required to reapply for the benefits.
“Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends,” a USDA spokesperson told The Hill. “Rates of fraud were only previously assumed, and President Trump is doing something about it. Using standard recertification processes for households is a part of that work. As well as ongoing analysis of State data, further regulatory work, and improved collaboration with States.”
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Michelle Obama demands ‘education’ on black beauty
We are born with an intrinsic ability to recognize beauty, be it a sunset, a piece of art, or a fellow human being. The second our eyes behold something beautiful, we can’t help but stop and admire. No one teaches us to react this way; it just happens naturally.
Michelle Obama, however, argues otherwise. On a November 12 podcast episode titled “The Power of Hair: Identity, Legacy & Black Womanhood,” the former first lady posited that the world needs to be taught how to appreciate black beauty in particular.
The episode, which featured Cosmopolitan beauty editor Julee Wilson, actor and producer Marsai Martin, and stylist and founder of Esthetics Salon Yene Damtew, was part of the promotional content for Michelle’s new book, “The Look” — a glossy vanity project that repackages the same grievance-laden identity politics she’s been peddling for years under the guise of empowerment and joy.
After declaring that “there isn’t a standard of beauty” and that what we see featured in magazines is merely “taste” and not beauty, she stressed the need “to start educating people about all kinds of beauty.”
“Our beauty is so powerful and so unique that it is worthy of the conversation and it’s worthy of demanding the respect that we’re owed for who we are and what we offer to the world,” she added.
“I didn’t need an education on [beauty]. I can remember at a very early, early age the ability [to recognize], ‘Oh, that’s a beautiful woman; that’s a handsome man,”’ counters Jason Whitlock, BlazeTV host of “Fearless.”
“Fearless” contributor Shemeka Michelle agrees. “You don’t have to teach about beauty — it just is. Michelle sounds so silly, and every time we turn around, here she comes, just another round in the victim Olympics.”
Contrary to Michelle’s belief, objective beauty is real, but “attitude,” Jason argues, can certainly go a long way in the beauty department. Kindness, confidence, faith in Christ — these are all beautifiers, he says.
Unfortunately, many women, he says, adopt the kind of attitude that detracts from the natural beauty they possess. “That’s this feminism that many black women and girlbosses have attached themselves to,” he says. “It erases a lot of their beauty. That bitterness and anger just is not attractive.”
“When you’re sitting around and you’re a multimillionaire and the world has kissed your butt and … then you’re still angry and whining and complaining and demonizing America, it’s just very unattractive,” he says.
Jason and Shemeka both agree that Melania Trump, with her timeless poise and quiet grace, is a far better example of beauty than Michelle Obama will ever be.
To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.
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Around 30 people killed in Congo copper mine incident, officials say
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4 Chinese nationals nabbed in Ilocos Norte for immigration raps
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Four Chinese nationals were recently arrested in separate operations in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, for allegedly violating the country”s immigration law and the terms of their working visas, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said.
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Niger fallout under Biden leaves US troops ‘blind’ in battle with terror groups
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