Of the many ironies of this shutdown is that it is now coming into focus that the party who promised to end the ACA and replace it with 'something better' for over a decade, whose Conservative John Roberts' SCOTUS sawed off the 3rd leg of the ACA which led to govt subsidies being necessary and which are now the line the Dems are fighting for - to preserve the subsidies so that everyone's health insurance premiums won't go through the roof - is that polls out today are showing movement even among MAGAs to reinstate the subsidies and blame Trump and the Reps for the shutdown.
Aides within the WH have woken up to the realization that if the American public get health insurance bills that go thru the roof in January, it will destroy their chances of holding Congress come Nov '26. Of course this is a self inflicted wound, the Reps have a -0- record of implementing a replacement for the ACA despite years of promises.
And a reminder what the Trump Admin has been busy with instead:
"‘In the spring, the Trump administration abruptly cut $500 million in deliveries from a program that sends U.S.-produced meat, dairy, eggs and produce to food banks and other organizations across the country — about a quarter of the funding the program received in 2024. The items that were delivered through The Emergency Food Assistance Program were some of the healthiest, most expensive items that organizations distribute.
The cancellation of these deliveries comes at a critical time for food banks. Food insecurity is higher than at any time since the aftermath of the Great Recession, according to federal data, and many food banks are reporting higher need than they saw at the peak of the pandemic. Demand is only expected to increase; this summer, President Donald Trump signed into law the largest cut to food stamps in the program’s history.
ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture of each planned delivery in 2025, detailing the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached hungry people because of the administration’s cut.
The cancellations began in mid-May, when over 100 orders of 2% milk bound for 31 states were halted.
The records show 4,304 canceled deliveries between May and September across the 50 states, Puerto Rico and D.C. (Experience this as an interactive story on ProPublica’s website.)
All told, the deliveries accounted for nearly 94 million pounds of food. The true loss is likely greater, food banks said, because not all of the year’s deliveries had been scheduled.
Most food banks rely on a combination of federal or state dollars, private giving and partnerships with businesses that donate leftover food. While the cancellations were disruptive to all food banks, according to their representatives, those that receive state funding or have strong community support said that they have weathered the cuts better than others.
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana, where Cornwell and Green’s groceries come from, gets more than half of its food from the federal government and receives very little state support. It serves rural areas of Louisiana, which has the highest poverty rate in the nation, according to U.S. census data.
The Trump administration canceled 10 orders for the food bank totaling over $400,000 of pork, chicken, cheese, dried cranberries, dried plums, milk and eggs, records show. The food bank has struggled to keep up with demand following the cuts and a decrease in private donations. Staff told ProPublica they used to distribute 25-pound packages of food, but over the summer, some packages shrank to about half of that weight.’
https://projects.propublica.org/trump-food-cuts/