It's been hard to avoid all the Swamp media's coverage of the now 37-day-long Chuck Schumer Shutdown this past month. His Democrats are holding out for more government giveaways through renewed subsidies for the costly premiums for ObamaCare.
Remember that program from the president with two ocean-front estates who told us it was a really good thing and promised you could keep your own doctor and your health insurance costs would not go up?
And Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, explained at the time that we would not be allowed to read the massive legislation until it was passed? They then had to pass extra legal measures paying part of the pricey premiums and they want more of that because of the high costs or else they have threatened to keep the government closed.
The ongoing congressional stalemate has already cost an estimated $7 billion in real gross domestic product with that sum growing exponentially by the day.
Although, please please, do not get upset because all the members of Congress who are prolonging this now record-long shutdown are getting their full regular pay. So, there's no problem for them.
Only part of the government is closed, of course; true to their oath, the military's all-volunteer force is on duty around the clock, despite no paycheck.
One "blessing" of the blanket news coverage has been revelations about SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. The scale of that program has become gargantuan.
Here's the New York Times' national map showing by counties where SNAP payments are greatest and the least. Strikingly, there appears to be less general need for this food subsidy in red states.
Democrats have pulled out their violins as if everyone in supplemental food program are now going to starve, although it is, in fact, Democrats who have now voted more than a dozen times to block an interim spending bill to get things back on their financial tracks.
It turns out what was once meant to be a little supplemental food-stamp help for a modest cohort of citizens experiencing temporary tight times, has blossomed into another massive, full-fledged food-welfare program costing those Americans who pay income taxes around $100 billion every year.
And judging by some profane boasts on social media by single moms with numerous children and no spouse, there is a good deal of abuse taking place to the tune in some individual cases of several thousand dollars every month. And not everyone receiving this aid is even a citizen.
Leave your own comments down below. You can hear the brief audio commentary by clicking right here:
So much talk and news coverage in recent days about the possibility of President Donald Trump serving three terms. As I wrote in this week's Sunday column:
Of course, it would be against the Constitution’s 22d Amendment. But it’s so outrageously Trumpian to his opponents that it seems like just the thing this unprecedented president might attempt.
Trump had fun with the possibility, at one pointing saying it would be impossible. And then at another point saying, "I would love to do it." The president of the United States trolling his frantic opponents.
I decided to have some fun with it too, discussing and analyzing the idea and all the possibilities.
In the most recent audio commentary, I examined the very early, but very hopeful signs of some major reforms starting within some of the major institutions of mainstream media.
