News & Politics

"Allowing Obamacare premiums to soar appears to be one step too far" for Americans affected by the government shutdown, which is why the Democrats appear to be winning the "health care shutdown war," according to Salon's Heather Digby Parton.

Despite saying in 2015 that "nobody knows health care better than Donald Trump," the president and Republicans have shown "replacing the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare] wasn't so easy after all," Digby Parton says.

Obamacare is successful, she writes, and that success is "the Republicans' worst nightmare." And shutting down the government over the Democrats' refusal to budge on health care subsidies, she says, is even worse.

"So naturally, drunk with power as they are, they’ve decided to take another stab at ruining it, which is why they decided to let the subsidies that have been in place for the last five years lapse," she writes.

Americans are already starting to feel the burn of the shutdown, Digby Parton says.

"People across the country are just beginning to receive notices in the mail showing their premiums will double, or worse, next year," she writes, and because of this, Republicans are unable to shirk the blame they were unsuccessfully trying to pin on the Democrats," she writes,

"Republicans knew this was coming, but they either thought they could escape blame for it or they are so deluded they actually believe it’s what people want," she continues. "As the shutdown moves into its second week, the consequences of their actions are starting to manifest."

Digby Parton also says that slashing Medicare and raising Obamacare premiums are only the beginning of the Republican decimation of health care. And the proof, she says, is written in , Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought's Project 2025.

"But as nefariously creative as Project 2025 was, at least in the area of health care policy it is nothing more than the same warmed over calls for privatization and deregulation, both of which will make Americans’ lives worse," Digby Parton writes.

The Republican Party's lack of strategy, she notes, "makes it clear the party is as flummoxed on this issue as they’ve always been, and they know it’s a loser for them." She points to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) breaking with the party over health care.

"When you’ve lost Marge, well…" Digby Parton snickers.

Democrats, she says, "have historically been in the driver’s seat when it comes to health care." And "with the government’s shambolic response during the first year of the pandemic and the damage being done every day by the administration to our scientific research community, I suspect a lot of people are feeling insecure about their actual health care these days."

The Trump administration, she writes, has done nothing to assuage Americans' fears over their health care — which is "on the front lines against this massive war of our social safety net."

"If Democrats can find the fortitude to hold out for their demands, they will have taken the first step in reining in this lawless administration and given the American people something to hold onto in these dark days," she says.

In an article published by The Bulwark on October 9, Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol examines the "guardrails" in U.S. democracy and warns that they're in trouble.

"The American Founders were very much on the side of good fences," Kristol emphasizes. "Good fences are what we tend to call guardrails. And they make for good, free government…. But the guardrails can crumble, and the guardians of the guardrails can falter. And in 2025, they’re crumbling — and we're faltering. Party loyalty has overwhelmed congressional resolution to defend its prerogatives against the executive. Foolish and half-baked doctrines have undermined the willingness of the Supreme Court to check the executive."

Kristol continues, "State and local governments have a limited ability to stand up to their big brother in Washington. And it turns out that non-governmental institutions can be seduced and intimidated into going along with an overreaching executive rather than resisting it. So the most visible guardrails aren't doing the guarding."

The United States' federal government, Kristol notes, also contains "internal guardrails" within its executive branch.

"Once the executive branch becomes large and powerful," Kristol explains, "it turns out that free government and good government depend on guardrails within the executive that check the excessive centralization, politicization, and personalization of government power. These include laws and rules and regulations that guard against the politicization of the military, and protect the career civil service. They include norms and traditions of independence or quasi-independence for the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the intelligence community. They include provisions for inspectors general and protections for whistleblowers."

Kristol warns that while the United States' "guardrails" haven't disappeared altogether, they have been seriously undermined.

"All of this means that our guardrails are in bad shape," the Never Trumper laments. "Yes, those grand institutional walls of Congress and the Supreme Court are crumbling. But the less visible fences within the executive branch itself are also being taken down.

"As both James Madison and Robert Frost knew, this will not end well. Good fences make for — are needed for — a free government and a just society," he adds.

Bill Kristol's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

Hours before the official announcement of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — and smack in the middle of an alleged deal between Israel and Hamas — Norway is bracing itself for a potential President Donald Trump Nobel Peace Prize snub, the Guardian reports.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said they reached their peace prize decision on Thursday, and "observers believe it is highly unlikely that Trump will be awarded the prize, leading to fears in the country over how he will react to being overlooked so publicly," the Guardian says.

Oslo must be “prepared for anything," said Kirsti Bergstø, leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party.

“Donald Trump is taking the US in an extreme direction, attacking freedom of speech, having masked secret police kidnapping people in broad daylight and cracking down on institutions and the courts. When the president is this volatile and authoritarian, of course we have to be prepared for anything,” Bergstø told the Guardian.

Noting that the Norwegian government has nothing to do with the prizes, Bergstø said, “The Nobel Committee is an independent body and the Norwegian government has no involvement in determining the prizes. But I’m not sure Trump knows that. We have to be prepared for anything from him.”

Trump has relentlessly campaigned for the prize, insisting last year, "If I were named [former President Barack] Obama, I would have had the Nobel prize given to me in 10 seconds."

In July, Trump reportedly called Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s finance minister and the former North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secretary general, to ask about the prize. And at the United Nations last month, Trump claimed he's ended seven “unendable wars”, telling world leaders: “Everyone says I should get the Nobel peace prize.”

Norway's Green Party leader Arild Hermstad, disagrees, saying, "It’s good that Trump supported the recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Any step toward ending the suffering in Gaza is welcome. But one late contribution does not erase years of enabling violence and division.”

Newspaper columnist and analyst Harald Stanghelle said that Trump retribution could come in many forms — tariffs, demands for higher NATO contributions, or even "declaring Norway an enemy."

Nobel snubbing Trump, Stanghelle says, could present "a challenging situation."

“It’s very very difficult to explain to Donald Trump or to many other countries in the world that it is a totally independent committee because they do not respect this kind of independence," he said.

But he still thinks Trump will be snubbed.

He said that if Trump were to win it, it would be the “biggest surprise in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Nina Græger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, agrees, saying, “Trump’s retreat from international institutions, and his wish to take over Greenland from The Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO ally, as well as infringements on basic democratic rights within his own country, do not align well with Nobel’s will.”