President Donald Trump was expected to announce as soon as Monday a long-awaited fix for the expiring Obamacare subsidies, to prevent health care premiums from skyrocketing to double and in some cases even triple their current levels, but congressional Republicans reportedly have objected.

Trump was prepared to extend the subsidies for two more years, according to multiple reports including from MS NOW‘s Jake Traylor and Politico.

Traylor had reported that the president would be calling on Congress to send him legislation that would halt the Obamacare premium spikes.

“The announcement is expected to occur at the White House, and is slated to feature remarks from Trump and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” Traylor had reported on Sunday.

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Also on Sunday, Politico had reported that “The White House expects to soon unveil a health policy framework that includes a two-year extension of Obamacare subsidies due to expire at the end of next month and new limits on eligibility, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the unannounced plans.”

Trump has on his Monday schedule a 4 PM Oval Office executive order signing scheduled. It is unclear if that was to be for the extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

Now, Traylor reports, “White House to delay healthcare proposal after significant congressional backlash.”

“According to two White House officials the announcement has been delayed, with one of those officials citing strong congressional backlash to Trump’s proposed plan. Trump planned to make an announcement as early as Monday proposing a framework to address health care costs which included an extension of Obamacare subsides.”

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Monday afternoon, CNBC reported that “Republicans are proposing direct Health Savings Account payments to ACA enrollees rather than extending enhanced premium tax credits.”

“The White House is expected to make an announcement this week addressing efforts to either renew or replace the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent,” CNBC added, appearing to make clear any decision has yet to be set in stone.

Bobby Kogan, Senior Director of Federal Budget Policy at American Progress, responded to Traylor’s reporting:

“It’s because congressional Republicans want the enhanced subsidies to expire,” Kogan wrote. “That’s why they didn’t extend them in [the One Big Beautiful Bill Act], and that’s why they kept calling them a ‘December problem’ even though open enrollment [began] on November 1.”

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Image via Reuters

President Donald Trump’s Department of Defense is now targeting a sitting U.S. Senator, one of six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video reminding members of the U.S. Armed Forces and the Intelligence Community of their right to refuse to obey an illegal order.

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a retired astronaut and former naval officer, along with the other five said, “threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.”

“Our laws are clear,” they added. “You can refuse illegal orders.”

In an official statement on social media, the Department of Defense alleged it has “received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.).”

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It added, “a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.” The statement also said, “federal laws such as 18 U.S.C. § 2387 prohibit actions intended to interfere with the loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces.”

President Trump last week in a series of social media posts promoted hanging the six Democrats.

“It’s called seditious behavior at the highest level,” the president also charged. “Each one of these traitors to our Country should be Arrested and put on trial. Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example must be set.”

“Seditious behavior, punishable by death!” he continued.

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Critics blasted the Pentagon’s move.

“Sen. Kelly didn’t tell troops to defy lawful orders, he reminded them of their duty to refuse unlawful ones, which is literally what the UCMJ and decades of military precedent require!” wrote The Bulwark’s Evan Rosenfeld. “Pretending that doing so is ‘misconduct’ is complete propaganda and not rooted in law.”

Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio called it “Pretty extraordinary to call out a sitting senator in this way.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein labeled it “ham-handed,” and Bill Kristol of Defending Democracy called it “Naked authoritarianism.”

But The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg noted that the video “looks to have been an official one for which [Kelly] would enjoy Speech or Debate immunity.”

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Image via Reuters 

The popular, two-term Democratic governor of a deep-red state, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, sees an opening for Democrats to turn rural America blue.

Beshear, 47, is considered a moderate, pro-choice Democrat, and won re-election in 2023. Last year he was ranked the second-most popular governor in the U.S.

“Democrats won huge victories up and down the ballot this month,” Governor Beshear wrote in The Washington Post on Monday, “by relentlessly focusing on the pocketbook pressures families across our country are facing.”

He called those wins “a direct repudiation of the Trump agenda,” but said that “affordability is not enough. To truly lead again, Democrats must be the party of aspiration.”

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“Democrats should be the party that will make it possible to build a better life — one in which you’re not just making ends meet but setting your family up for long-term success,” Beshear writes.

By focusing on reviving the American dream, “Democrats can win back voters who have been leaving the party in droves.”

He notes that President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” — which he calls “a slap in the face to rural America” — would kick millions off their health care and shut down rural hospitals. It has, therefore, “given Democrats a huge opening.”

Trump “is making it so much harder for people to even get by. During the government shutdown, he was willing to use the hunger of Americans — including children and seniors — as a bargaining chip. It was cruel and wrong, and, importantly, it backfired.”

He urges Democrats to focus on creating good-paying jobs, as he did, in “a former coal town that, like too many places in my state, had felt forgotten.”

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And he’s urging Democrats to “start talking like normal human beings again.”

“We’re not going to win the messaging battle if we say that Trump’s policies make people ‘food insecure.’ No, they make people hungry. Kentucky was hit hard by the opioid epidemic. I didn’t lose … friends and acquaintances to “substance use disorder”; I lost them to addiction. Addiction is hard, it’s mean, and it kills people. So when people triumph over it, we should give them the credit they deserve by calling it what it is.”

“Finally,” Beshear writes, “we have to start communicating our ‘why.’ For me, it’s my faith. I vetoed the nastiest piece of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the country knowing full well that the Republicans in the Kentucky legislature passed it to use in an election year. But tens of millions of dollars of misleading attack ads against me didn’t work. Why? Because I gave Kentuckians the respect of explaining my veto — that I believe all children are children of God and that I didn’t think the legislature should be picking on vulnerable kids.”

Image by Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs Office via Flickr and a Creative Commons license