Shutdown fight reaches crisis point: What’s next for SNAP, health insurance, paychecks

WASHINGTON AP The crises at the heart of the administration shutdown fight in Washington were coming to a head Saturday as the federal food assistance undertaking faced delays and millions of Americans were set to see a dramatic rise in their soundness insurance bills The impacts on basic necessities food and diagnostic care underscored how the impasse is hitting homes across the United States Plans by the Trump administration to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan on Saturday were halted by federal judges but the delay in payouts will still likely leave millions of people short on their grocery bills It all added to the strain on the country with a month of missed paychecks for federal workers and growing air trip delays The shutdown is already the second longest in history and entered its second month on Saturday yet there was little urgency in Washington to end it Lawmakers are away from Capitol Hill and both parties are entrenched in their positions The House has not met for legislative business in more than six weeks while Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D closed his chamber for the weekend after bipartisan talks failed to achieve substantial progress Thune announced he is hoping the pressure starts to intensify and the consequences of keeping the cabinet shut down become even more real for everybody that they will express hopefully new interest in trying to come up with a path forward The stalemate appears increasingly unsustainable as Republican President Donald Trump demands action and Democratic leaders warn that an uproar over rising physical condition insurance costs will force Congress to act This weekend Americans face a wellness care problem unprecedented in modern times Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York revealed this week Delays and uncertainty around SNAP The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold payments to the food plan starting on Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to make them Trump announced he would provide the money but requested more legal direction from the court which will not happen until Monday Benefits were already facing delays because it takes a week or more to load SNAP cards in numerous states Various governors and mayors have stepped in using what money they have available to fill the project that feeds about million Americans People are just nervous scared stated Jill Corbin the director of the St Vincent De Paul soup kitchen and food pantry in Norwich Connecticut It s not really a definite answer that we have right now As people lined up early Saturday for hot meals and groceries the organization had extra helpers to help newcomers tackle the process On Wednesday specific families visited the food pantry and people received hot meals It s kind of like everything is unraveling at the same time Corbin disclosed I m not going to lie It is challenging The SNAP campaign serves about in Americans and costs about billion per month The judges agreed that the USDA needed to at least tap a contingency fund of about billion to keep the campaign running But that left chosen uncertainty about whether the department would use additional money or only provide partial benefits for the month Trump and Republicans are illegally withholding SNAP benefits Millions of children could go hungry reported House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York in a social media post that also criticized the president for spending Saturday at one of his Florida golf courses Democrats demanded this week that the governing body fund SNAP but Republicans responded by arguing the initiative is in such a dire situation because Democrats have repeatedly voted against a short-term cabinet funding bill We are now reaching a developing point thanks to Democrats voting no on ruling body funding now different times House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La mentioned at a news conference Friday Trump injected himself into the debate late Thursday by suggesting that Republican senators who hold the majority end the shutdown by getting rid of the filibuster rules that prevent most of law from advancing unless it has the help of at least senators Democrats have used the filibuster to block a funding bill in the Senate for weeks Republican leaders hastily rejected Trump s idea but the discussion proved how desperate the fight has become Medical care subsidies expiring The annual sign-up period for the Affordable Care Act vitality insurance also begins Saturday and there are sharp increases in what people are paying for coverage Enhanced tax credits that help the majority enrollees pay for the wellness plans are set to expire next year Democrats have rallied around a push to extend those credits and have refused to vote for administration funding law until Congress acts Millions of Americans in every state across this country are waking up to drastically higher premiums for the same strength care coverage they re already on - all because Congress could not come together to extend the vital enhanced premium tax credits that make wellness care more affordable stated Sen Jeanne Shaheen D-N H in a comment If Congress does not extend the credits subsidized enrollees will face cost increases of about or more than per year on average medical care research nonprofit KFF located In the days before the start of open enrollment Democratic leaders across the country warned that the cost increases would hit their constituents hard In Wisconsin for example families on the ACA s silver plan could see premium increases of roughly to annually depending on their location Sixty-year-old couples could face increases ranging from nearly to annually No matter what the percentage is it s a hell of a lot Gov Tony Evers D-Wis revealed Chosen Republicans in Congress have been open to the idea of extending the subsidies but they also want to make major changes to the fitness overhaul enacted while Democrat Barack Obama was president Thune has offered Democrats a vote on extending the benefits but has not guaranteed a development And he is demanding that Democrats first vote to reopen the ruling body So the country waits and watches for Congress to act T J McCuin whose family owns and operates farmers markets in Mesa and Apache Junction Arizona mentioned of the markets customers use SNAP benefits He was not assuming the delays would directly hurt the business but added Hopefully this isn t a long-term matter because once those benefits run out then it s going to start to hurt