Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 Today, the Supreme Court rejects Trump’s authority to deploy the National Guard under §12406; the DOJ published a fake suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein to US Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar; Judge Crenshaw has ordered the release of a sealed document in the Kilmar case that could prove the government lied outright to the court; Congresswoman Joyce Beatty is suing Trump to block the renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; a new trove of apparent Epstein Files released by DOJ seems to have disappeared; Judge Aileen Cannon says she will lift her block on Volume II of Jack Smith’s report in February - but she’s allowing Trump to intervene and appeal; the Trump administration has purged 30 ambassadors from their posts; LaMonica McIver returns to the ICE facility where she was framed for assaulting a federal agent to conduct oversight; and Allison delivers your Good News.
Wednesday, December 24th, 2025
Today, the Supreme Court rejects Trump’s authority to deploy the National Guard under §12406; the DOJ published a fake suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein to US Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar; Judge Crenshaw has ordered the release of a sealed document in the Kilmar case that could prove the government lied outright to the court; Congresswoman Joyce Beatty is suing Trump to block the renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; a new trove of apparent Epstein Files released by DOJ seems to have disappeared; Judge Aileen Cannon says she will lift her block on Volume II of Jack Smith’s report in February - but she’s allowing Trump to intervene and appeal; the Trump administration has purged 30 ambassadors from their posts; LaMonica McIver returns to the ICE facility where she was framed for assaulting a federal agent to conduct oversight; and Allison delivers your Good News.
Guest: Jessica Schubel
Former White House ACA Director
http://healthcare.gov
Subscribe to the MSW YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@MSWMediaPods
WATCH 60 MINUTES’ CECOT SEGMENT AT MUELLERSHEWROTE.COM
Stories
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/23/supreme-court-national-guard-ruling-00704962
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/us/politics/trump-administration-ambassadors-posts.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/us/politics/lawsuit-trump-name-removal-kennedy-center.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/22/epstein-files-release-justice-department-00704265
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/us/politics/co-conspirators-epstein-case.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/22/classified-documents-case-aileen-cannon-00704266
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/23/nj-lamonica-mciver-ice-facility-00704987
Good Trouble - https://near.tl/sm/ik-ZushRa
A mass outbreak of civil disobedience occurred in the autumn of 1940, when students of Oslo University began to wear paper clips on their lapels to demonstrate their resistance to the German occupiers and their Norwegian collaborators. A seemingly innocuous item, the paper clip was a symbol of solidarity and unity ("we are bound together"), implying resistance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_resistance_movement
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/paper-clip-protest
→Go To https://DailyBeansPod.com Click on ‘Good News and Good Trouble’ to Share Yours
Our Donation Links
Pathways to Citizenship link to match Allison’s Donation
https://crm.bloomerang.co/HostedDonation?ApiKey=pub_86ff5236-dd26-11ec-b5ee-066e3d38bc77&WidgetId=6388736
Allison is donating $20K to It Gets Better and inviting you to help match her donations. Your support makes this work possible, Daily Beans fam. - http://itgetsbetter.org/dailybeansdonate
Join Dana and The Daily Beans and support on Giving Tuesday
http://onecau.se/_ekes71
https://www.nationalsecuritylaw.org/donate
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/msw-bwc
http://WhistleblowerAid.org/beans
Federal workers - email AG at fedoath@pm.me and let me know what you’re going to do, or just vent. I’m always here to listen.
Dr. Allison Gill - https://www.muellershewrote.com, https://bsky.app/profile/muellershewrote.com, https://instagram.com/muellershewrote, https://www.youtube.com/@MSWMediaPods
Dana Goldberg - https://bsky.app/profile/dgcomedy.bsky.social, https://www.instagram.com/dgcomedy, https://www.facebook.com/dgcomedy, https://danagoldberg.com
More from MSW Media - https://mswmedia.com/shows, Cleanup On Aisle 45 pod, https://www.muellershewrote.com
Reminder - you can see the pod pics if you become a Patron. The good news pics are at the bottom of the show notes of each Patreon episode! That’s just one of the perks of subscribing!
patreon.com/muellershewrote
Msw media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Wednesday, December 24, 2025. Today, the Supreme Court has rejected Trump's authority to deploy the National GU under Title 10, Section 12406. The Department of Justice published a, suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein to U.S. gymnastics Dr. Larry Nassar. Judge Crenshaw has ordered the release of a sealed document in the Kilmar case that could prove the government lied outright to the court. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty is suing Trump to block the renaming of the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts. A new trove of apparent Epstein files released by the Department of Justice seems to have disappeared. Judge Eileen Cannon says she will lift her blood block on volume two of Jack Smith's final report in February, but she's allowing Trump to intervene and appeal. The Trump administration has purged over 30ambassadors from their posts. And Lamonica McIver returns to the ICE facility where she was framed for assaulting a federal agent to conduct oversight. I'm your host, Allison Gill. Hey, everybody, Happy Wednesday. It is Christmas Eve. If you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas. Otherwise, happy holidays to everyone. We later in the show, I'm going to be talking with Jessica Schubel. It was a fantastic conversation. She's a former White House Affordable Care act director. And we're going to talk about Republicans failure to extend ACA subsidies and the concepts of a plan they passed in the House before Mike Johnson sent everyone on vacation. We're going to talk about what January 1st is going to look like. that we have until January 15th to buy a plan and what the House might do when they come back into session. We'll see. All right, we have a ton of news to get to today. It's been a very busy news day. It's honestly been a really busy news week. I thought the news would sort of slow down this week, but it hasn't. So let's get into it. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from Politico, the Supreme Court has rebuffed President Trump's attempt to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois to protect federal officials carrying out his mass deportation policy. In their ruling Tuesday, the justices noted that federal law generally bars the use of military for law enforcement. And they declared that the law Trump used to activate the Guard is likely only to apply when regular armed forces, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are insufficient to maintain order. I believe this is also going to apply to the appeal that's going on with Oregon, and the deployment of National Guard troops. In Portland. So I talked about the this on the November 3 episode of the Breakdown and here on the Daily Beans as well, the breakdown over on Midas Touch. The law Trump was trying to use to justify deployment of the National Guard in Oregon, Portland, and the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago, was called, section 12406 under title 10 of the United States Code. And you might remember I said that the Supreme Court had asked the parties to define what regular forces for the purposes of deploying the National Guard. And I also talked about how I thought that was a pretty good sign that they might rule against Donald Trump's use of 12406 to deploy the National Guard. And that's this case that was decided today. At least the stay was decided today. and that's what happened today. The Supreme Court said no to him. The Supreme Court agrees that regular forces means the military, not local federal police. So Trump cannot deploy the National Guard unless the regular forces fail under 12406. And since he didn't send the military and they didn't fail because he didn't send them, he has no authority under 12406 to deploy the National Guard. Of course, Thomas and, Alito and Gorsuch actually dissented. And Kavanaugh added a weird footnote, apropos of nothing, total non sequitur, saying, hey, by the way, you know, you can't just stop people because of the color of their skin. I think he was sad that a bunch of people started calling, you know, when ICE detained you for the color of your skin or the language you speak or the job you do. If we were calling it a Kavanaugh stop, because he had previously allowed that, and he still, you know, I mean, unless he goes by the footnote he wrote today was all about that saying, oh, you know what, you can sue on an individual basis and all that other stuff. But I think he got really upset about people referring to that as a Kavanaugh stop and just threw that footnote in there, for no reason, because it doesn't have anything to do with this case. Now, does that mean that Trump will try another way to deploy the National Guard against citizens? Like by invoking the Insurrection act to get around the Posse Comitatus act that bars the National Guard to act as law enforcement. So, I don't know. We'll see what Stephen Miller decides soon, I imagine. And I also believe we might see a notice of filing in the Ninth Circuit, about the Oregon deployment of the National Guard. Now that the Supreme Court has decided Trump doesn't have authority under 12406 because he used that same authority in Portland. this is really good news. I thought they might rule against him, but again, it doesn't mean he won't find a way. It's just not this way. It's just not under 12406. So we'll keep an eye on that. Next up, Judge Crenshaw in the Kilmara Abrego case has ordered the unsealing of an order that he issued on December 3 about whether the government has been lying to the court this whole time when it kept saying it was just the U.S. attorney, just Maguire, all by himself, who made the call to charge Mr. Abrego with two counts of human smuggling so that we could return him to the US without having to go through discovery, without us having to give you our agreement with Bukele, because there'd probably be bad stuff in there that we don't want you to know about. They've been saying this whole time, and Todd Blanche has been saying this whole time, and, Mr. Singh has been saying this whole time, the Department of Justice lawyers have been saying, oh, no, no, no, no. Nobody had any hand in. In charging Kilmar Abrego except for the U.S. attorney. So we're gonna. We. You know, we might see that, because Crenshaw says that barring intervention from higher court, he's going to unseal that filing on December 30, which is six days from now. And like I said, this could have major consequences for the government, including contempt proceedings, could be sanctions, which could be go as far as, disbarment for, some of these attorneys. So I'll keep an eye on the docket for you on that. Also, I just wanted to give you this little note here from the Associated Press. Kilmer Abrego Garcia will spend Christmas with his family after spending much of the year in custody. U.S. district Judge Polissini's in Maryland issued an order late on Monday requiring the government attorneys to file brief by December 26 on whether they plan to take him back into immigration custody and under what legal authority they would do so. His attorneys have until December 30th to respond. A temporary restraining order that bars Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining him remains in place. In the meantime, quote, this decision means Kilmar gets to sleep in his own bed in the next coming days without fear of being separated from his family and his community in the middle of the night. That's Lydia Walter Rodriguez, that's an organizer with the community group casa, and she said this in an email. All right, next up from the Times, the Trump administration has ordered nearly 30ambassadors in embassies around the world to return to the United States within weeks, a move that would leave a large gap in the American diplomatic corps, even as Trump has said he wants to resolve conflicts through diplomacy. Many of the ambassadors were told in recent days to leave their posts by mid January. They are all Foreign Service officers who had been appointed to their positions in the Biden administration and confirmed by the Senate. A standard tour is three to four years. The union representing career diplomats said this is the first time that such a mass recall has taken place of career diplomats serving as ambassadors or chiefs of mission. Quote, those affected report being notified abruptly, typically by phone, with no explanation. That's Nikki Gamer, a spokeswoman for the union that represents career diplomats, the American Foreign Service association. Quote, that method is highly irregular. Ms. Gmer said that after checking its archives, the union, quote, can say definitively that such a mass recall has never happened since the founding of the Foreign Service as we know it now. Candidates for ambassador are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. There are two types of ambassadors, career diplomats and political appointees. The latter are often donors or friends of the president, and they are expected to offer their resignations at the start of a new administration. That was the case when Trump took office in January and he immediately accepted the resignations. But that is not the norm for career diplomats who often serve for years into a new administration. The Trump administration did not give a reason for the recalls and has not publicly announced them. Wondering if we'll see a lawsuit. Also from the Times, Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat from Ohio, Amazing woman, sued Trump on Monday, seeking to force the removal of his name from the John F. Kennedy center for the performing arts. Ms. Beatty's lawsuit names as defendants Mr. Trump and the loyalists he appointed to the center's board. The suit contends that the board's vote to change the name last week was illegal because an act of Congress is required to rename the building. Ms. Beatty is represented by Norm Eisen, our friend, White House ethics counsel in the Obama administration, along with Nathaniel Zelensky, his co counsel of the Washington litigation group. Norm says sorry, Ambassador Eisen says that the name change, quote, violates the Constitution and rule of law because Congress said it. This is the name. He doesn't have the right to change the name. Now a senior White House official told the Times last week that the administration rejected that interpretation and that the White House did not anticipate Congress getting involved to override this decision. Now, on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Kennedy center said the board considered the State Department's renaming of the US Institute of Peace after Mr. Trump as precedent for renaming the performing arts center. The White House didn't respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit. The president's name was added to the face of the building on Friday morning. The center's website and various social media accounts now refer to the Trump Kennedy Center. Ms. Beatty is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center's board. By law, a handful of members of Congress from both parties sit on the board. So she's on the board. She had called into the meeting on the phone last week at which the name change was voted on, but couldn't object because they muted her. So we'll be following that lawsuit as well. All right, let's get to the Epstein files news today. Late last night, people began posting a handwritten note that had apparently come from Jeffrey Epstein to the US Gymnastics doctor who was investigated for his child, sexual abuse, Dr. Larry Nassar. But I thought it seemed a little sus because first of all, a documents expert friend of mine pointed out that the postmark was wrong. It came from Virginia, not New York. The return to sender address was wrong. It didn't include his prisoner number. It seemed to back the government assertions that Epstein died by suicide. It seemed like a suicide note. And the DOJ had released a fake video of his apparent suicide as well. So we know they fake stuff all the time. But the DOJ also released an FBI request for a handwriting analysis of that letter, an old one, as part of the Epstein files release. So there was an analysis done. At least one was requested, but they didn't post the results. So that seemed weird. I thought the government might be setting a trap where we all say, o, look at this, look. He mentioned Donald Trump in this letter so that the DOJ could later debunk it and say that we all, you know, assumed something about Trump that wasn't true and maybe question the credibility of all the documents that mentioned Trump's name. Because this handwritten note mentioned Trump. Well, sure enough, a few hours later, the Department of Justice said they had investigated the letter just two hours later and that they determined it was fake. And haha, See you Democrats. This is all a hoax, so be mindful out there. I do not know whether this letter is fake or not. I personally don't believe it's real. I think this was a trap, but maybe there'll be evidence that it is. Why didn't the DOJ release the findings of the handwriting analysis when they released that letter? They released that letter and then let it sit there so that we would all go look at this and then came back and said we looked into it. Did you, do you have the, did you look into it today or did you look into it all those years ago and just didn't show us that part in the Epstein files? It's, whatever all this is, it's a giant clusterfuck. Just be mindful out there. Also from Politico, Tens of thousands of documents that appeared to be from the Epstein files were briefly posted on the Justice Department's website Monday before disappearing without explanation. The documents reviewed by Politico were available to Download through a Justice.gov link early Monday afternoon and remained available for several hours. The link was not visible on the Justice Department's website, where officials have been posting documents from the files it's required to disclose under the law passed by Congress last month. But the URL corresponded with an anticipated eighth data set of documents that officials were expected to release. That data set appeared to be next in the sequence of documents that the DOJ began releasing Friday pertaining to the decades long investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Justice Department spokespeople didn't respond to POLITICO's request for comment on these documents that were up and then disappeared. The material included tens of thousands of government documents and emails, as well as several dozen videos from the Bureau of Prisons. The materials describe 2008 negotiations between the Justice Department and lawyers for Epstein as he attempted to settle claims that he trafficked girls. They include internal 2019 deliberations by the Justice Department federal prosecutors in New York as they neared criminal charges against Epstein. The records show prosecutors attempts to trace Epstein's vast financial empire and far flung properties, his ties to prominent financial industry executives, and records of investigators efforts to track the movements of Epstein and Maxwell. They also catalog the internal deliberations of Justice Department officials whose identities are all redacted, which you're not supposed to do, as they dealt with the internal demands and pressures from superiors related to the Epstein probe. And they show how prosecutors pivoted from the shock of Epstein's 2019 suicide in jail while he awaited trial to pursuing his co conspirators. Interesting. we'll keep an eye on all that. And from the Times, A day after federal agents arrested Epstein on sex trafficking charges in 2019, they were also apparently trying to contact a number of people they called co conspirators. This is according to a newly released email exchange. The highly redacted email said There were about 10 people, 10 co conspirators that needed to be contacted. All the names were redacted except for three. Ghislaine Maxwell, who as we know was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021 Jean Luc Brunel, former French modeling agent who was found dead in his Paris jail cell in 2022 and was suspected of scouting girls for Epstein and Leslie Wexner. Now, because of redactions, it was unclear who sent the emails. In the first email, an unknown sender with a signature line that included FBI New York began the exchange by writing, when you get a chance, can you give me an update on the status of the 10 co conspirators? Now, the DOJ has repeatedly said there are no uncharged co conspirators. there's no client list. Patel even told Congress under oath that if there had been, he'd have opened a probe, quote yesterday. But of course they closed the investigation started under the Biden administration, came in in January, shut it down, fired the prosecutors, took the files and then closed the entire thing saying that there's no evidence against any uncharged co conspirators in July. So m they shut it down. That here are 10 co conspirators. Very interesting. Next up from Politico. A federal judge took a step Monday toward public release of Special counsel Jack Smith's final report on Trump's handling of classified materials that he stashed at Mar a Lago in 2021. U.S. district Judge Eileen Cannon blocked for nearly a year the release of Smith's classified documents report, but agreed Monday to lift her order on February 24, 2026. Sounds great, right? Wait. Cannon also invited a possible legal challenge by Trump or his former alleged co conspirators Nauta and de Oliveira that could further delay the report's release. The Trump appointed judge emphasized that her timeline for release of the report could give way to legal claims that Smith's report shouldn't be released at all. I'm not sure how this squares with the 11th Circuit's order that she have this situation resolved in full by January 2, when their hold on the Night Institute's writ of mandamus expires. I assume we'll find out. Andy McCabe and I are going to discuss this in more detail on this weekend's episode of Unjustified and in today's profile in Courage. More than six months after a chaotic visit to New Jersey Immigrant Detention center that resulted in federal assault charges against representative Lamonica McIver. She and her colleagues returned to the facility to advocate for its closure. McIver, along with Rob Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey, and Yvette Clark, another Democrat from New York, toured Delaney hall on Tuesday for another oversight visit. That came days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41 year old from Haiti who was detained at Delaney hall, died a day after the agency took him into custody. The visit was the first for McIver since May, when she, along with Menendez Bonnie Watson Coleman, a representative from New Jersey, a Democrat, sought to conduct an oversight visit that turned into a high profile issue. Newark Mayor Ross Baraka was arrested and McIver was charged with assaulting law enforcement officers that day. Baraka's charge was dismissed. He's suing. But MacGyver's case has yet to go to trial. She has pled not guilty and accuses the Trump administration of political intimidation. McIver, a first term member of Congress whose district encompasses Newark, told reporters Tuesday that she was the one who was assaulted and that the facility should be shut down. She added that being back at Delaney hall was a traumatic experience for her, but that she will continue to show up to call out what's happening in the facility. And again, showing up to that facility where the government tried to frame you for assaulting an ICE officer is ballsy as so hats off to her and to her colleagues for continuing to conduct oversight in the face of blatant government corruption and retribution. Just I hope those charges get dismissed or I hope she gets acquitted. All right, everybody, after this break, I'm going to speak with the former White House Affordable Care act director about what's next for health care. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. All right. Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent Congress home early for vacation without voting to extend the Affordable Care act subsidies, which are set to expire, next week. Instead, Republicans voted on their own concepts of a plan that will probably result in millions of people being locked out of health care. of course, it only passed the House that still hasn't been signed into law or anything. But joining me today to discuss is former White House Affordable Care Act Director Jessica Schubel. Jessica, welcome to the Daily Beans.
Thanks so much for having me. Great to be here.
I love talking to experts who work on this stuff for a living. Thank you so much for all your service, all your government service, and for Everything that you did in the Obama and Biden administrations to help get more people covered by healthcare. I mean, I believe you expanded Medicaid coverage under the ACA to over 12 million Americans while you were there at the White House.
Yeah, I mean, thank you for, the kind words. it was just, really amazing to be able to work at the White House, and also at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the Obama administration. That's where all the action actually happens. it sounds cool being at the White House, but really the career servants and the folks that are at the agency level really do the work. And, I'm sure you know that since you worked at the VA also during the Obama administration. So the agency, if I can put a plug in for making government cool again, I would definitely say that working at the agency is where it's at. but, yeah, I'm so proud of the work that my colleagues and I did during, the four years that I was, the specialist assistant to the president for healthcare, to President Biden. We lowered the uninsured rate, across the country to the lowest ever. so that means that more Americans had health insurance under our watch than at any point, in the nation's history. And I'm really, really proud about that. I, wish I could have done more to help people afford health insurance because that definitely is something that I, wish we had been able to do a little bit more work. but making sure that people have, health insurance, comprehensive health insurance is, the first step, in the process. and we did make it more affordable for the over 20 million people who buy their coverage on the ACA marketplaces. You mentioned, at the top here, that the Republicans, chose not to continue them. They voted in the Senate, to increase, healthcare costs for millions of Americans. that was by design. I say, after being out of the White House for the last 11 months, that the Republicans and President Trump's number one goal here, with respect to their health care agenda, is to make it as hard as possible for people to get healthcare. And I think we've seen that in the last couple of weeks with the Senate voting to increase people's healthcare costs as well as, as you said, the speaker, you know, letting folks go early to celebrate the holidays.
Yeah. And the thing here, like, the economy, because, you know, let's be honest, having to pay your health care premiums is part of what we think of as the economy. Expenses, affordability, the, American people aren't stupid, even low information voters. And again, when I say low information voter, I don't mean that as an insult. I just mean there are people in this world who do not pay attention to politics as much as you and I. And the people listening to this podcast, they know when their health care premiums go up or when they get kicked off their health care plans. They know that they see it, it impacts them directly. And sometimes it takes a direct impact on a person for them to realize, what's going on. And they also know that the Republicans are in charge right now at the White House and in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. They know that much. so Republicans trying to blame Democrats here for the Affordable Care act subsidies expiring or for what they're going to put out in their new plan seems ridiculous. Can you talk to us a little bit before we go into the ACA subsidies and the fact that they're expiring? Can you help us understand what is up with the Republican health plan? It seems like, very disjointed. It doesn't make a lot of sense. It seems like sort of word salad, but it kind of just seems like a repeal of the Affordable Care act to go back to the broken system we had before.
Yeah, I think it's all of those things. but the way I describe it is, you know, when you see something that's too good to be true, you often and shouldn't believe it. That's how I would describe, President Trump's and the Republicans plan to give money directly to people. And I think before, we even talk about, that if you give me, the point, of privilege here, to kind of take a step back and just say, and explain how, for your listeners, on how things actually work, in the current, ACA Obamacare system, you know, people already get their, get money directly, to buy their health insurance. On the ACA Marketplace. I would view it as like a personal discount code. Like, you know, we're around the holiday times. People have been doing a ton of holiday shopping. So just think of it as a special personal discount code that you get to use when you're going online to buy your health insurance. And you apply that discount code right at the beginning. So when you see what you're buying, you know what you're paying right up front, full stop, you can see what your, what the, the end result or what your final, monthly payment is going to be. And then from that point, you can shop for something that fits within your budget. You know, know what services are going to be covered, how much you're going to have to pay every time you go to the doctor or fill a prescription. You can look and see how, which providers, like if your primary care doctor or your ob GYN is in, network all those things. You can then search and find the plan that fits your budget while also ticking off those most important things, whether it's, you know, lower co pays or having a particular doctor that you can go see. So again, you're getting money directly to you. It's just in the form of a discount code, not money that's going directly into a health savings account, which is what the Republicans are proposing. And I get it. It sounds great on paper. Giving money directly to people to put into a savings account. Sure, that makes sense. Except here's the catch. You have to enroll in what we call high deductible plans. And again, going back to the word salad, that you mentioned, what does it mean to be enrolled in a high deductible plan? It means that you're enrolled in a health insurance plan that will only start paying once you have paid out of pocket a certain amount of money. Last year, the average, out of pocket limit that you'd have to pay in order for your health insurance to kick in was $7,000. So that means you have to pay $7,000 for most of your medical care before your health insurance starts paying for it. What the Republicans are proposing is to give you either a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred dollars in the savings account so you can then put it towards that $7,000 deductible. Now, I'm not great at math, but I will say 1000. Heck, we'll just even give. Be generous here and say that they're going to give folks $1,500. $1,500 is not going to pay for the full $7,000 that you're going to have to pay before your health insurance starts paying your medical care. Does that. That doesn't make sense to me. I don't know. Does that make sense to you? Alison?
I understand what you're saying, and I think it's, stupid. I mean, they could just say we're lowering your deductible by $1,500, but that's what this administration does. They like to give you this money up front to make you think that you're getting money that you didn't have before. They just did it by giving the increase in basic housing allowance to military members as a warrior dividend for $1,776. That money is money that you are going to over the next year for your basic housing allowance. And now he's just given it to you up front at the beginning of the year to make you feel like you're getting an additional $1700. but there's other things in this Republican plan, that you wrote about recently, right? You said solutions to jacking up your health insurance premiums. Enroll in crappy coverage, right? Is that what you're talking about? These high deductible, crappy coverage plans, and here's $1,500, that will pay for one fourth of your deductible in this crappy plan we're giving you.
yeah, that's exactly right. You know, these high deductible plans, I want to say, like, they do cover your preventative care, but what happens when you, you know, have an accident and you break your arm and you go to the er? That's not preventative care. And so now you're on the hook for the X ray that you are going to need to, you know, determine whether your arm is broken or not. The doctor to come in and see you, the nurse to bandage up and put a cast on your, on your, arm, your pain medicines, all of that is not, not covered. Like, you're going to have to pay for that out of pocket, you know, and, you know, it's definitely going to cost more than $1,500 to, you know, cover the cost of care if you break your arm. same as if, you know, you want to go to the primary care doctor because, you know, God forbid you have the flu and you're really, really sick, and you know, that is not preventative care. So you might have to pay the hundred 150 office visit out of pocket. but if you keep doing that for yourself, for your kids, you know, it all adds up. And at a time when, you know, people can barely afford grocer, electricity costs are going out of the roof, rent is incredibly high. it just, it's like a death by a thousand cuts for families. And, you know, healthcare is generally the most expensive component of a family's budget. And I worry that a lot of people are just going to roll the dice and not sign up for coverage, and hope that they don't break that arm, that they don't get, get sick and, you know, just kind of operate on a wing and a prayer here for their health care, which Is, you know, not how it should be.
Yeah, no, that sounds like the, that sounds like what we had before the Affordable Care Act. just. And I think that this administration is hoping that nobody breaks their arm before the midterm elections, so that they don't see, you know, maybe not see the real costs here until it impacts them. You know, don't. Just don't break your arm. Everyone you have can have two pencils and don't break your arm. I. It's just.
Well, we haven't even gotten to the folks who have Medicaid coverage who are going to be required to prove among all the things going on in their lives, that they're working when most already work. They just work in low paying jobs that don't offer health insurance. That's going to start after the midterms. They were, they were clever about that one.
Yeah, yeah. Let's talk a little bit about, the ACA subsidies. These are the discounts you're talking about. This is your special discount code that you were referring to when you shop on the Affordable Care exchanges to purchase your plans. That's going away, these subsidies On, I believe, January 1st. Now, I know a lot of people are going to see this, although a lot of people are going to see their premiums jack up. Some, some are quadrupling. I've seen people show screenshots of what their health premium is going to, that it's going to increase after January 1st. But also the enrollment period closes January 1st. So, you know, I was wondering first of all, how this is going to impact how many people this is going to impact. Maybe even people who can't afford insurance anymore. and then they'll just have to roll the dice like you said. But will if they come back and if they vote to extend Affordable Care act subsidies, somehow maybe they take it from a three year to a one year or something. I don't know what would, convince the Republicans to keep people on their health care plans, but maybe they do. Do they also put a provision in that bill that reopens the enrollment period or is everyone stuck for the whole year? I mean, I'm just, I'm, curious as to what this looks like practically for everyone next week when these, when these price changes go into effect.
Yeah, I mean, I will say, generally speaking, the damage here is done for next year, or for 20, 26 coverage, which as you said, starts in just, a matter of a few days. one thing that I would just important clarification. I would make is that people still have until January 15th to sign up for coverage. It will just start on February 1st. And I would highly recommend that people, you know, and for your listeners who know people who are still need, health insurance, please, please, please, there's still time to sign up. you know, it's likely that things are going to be more, expensive, but you can still find affordable, options for your, you know, budget. you just might have to look a little bit harder and might have to make some trade offs in terms of, you know, how much you're going to pay to see a doctor or the, an actual doctor that you'd like to keep seeing. But you have until January 15th to sign up. But that said, even if, you know, by some miracle the Republicans do move forward on some of these, potential bills that you might have been hearing about, for the 1, 2, 3 year extensions in early January, like I said, the damage is done. People are going to see their health insurance, premiums increase, starting on January one. And it's definitely a significant barrier for people to sign up for coverage. You know, the more expensive something is, the less likely you are going to, to sign up for it. and so I would hope, that they would consider reopening the period, you know, so people could shop for something that might work better for their budget. But as I said at the top, you know, the Republicans endgame here is just to make it as hard as possible for people to get healthcare. And, and so while, you know, I hope that they would consider it, you know, I'm not going to put, a lot of eggs in that particular basket.
Yeah, and we actually had some Republicans in Congress going against Donald Trump's health care plan by signing a discharge petition to actually force a vote on the Affordable Care act subsidies. this is like the third discharge petition against Mike Johnson. People do not like, Mike Johnson. He cannot get control of his cockpit. But I keep hoping that Republicans who have to run for office again and actually take care of their constituents might vote for this or might jump onto that and vote yes to extend the Affordable Care act subsidies. Because obviously Donald Trump doesn't want it, but he doesn't have to run for anything again. Whether he decides to stay in the White House or leaves, by one of several ways, he doesn't have to run again, but these Republicans do. And I think a lot of them are very worried about how this is going to impact their constituents and their health care plans because there are so many red states where so many people rely on affordable care and Medicare, Medicaid. And I think it's, there's going to be, I think, a reckoning, especially on health care, for these Republicans who have to decide whether they're going to support Donald Trump or support the people who voted them into office. This.
Yeah, I mean it's really hard to look at your neighbor when they're struggling. And to answer their question of why did you increase my, my monthly costs?
What.
Why did you not vote to keep my healthcare costs affordable. and it's not just families. Right. We're talking about small businesses too. You know, about half of the ACA Marketplace enrollment is either folks that own small businesses and work for them or are self employed. And I'm one of them.
Yeah.
You know. Yeah, we're, we're both one of them. Right. I know that my, premiums, I guess I'm, I'm a lucky small business owner and that mine are only going up, $100 a month. But I know some small business owners are going up, over fifteen hundred dollars. I know I, I was reading, you know, I'm visiting my, my family here in Tucson, Arizona and I was reading some, you know, firsthand accounts, from small business owners here in Arizona saying that, you know, they're looking at mortgaging their house again in order to afford the, the premiums for their small businesses, their small business employees, that they're, that they're buying on the exchange. And that's just wrong. You know, I think, the American spirit is that we are all, you know, there's a spirit of entrepreneurship and you know, making sure that people, you know, the small people in the world, in the country can you know, be successful and, and have that American dream. But all of this is being done to make wealthy people richer. It's to give billionaires tax credits, to give big corporations, more money. and it's the working American that is paying the price for this. It's on our, to pay for the extra tax cuts, and the extra money that billionaires, in my opinion, undeservedly, are getting.
Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if before long we see Donald Trump Jr opens up a third party health care payment administration business and gets some giant contract for the new Republican healthcare plan. All those middlemen make, the premiums so unaffordable.
Yeah. Even their new, their quote unquote proposal that they're talking about, that we were just talking about the health Savings accounts that benefits rich people. and that's because that money that goes into these accounts is not taxed. So the more money you make and the higher you are, in the tax brackets, the more money you save. And so for example, you know, a couple who, a 60 year old couple who is making, which I know is a lot, but this is what I was just figuring for, for math, a, 60, a couple who are 60 years old and they make 80, excuse me, $800,000 a year is going to save three times as much, three times as much as the same age couple who makes $30,000 a year. That's wrong. and that's what this whole plan is about. It's to enrich people who don't need the money. All on the backs of working Americans. And I think, you know, we should be clear eyed of what, what the Republicans are doing.
Yeah, and then the bank also gets money and then in order to spend your health care savings plan, you'll have to put it on a Visa card which takes three and a half percent. It's just all for the billionaires and it's disgusting. but you know, this is what happens when Republicans are in office, as you well know. before I let you go, are there any resources, that you'd like everybody to know about where they can get more information and learn more, about what's coming on January 1st and January 15th?
Well, the first resource I would say is please, please, please go to healthcare.gov that will give you the most real time information on when, how much you will pay for health insurance. Please enroll if you have yet, to enroll, you have until January 15th I would say. Listen to your podcast. Right. You know, listen to you, Allison. you know, look at your local paper. I've been doing a lot of, I'm, I'm an old lady I guess, because I don't, I'm not on Tick Tock, but I've been doing some TikTok and Instagram, ah, live posts with various folks. so however you consume news, news, try to find people that are talking about this. and you know, you're a great resource. I would put you at the top of the list.
Oh, thank you so very much. I'm super jelly. You got to work at the White House and talk to President Biden. So, I mean what an amazing job. and so rewarding to be able to help people get health coverage. and hopefully, after the midterms and after 2028. We can start working toward a public option and, and see where we're at, with maybe expanding Medicare a little bit. We'll see. Keep my fingers crossed. But thank you so much, for talking with me today. I really appreciate your time. Former White House ACA director Jessica Shubel.
Thank you so much for having me.
No problem. Everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news, everyone. M. Good news, good news. And if you have any good news, corrections, confessions, you have some good trouble you want to send us. Maybe a joke you've heard that made you laugh. We would love to laugh with you. We need to microdose hope right now. If you have a shout out that you'd like to give a loved one or yourself or a government program that's helped you or a loved one, it can be Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, wic, snap, anything like that. Student debt forgiveness. We love to hear those stories. Send that to us. You, can give a shout out to a non profit, a small business in your area, anything at all. Any. Just good news. Big, small, yesterday, 20 years ago. Send it in dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. All you got to do to get your submission read on the air is pay your pod pet tariff, which used to mean just attach a photo of your pet, but now you can really just attach a photo of anything. It really doesn't matter. You can send an adoptable pet in your area. Maybe we can find him a home. family photos, baby pictures, photos of your holiday decorations, maybe what you dressed up as for Halloween, or signs that you love that you saw at the last no Kings rally, or overpass signs. Some great community organizing maybe if you're all getting together and writing some postcards and you took some pictures. We'd love to see that. Pictures from your last Democratic club meeting. Whatever it is, send it to us dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. First up is your good trouble and your good trouble this weekend from now until we talk again on on Monday. Relax. Take some time off. That's your good trouble assignment. Recharge. Think good thoughts. Also from Gwendolyn. Pronouns she and her hello bean goddesses. And thank you for all you do. My wife and I began listening in late spring and we have added this to our evening pow wow time, which is basically our time to catch up with each other and enjoy a glass of libation. Of choice. Excellent. I love this. Gwendolyn, my good trouble was inspired by you. Several months ago, I began to bling the paper clips by adding a charm and a rainbow ribbon. I gave these out as gifts to my church congregation at our annual love fest at Thanksgiving. Then I added these two client gifts that I gave out, too. Each paperclip is attached to a note that has a brief history of the paperclip, along with how it stands not only for resilience and flexibility, but also how we can hold things together, bend without breaking, and stay connected in our challenging times. I have now taken to leaving these paperclips in random places, like on grocery shelves and in doctor's offices. My hope is they find themselves in the hands of people who need to know know that they're seen. That's, such a great idea. What a little wonderful bit of good trouble. For my pod pet tariff, I've submitted a picture of one of our rescue cats, Dusty. He fell into our honey pot four years ago as a kitten. His goal in life is to remind us constantly to just chill out, keep up the good work, and be safe out there. These paper clips are beautiful. Little heart charms, little enamel heart charms, and the beautiful rainbow ribbon ribbons. These are gorgeous. I love that you're leaving these around town. Then look at the kitten in the donut. I have that cat cave donut. It is the best thing I ever bought for these cats. They love it, Gwendolyn. They love it. And sometimes I spray it with the sprayable catnip. Oh, I can't get enough of this. And neither can they. So that's. It's a cat cave. I can't. I don't. I can't. Catasaurus something. I can't remember what it's called, but it's fantastic. they absolutely love it. Your kitty is adorable. All right, next up, from Sheila B. Hi, Ag. I just wanted to share a painting I've just completed. It's been sitting in my art room for over a year as a completely different piece that I wasn't happy with and I didn't know how to fix it. Finally, I said, screw it, and I painted it. And I painted over with this. Only took a couple weeks. I may take it to my mom as a Christmas gift. I haven't decided. Anyway, happy holidays to everyone at the Daily Beans. This is gorgeous. This. It's like a beautiful field of flowers. Or it could even be a coral reef. I just. I absolutely love the colors. All these jewel tones. This is so beautiful. Thank you, Sheila B. Everybody, send us what you're making and creating. Next up from Brianna Pronoun she and they. Hello Lola the Gumanati. I don't have anything particularly special to share, but I thought you'd dig. this photo of my doggos. The one on the left is wearing the Nice list bandana and looking grumpy is Lila Joy. And the one with the derpy grin and the very rightly on the Naughty list is Penny Lane. Penny is our chaos coordinator, destroyer of cardboard bottles and toys, who also must be in everyone's business at all times. Lila is chill unless being petted is on the line. Got it. The expression. The expressions have just been sending us and I wanted to share this Joy. Brianna. Oh my God. these beautiful golden retrievers in front of a Christmas tree with their Christmas scarves. Scarves, Naughty List and Nice List are adorable. Thank you so much. I don't think we had to guess the braids on these because these definitely goldens. Okay, next up from house sitting in Texas, I like to send back postage paid envelopes to shitty organizations with a cheeky message on the fundraising reply card. Being a beans listener, I don't receive many myself, but I jumped at an opportunity to annoy Tom Fitton's Judicial watch while collecting my vacationing sister's email or excuse me, snail mail. She's a self loathing feminist and I hope someday I can confess this to her and share a laugh. It's only a toothpick in the spokes of fascism, but damn, it feels so good. Image Description Postage paid envelope. Reading your stamp saves us nearly $1 in postage. An anonymized reply card in the donation amount box. I wrote you are clowns and signed it Love woke sibling of your gullible. So if you're collecting mail from MAGA family members and you happen to get one of these postage paid envelopes from a shitty organization, use their postage, send them a message, send it back. You're right, it's just a toothpick in the spoke of spokes of fascism. But it does feel good and every toothpick matters. All right, next up from Liz Pronoun. She and her I had a real life in the Wild Misheard song lyrics. I I work from home normally, but once a week or so I go into the office. We work in a shared office space, so I don't know most of the people there. Around lunch I was in the communal area and spent a moment chatting with a very nice cheerful woman about how there was great 80s music playing over the speakers. As I headed back down the hall, I heard her singing along. And there it was. Singer in a smoky room. Smell of wine and sweet tattoos. Oh, no, no, no, no. Seen her in a smoky room. Smell of wine, and cheap per. Oh, come on. Sweet tattoos don't smell. Smell them. Wine is. But, you know what? I just learned that it's singer in a smoky room. I thought it was seeing her in a smoky room, so there you go. Podpet Tariff is a very sleepy spot. The cat keep doing what you do. Oh, my gosh, there's the cat. And he's asleep. And he's awesome. I love ginger tabbies. Oh, you guys are amazing. Thank you so much. I, will be back on your ears tomorrow, and I think Dana might be with me too. It depends on when her flight lands. So you will have a Christmas episode of the Daily Beans. The Beans Talk is dark until Sunday night. Monday morning, right? Patrons get it Sunday night. Everybody else gets it Monday morning. But, thanks for watching the Beans Talk. You can check it out. These are ten 15 minute episodes. We kind of wrap everything up for the day. It's on video. You can check it out at the MSW Media Media YouTube channel. Just Google MSW Media Media Beans Talk and you can find our little new project, which I am in love with and I hope that you are enjoying it too. But we are dark until after the holiday weekend. So everyone, like I said, at least I. I will be back in your ears tomorrow. Dana may be with me. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been ag and I'm the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Garrett with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information, Please visit msw media.com msw media.