'The charges he faces are extraordinarily serious'

'We need to start cutting rates at the next meeting'

'Crackdown on illegal gambling'

Only 11% believe the federal government should be involved

A coalition letter sent by conservative leaders on Monday is calling on Republican congressional leadership to continue its opposition to extending the expanded Obamacare subsidies even after the government shutdown ends. “We urge you to adhere to your principled opposition to the expanded Obamacare subsidies … even after the current government shutdown has concluded—and even as the December 31st expiration of the expanded subsidies gets closer,” the letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., states.  Paul Teller, the president of Teller Strategies and the organizer of the letter, told The Daily Signal that “the reason for the letter was the Republican leadership signaling they’re willing to make a deal as soon as the shutdown is over. But Republicans wouldn’t say that about anything else. We wouldn’t say we’ll make a deal on abortion as soon as the shutdown ends, or we’ll make a deal on raising taxes as soon as the shutdown is over.” The letter notes that the enhanced Obamacare subsidies were passed by a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden as a temporary measure to alleviate the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they were enacted with an expiration provision. Coalition Letter–No Ocare Subsidies in Shutdown or Beyond–10-27-2025 (1)Download The letter, signed by representatives of 37 groups, also explains that the expanded subsidies fund insurance plans that cover abortions and sex changes, and it allocates benefits to some affluent households making more than $500,000 per year.  “We shouldn’t be extending any part of Obamacare, but an expanded add-on part would be even more devastating, because then it’s, now we’re helping grow and keep Obamacare big and own that kind of thing,” Teller said. The letter was signed by an array of leaders in the conservative movement, including Chad Connelly, president and founder of Faith Wins America; Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action; and Paul Gessing, president of the Rio Grande Foundation, among others.  The coalition push comes as the government shutdown nears a full month after Senate Democrats refused to support a stopgap spending continuing resolution passed in the House of Representatives and supported by a majority of members in the Senate. The shutdown has left thousands of federal workers furloughed and the Smithsonian museums and National Zoo closed to the public.  Last week, Senate Democrats blocked the passage of a bill that would have compensated essential federal workers, including active-duty members of the U.S. military. They previously had blocked another Republican bill to fund the Department of War. President Donald Trump has sought to alleviate the pain of the shutdown by repurposing $8 billion in unused research and development funds from the prior fiscal year to pay the military.  The post Conservative Groups Urge Resolve Against Extending Obamacare Subsidies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Biden administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs improperly awarded $10.8 million in bonuses meant for staffers who directly serve veterans to highly paid senior executives. Under President Donald Trump, the agency is close to recovering the remainder of the lost funds. The VA improperly awarded $10.8 million in “critical skills incentives” to more than 180 senior VA officials, the VA’s inspector general office revealed in a May 2024 report. Trump’s VA has nearly completed the recoupment of the nearly $11 million in inappropriately awarded bonuses to senior VA officials under the administration of President Joe Biden, The Daily Signal has learned. “Under President Trump and Secretary [Doug] Collins, we are transforming the department from a bureaucratic organization to a service organization that puts Veterans at the center of everything we do,” VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz told The Daily Signal. “This is a welcome change from the Biden administration, whose obsession with bureaucracy and woke causes led to millions in bonuses for undeserving VA bureaucrats and major distractions from the mission like gender dysphoria treatments,” he continued. More than 96% of the wrongfully distributed funds have been recovered, according to the VA. After learning about the improper payments in September 2023, Biden’s VA secretary, Denis McDonough, canceled them and ordered the managers to pay them back. But at the start of the Trump administration, about $1.4 million in bonus money remained uncollected. As of mid-October, less than $400,000 remains outstanding. To recover the money, the Trump VA has denied all requests from recipients of the bonuses to stop or slow efforts to recoup the money, a spokesperson told The Daily Signal. The bonuses averaged $61,000, with several managers collecting more than $100,000 in payments. The VA has also worked with the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies to make sure former VA employees were paying the bonus back. As of last week, all employees and former employees who received the bonuses have either paid their bonus back or are in the process of paying them back via installments. The bonuses were intended to supplement the salaries of employees in high-demand jobs for which there is a shortage of trained workers. Senior VA managers were specifically excluded from the payments. In October 2023, Biden’s VA issued collection notices to “all senior executives” who improperly received payments, according to the VA’s inspector general office report. Managers were given the option to return the bonuses by Dec. 31, 2023, or enter a repayment plan. The Trump administration’s success in recovering the remainder of the funds is an example of one of the many ways the VA is maximizing its taxpayer funding for serving veterans, according to a VA spokesperson. For example, the VA has partnered with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to identify and recover $106 million in duplicative billing. On Oct. 4, the VA terminated special salary rates for about 15,000 employees in human resources and information technology.  The post EXCLUSIVE: Trump on Track to Recoup $10M Improperly Paid to Agency’s Senior Executives Under Biden appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Trump to Putin: You Know We Have Nukes on Subs, Right?

Lies, Damned Lies, and Democrats Speaking

The Washington Post's boastful front-page slogan is "Democracy Dies in Darkness." But on today's Morning Joe, Post columnist David Ignatius kept viewers in the darkness regarding his own paper. The show devoted yet another long segment to denouncing President Trump's ballroom project, and in particular, his decision to demolish the East Wing that was deemed necessary. Jonathan Lemire highlighted an overly dramatic Peggy Noonan column in which she suggested that the project is evidence of a "tired and diminished" republic. Naturally, Lemire described her as a "conservative." MSNBC posted the title: "A Republic, But Can We Keep It?" Noonan also employed a favorite trope of Trump critics: that the destruction of the East Wing is a "metaphor." Lemire parroted the "metaphor" line himself, claiming that the demolition "really did seem to upset a lot of people." Scarborough stepped in to echo the m-for-metaphor line, and, like Lemire, to bemoan that before proceeding, Trump hadn't consulted with "historical organizations." Then it was Ignatius' turn. He offered a metaphorical analogy of his own: "This is the presidency as wrecking ball." He went so far as to claim that "the destruction of the East Wing has really upset people in a way that even Trump's most outrageous other actions haven't." Riiight.  Continued Ignatius: "If the Washington Post hadn't run a photograph, taken from across the street in the Treasury building, we might not have known for 24 hours that it was even happening. It was stealthy, in the middle of the night." An unsuspecting viewer might well have assumed that the Washington Post was relentlessly on the side of those who have risen in righteous indignation over the demolition. But that's where Ignatius kept viewers in the darkness regarding his paper.  What Ignatius didn't disclose was that over the weekend, the paper's Editorial Board had published an editorial entitled, "In defense of the White House ballroom--Donald Trump vs. the NIMBYs." The editorial included these lines [emphasis added]: Preservationists express horror that Trump did not submit his plans to their scrutiny, but the truth is that this project would not have gotten done, certainly not during his term, if the president had gone through the traditional review process. The blueprints would have faced death by a thousand papercuts. Ignatius's failure to mention the editorial was a journalistic sin of omission. Note: In the highlighted portion above, the Post editorial board made a point virtually identical to the one we had made at NewsBusters the day before: "If Trump had submitted to the [historical] groups' tender mercies, and their endless demands for redesigns, site reviews, hearings, solicitation of public commentary, etc., what are the odds the ballroom would have been completed before the end of Trump's term -- if ever?" We're not saying the Washington Post editorial board has started taking its talking points from NewsBusters. We're saying these points should be obvious to those highly educated but easily offended pundits on MSNBC. Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 10/27/25 6:32 am EDT JONATHAN LEMIRE: Backlash over the project has really grown after the entire East Wing was demolished to make way for the new structure . . . Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan's latest piece for the Wall Street Journal is titled, "A Republic, But Can We Keep It?" In it, Peggy writes about America's long history and President Trump's heavy-handed changes to the government, including the demolition of the White House East Wing.  . . .  You know, there are so many issues facing this country right now. It is of note, though, how the destruction of the East Wing and the way it was done. It'd be one thing if this was weeks long, months long, approval process where reviews and commissions and architects and Congress gets involved. That'd be one thing. But the way this was done so swiftly with no notice and the way plans just changed from a minor renovation, to the demolition of the entire East Wing really did seem to upset a lot of people.  And to Peggy's point, an on-the-nose metaphor for how President Trump is leading in his second term.  JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, the president, David Ignatius, said just a couple weeks ago, we aren't going to touch the East Wing. And then two weeks later, the entire East Wing is destroyed.  There are no plans. There is no consulting with historical organizations on trying to make sure the history of America is preserved.  . . .  DAVID IGNATIUS: So, Joe, this is the presidency as wrecking ball. I think that's one reason that destruction of the East Wing has really upset people in a way that even Trump's most outrageous other actions haven't.  Peggy Noonan is a very balanced, sensible person, but she was anguished by what she was seeing. And I think it comes down to the sense that we all have, we've been to the White House or certainly seen photographs of it. And we think of it as the people's house. It was built deliberately to be understated. It's not a palace like Victorian rulers have had.  It's the people's house. And Donald Trump has turned it into his own personal property, or at least he behaves that way. In the middle of the night, the bulldozers come in and begin tearing down this historic building.  If  the Washington Post hadn't run a photograph, taken from across the street in the Treasury building, we might not have known for 24 hours that it was even happening. It was stealthy, in the middle of the night. 

As the gap between the right and left continues to widen, whispers that we’re on the verge of civil war are rumbling across the nation. Some people are even wondering if they should start preparing.Is this wisdom or folly? Glenn Beck’s answer: Both. “We must win the midterms, and we must win 2028,” Glenn emphasizes.President Trump designating Antifa as a terrorist organization and vowing to investigate and potentially prosecute George Soros via his Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and other nonprofits for allegedly funding Antifa and related left-wing violence is a public declaration of war.“When they have the opportunity to punch back, they are going to punch back. God help us,” Glenn says ominously.He warns that if Trump doesn’t completely “wipe [the Antifa network] out,” retribution will rain like fire when the political tides turn.In other words, civil war won’t look like citizens fighting in the streets; it’ll be warfare at the administrative level.In some ways, it’s already happening. “They are blocking the feds from actually doing constitutionally what they're supposed to do,” says Glenn. “And that then triggers the Constitution on an insurrection, which would mean the government then has the right and the power to go into those states and put down an insurrection.”The fact that we’re even having to ponder the possibility of a civil war means that we’re close to one, he says frankly. “The likelihood of going into a civil war is higher than any other time in my lifetime because we're all asking that question of is this going to lead to a civil war?”The fact that Democrat officials are “using police to go against federal police” is a sign things are headed in the wrong direction.Glenn estimates that the chances of civil war breaking out are sitting at about 15%-20% right now. “We now have proof that they are doing a color revolution here in America,” he says.Meanwhile, X is saturated with posts encouraging people to riot and loot if SNAP benefits run out in the midst of the government shutdown.“The perception here for a lot of people on the left is: The only way to solve [problems] is through violence,” says Glenn.“That number is growing, and the apathy toward political violence is growing probably faster than the actual people that would commit the violence,” he adds.But even if all of this does point to imminent civil war, Glenn urges his listeners to hope and pray against it.“They're dead serious about color revolution. ... We have to go the opposite direction and try at all costs to hold things together, keep people peaceful as long as possible, to hopefully turn this corner because a corner is being turned,” he warns.To hear more, watch the clip above.Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.