President Donald Trump signaled his support Tuesday for a Republican alternative to the pandemic-era extra Obamacare subsidies Democrats championed during the government shutdown earlier this year. “Well, I like the concept,” the president said when asked about the bill, which Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., unveiled Monday. “I don’t want to give the insurance companies any money,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, Newsweek reported. “They’ve been ripping off the public for years.” “The current system is not working to deliver health care at reasonable prices for everyday Americans,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. “Democrats’ push to maintain these high prices by giving more money to insurance companies is not a real solution for President Trump.” “The President has instead focused on lowering prescription drug costs by hammering out deals with pharmaceutical companies, as well as taking on waste, fraud and abuse in the system to deliver results for patients, and will continue to deliver policy solutions that lower costs in the healthcare market for the American people,” Desai added. The government shut down on Oct. 1 after Democrat senators refused to support a “clean” Continuing Resolution that would fund the government at Biden-era levels until Congress could pass annual spending bills. Democrats demanded an extension of extra COVID-19 pandemic-era subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Democrats ultimately agreed to fund the government in exchange for a promise that the Senate would hold a vote on extending the subsidies. The Health Care Freedom for Patients Act, the Crapo-Cassidy bill, presents an alternative to the Democrats’ proposal, which Crapo and Cassidy claim would “send billions of tax dollars to giant insurance companies without lowering insurance premiums.” By contrast, they claim their bill sends money directly to patients via a health savings account, on the stipulation that the funds cannot be used for abortion or gender transitions. They also claim the bill would lower insurance premiums by funding cost-sharing reduction payments, would allow access to low-cost catastrophic plans, would prevent illegal aliens from accessing Medicaid by requiring states to verify citizenship and immigration status; and stops taxpayer funding for gender transition services under Medicaid. “Giving billions of taxpayer dollars to insurers is not working to reduce health insurance premiums for patients,” Crapo said in a news release on his proposal. “We need to give Americans more control over their own health care decisions.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said of the Crapo-Cassidy bill “their phony proposal is dead on arrival.” “Democrats have put forward the cleanest, fastest, most realistic solution: a three-year extension of the current tax credits, no gimmicks, no poison pills,” he said Tuesday. He called the proposal “the only realistic path left to prevent premiums from going up.” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, introduced another proposal, the “More Affordable Care Act.” The Scott bill “takes a commonsense approach to fix Obamacare and lower costs by encouraging innovation at the state level, stopping fraud and abuse in the system, increasing competition in the health insurance and provider market, and giving the American people the ability to spend health care dollars in the way that best meets their individual needs,” a news release from Scott’s office reads. The Scott-Pfluger proposal would create a “Health Freedom Waiver Program” allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines; Trump Health Freedom Accounts, a health savings account that would be available through the waiver program; enhance the Obamacare small business tax credit; and codify Trump’s executive order on health care price transparency into law. The post Trump Backs GOP Alternative to Obamacare Subsidies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

'Walter Cronkite' Journalism Awards Given to...John Stewart and Rachel Maddow

BREAKING: Federal Judge Unseals Final Grand Jury Records in Epstein Case

The two have a brilliant response to the "3I/ATLAS is an alien spacecraft" hypothesis.

Is it truly different or do we need to do a better calibration?

A video has gone mega-viral after a Wisconsin Cinnabon worker, Crystal Wilsey, was recorded shouting racist slurs, including the N-word, at a Somalian husband and wife.The video showed Wilsey cursing at the customers, at one point even saying, “I am racist and I’ll say it to the whole entire world. Don’t be disrespectful.” However, in an unedited version of the video, the husband can first be heard asking Wilsey if "sexualizing your body makes you a better person." When Wilsey asks if she is being recorded, the wife responds, "I'm going to record you, yes." There are then cuts in the video, before it escalates to the woman calling the couple the N-word. While many viewers were angry that she used the slur, the response online has been divided. But BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere knows where he stands.“Not the best moment anyone’s ever had in a Cinnabon,” Burguiere tells CBN’s Dan Andros on “Stu Does America.”Despite the Somalian couple being accused of starting the altercation, Burguiere believes there's "never an excuse to lose control of yourself." "What I’m kind of interested in here, more than anything else, is the reaction of some online who are basically saying it’s wrong that she was fired from this job, which obviously she was immediately,” he says.“It’s ‘wrong’ because that’s basically cancel culture in action. Is this cancel culture, Dan?” he asks.“There’s cancel culture and then there’s play stupid games, win stupid prizes. And what happened here is the latter. Like, let’s just think about your job here. You are making delicious cinnamon rolls that smell yummy … and it’s like, this is your job,” Andros says.“Your job is to give someone a little taste of Cinnabon happiness. You know, cinnamon roll goodness and deliciousness and with a smile on your face. … Isn’t it that the customer’s always right? They might be jerks, they might be saying rude things, they might be in a hurry, they might complain,” he continues.“Just smile. You’re getting paid,” he adds.However, not everyone feels the same way as Burguiere and Andros, as Crystal has raised over $100,000 on GiveSendGo after her firing.“She’s a representative of a company, in the same way that if I went into, you know, a Sbarro, and they were like, ‘By the way, can’t stand those Jews,’ I would say that person should lose their job,” Burguiere explains.“Not because I love cancel culture,” he continues, adding, “because they’re representing your business." "They have an absolute right to fire you,” Andros chimes in.Want more from Stu?To enjoy more of Stu's lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

It may sound like an unlikely match — an evangelical Hollywood veteran producing a musical about a teenage Catholic saint. But for "Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer, the story of St. Bernadette Soubirous — a young French girl who reported multiple apparitions of the Virgin Mary between February and July 1858 at a grotto in the village of Lourdes — proved impossible to forget."You can't turn your back on this," said Grammer last week at Chicago's Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture, where he and some cast members previewed the American debut of "Bernadette: The Musical."'I wanted to be part of it because the simple beauty of this young lady who told the truth and stuck to it through amazing pressure, she earned her sainthood.'“This young girl had a ... stick-to-itiveness and tenacity that can only come from the innocence of a child," Grammer continued. Already a hit in France, the show depicts the young Bernadette persisting in her claims despite skepticism from townsfolk and the local priest. "That energy in the face of pure innocence becomes a really interesting battle,” said Grammer.Soubirous subsequently became a nun, dying at 35. She was canonized in 1933. The site of the visitations is now the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, a popular pilgrimage site for believers seeking miraculous healings.Simple beautyIntroducing a selection of songs from the musical, Grammer emphasized the connection he felt to the project.“I wanted to be part of it because the simple beauty of this young lady who told the truth and stuck to it through amazing pressure, she earned her sainthood,” he said.“Man’s search for faith on this planet is part of why we're here. Part of our understanding of being a human being is to figure out where we fit in the universe and what our relationship is like to the creator of that universe, and I'm delighted to be here to take the story further for people.”'Jesus made a difference'Grammer has made no secret of his Christian faith. In 2023 he starred as Pastor Chuck Smith in "Jesus Revolution" — a role he said helped him find peace with God in the face of his own past struggles, which included drug and alcohol addiction as well as the murder of his younger sister in 1975. "Jesus made a difference in my life," he told USA Today while promoting the movie. "That's not anything I'll apologize for."Speaking alongside show director Serge Denoncourt and fellow lead producer Pierre Ferragu, Grammer recalled being introduced to "Bernadette: The Musical" by his friend Fr. Mark Haydu, former international director of the Patrons of the Arts at the Vatican Museums.RELATED: Kelsey Grammer says he still supports Donald Trump Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty ImagesMic dropGrammer said he was particularly moved by the "mic drop" moment in which Bernadette finally convinces her priest of the truth of her visions. The vision tells her, "Tell them you’re speaking to the Immaculate Conception." ... She goes to the priest, and he asks "Who is it?" She says the Immaculate Conception, and he falls to his knees and is convinced. Because in her own limited history of faith, she does not know what they would even mean.Grammer remains one of Hollywood’s most unapologetic and outspoken conservatives. A longtime Tea Party supporter and climate change skeptic, he has repeatedly endorsed President Donald Trump and spoken proudly about his beliefs. As he told the Times earlier this year, “It’s great to have somebody who actually means what they say [in office].”"Bernadette: The Musical" will begin its nationwide tour in February 2026 at the Athenaeum Center in Chicago and is slated to tour at least 13 major cities.

A 26-year-old South Carolina mother was arrested Monday morning after being accused of a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old boy in a vehicle while her three children were present, WBTW-TV reported.Lake City Police charged Aladrian Chandler with second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, the station said.'Disgusting. ... And to do it with your children in the vehicle and take away their innocence?!?!'Chandler acknowledged a sexual encounter, WBTW said, citing a police report — but she denied having intercourse and said she believed the boy was older than he told her.The station said the report indicates the boy told officers that he and Chandler met while she was delivering food, and they exchanged phone numbers and began texting each other. The alleged incident occurred Nov. 16, WBTW reported.Police began investigating two days after the alleged incident after Chandler reported that a gun had been stolen from her vehicle, the station said.The report added that during the investigation, Chandler gave police a written statement saying the boy took the gun out of her car when she went to a friend’s house to talk about how the boy had been talking to her, WBTW reported.Florence County Detention Center records indicate Chandler remained behind bars Wednesday morning on no bond.RELATED: Mother chaperoned junior high dance — then had a baby with her daughter's teen date: Court docs Image source: Lake City (S.C.) PoliceA number of commenters under WBTW's Facebook post about the incident were taken aback by the accusations against the mother of three:"People are getting sicker and sicker," one commenter wrote."What the hell!!!" another user exclaimed."Real classy," another commenter noted. "People make me sick.""Pedophilia at its finest," another user observed. "Disgusting. ... And to do it with your children in the vehicle and take away their innocence?!?! How shameful and sickening."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Being the strongest and most successful nation will mean ensuring that America First does not devolve into America Alone.

Sen. Chris Coons Now Says It's Not About the Video (and Sinks Dems' 'Fishermen' Talking Point)