October Talking Points

Trump and Republicans Refuse To Make Health Care Affordable, So Instead, They Shut Down the Government

• For months, Trump and Republicans refused to negotiate with Democrats to prevent health care costs from skyrocketing.
  • Their budget bill failed to extend ACA tax credits. Instead, it cut Medicaid by $1 trillion — putting rural hospitals at risk of closure.
  • The cost of Trump’s billionaire-first tax law is more than 10 times the cost of extending the enhanced ACA premium tax credits.
  • Last week, notices started to go out to some of the 22 million Americans who will see their health insurance premiums double.
• This shutdown isn’t just impacting people’s health care, it’s affecting their:
  • Budgets: Federal contractors, including many low-wage service workers like janitors and other operating staff, won’t receive back pay following a shutdown — causing many families to worry how they’re going to put food on the table.
  • Travel: Air traffic control towers have had the lowest staffing in recent days since 2022, causing 6,000 delayed flights on Monday alone.
• IN A SENTENCE: Republicans shut the government down because they refused to make health care affordable for Americans.
  • Poll after poll after poll after poll confirm that, by double-digit margins, voters blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown.
  • According to Washington Post and KFF polling, most Americans, including Trump supporters, want the ACA tax credits extended.
    • The Washington Post found that 71% of Americans — including 80 percent of independents — want the tax credits extended.
      • Even Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene agrees. The Republican coalition is starting to fracture.
    • KFF polling reported more than 7 in 10 Americans want the tax credits to be extended, including most Republicans.
• During the four years that Senate Democrats held the majority, there wasn’t a single shutdown. Why? Because Democrats negotiated all 13 funding bills with Republicans.

Trump Can’t Hide America’s Job Crisis As New Reports Rip Apart His Disastrous Economy

• Trump and Republicans are using the government shutdown to enact their extreme agenda and distract from their failures — including Trump’s disastrous economy. 
• The labor market is still tanking under Trump’s watch, even though he’s refusing to release the jobs report. Top economists like Mark Zandi are saying that there is “essentially no job growth”:
  • U.S. companies have announced nearly 1 million job cuts so far in 2025, the highest number since the pandemic.
  • Bank of America is reporting that job growth has fallen to its lowest level in years. And investment firm Carlyle is indicating that just 17,000 jobs were added in September — even less than August’s anemic BLS report.
  • Meanwhile in September, construction jobs just had their biggest one-month decline since July 2020.
  • Bloomberg reported that U.S. factory activity shrank for a 7th consecutive month, due to a pullback in orders.
  • Reminder: There are more unemployed workers than job openings.
• BOTTOM LINE: 75% of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction, and a majority of Republicans agree.
  • 8 in 10 Americans say it’s as hard or harder to afford groceries compared to this point last year.

Democratic Illinois AG Files Lawsuit Against Trump for the Unlawful Deployment of the National Guard

• Trump is overriding local governance and wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.
  • A majority of Americans don’t support deploying the National Guard for law enforcement efforts. 
• Earlier this week, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s unlawful deployment of National Guard troops into Chicago — standing up for Chicagoans against Trump’s excessive authority.
  • This isn’t the first time that Trump has tried to use federal agents and the military to intimidate Americans and create chaos.
• Over the weekend, Speaker Mike Johnson was pressed on Trump’s decision to deploy troops to Chicago. His response? He said that it shouldn’t be up to the Governor, it should be up to Chicagoans.
  • And as it turns out, the vast majority — nearly two-thirds — of Chicagoans oppose Trump’s sending in the National Guard.
• Is the Department of Justice doing something about Trump’s politicization of federal law enforcement and the National Guard? Nope.
  • In a hearing yesterday, Attorney General Bondi refused to answer questions and just attacked the senators who grilled her.
  • During the hearing, Bondi wouldn’t answer for failing to release the Epstein files that were “on her desk” after news broke that her boss, Trump, is in them.