Friday, October 3, 2025

Untangling a key claim about the shutdown

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This is America

Stories of justice and action across America

Fri Oct 3 2025

Much of the U.S. government is beginning to fully shut down as the deadlock between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over federal subsidies for health insurance continues to tighten.

Greetings, This is America readers, Phillip M. Bailey, chief political correspondent for USA TODAY.

At its core the battle is over restoring Medicaid funding towards the Affordable Care Act − often called Obamacare -- that could leave an estimate 7.5 million people without health insurance.

Democrats want the subsidies put back after they were cut by Trump's "one big, beautiful" legislative package whereas Republicans want to keep the government operating at existing funding levels. The GOP runs Congress, but they lack the needed 60 votes in the Senate to break the filibuster, so here we are.

The Trump administration is turning up the heat, knowing Americans don't like a shutdown, by shouting to the rooftops that Democrats are closing the federal government to provide free health care for people living in the country illegally.

But as USA TODAY's Lauren Villagran and Sarah D. Wire report, it's a bit more complicated than how the president is presenting the situation. Undocumented immigrants are largely ineligible for Medicaid, experts point out, but there are people considered "noncitizen enrollees" who were once considered eligible that the Trump administration argues should no longer be.

The sky begins to brighten just before sunrise behind the U.S. Capitol on the second day of a federal government shutdown in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 2, 2025.

Jonathan Ernst, REUTERS

For more on what's happening with the shutdown, its impact and how Americans are reacting, check out USA TODAY Network's coverage:

•	Who is to blame? Public surveys are showing a mixed bag with a new Washington Post poll finding close to half of voters blaming Trump and his GOP allies and almost one-third saying it is the Democrat's fault.
•	What is the impact? As the hours turns into days, the impasse is beginning to spread across Washington and soon the rest of the country with furloughed federal workers; locked doors at popular museums; and a range of other government services.
•	More mass layoffs could be next: Now that the funding is running out, it is up to the president on how the remaining resources are spent. Trump has threatened he will begin to eliminate "Democrat agencies" and initiatve "vast" firings to save money during the shutdown.

Christa Gail Pike and the death penalty

For the first time in more than two centuries, Tennessee is set to execute a woman.

Her name is Christa Gail Pike, who was convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer three decades ago in a case that made national headlines at the time for its brutality.

The death sentence is scheduled to be carried out Sept. 30, 2026, and could generate a national debate given how rare it is for a woman to receive one. A Gallup survey last year, for instance, shows 53% of Americans support the death penalty for people convicted of murder but that trend has been declining among younger generations.

If carried out, the now 49-year-old Pike would be just the 19th woman executed in modern U.S. history.

"Christa's childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect," Pike's legal team said in a statement to USA TODAY. "With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."

But there are others, namely Slemmer's mother, who are been steadfast that Pike should be put to death. She told a Tennessee television station there is "not a day goes by" that she doesn't think about her how daughter was murdered.

Thanks for reading! See you back next week with more stories of justice from across the country.