2025 Day 302: Thinking More Deeply About the Looming SNAP Freeze

7:00 AM Tuesday.

I've been digging into the root causes of the looming November 2025 SNAP freeze since Monday night. I've also been keeping an eye on Hurricane Melissa, the Gaza Ceasefire, and Putin's nuclear-powered missile test. I kept a 2-hour Zoom appointment with Craig Wescoe and the Vegan Christian Discipleship School at 2 PM yesterday (see Was God Pleased by the Aroma of Burnt Offerings? Swords to Plowshares), but I was so preoccupied with my SNAP research I didn't pray, plan, blog, exercise, eat properly, or attend to my hygiene very well. Fortunately, I got to sleep early and woke up early this morning feeling back on track. Here is my schedule for 2025 Day 302.

Prayer, Daily Planning, and Religious Reading in Küng's Islam: Past, Present and Future and The Study Quran from 3:15 AM to 6 AM. Therapy from 6 to 7 AM. Blog Work from 7 to 9:30 AM. Walk and Flu Vaccination from 9:30 to 11 AM. Lunch, Office Work, and Nap from 11 AM to 2 PM. Blog Work from 2 to 5 PM. Supper and Hygiene from 5 to 6 PM. Kindle Reading in Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War between the Muslim World and the Global North by William R. Polk from 6 PM to 8 PM. Sleep from 8 PM until 5 AM Tomorrow. 

Now I will use the rest of my blogging time this morning to consolidate six key points that I learned during my research yesterday.

Point 1: Republican Leaders in Congress Didn't Timely Prepare for November 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Sticker Shock.

This is true despite a warning sent from 17 Democratic Governors to Congress on 15 September 2025.

Point 2: Senate Minority Leader Schumer is Refusing to End Debate on H.R.5371: Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act 2026 Without an Extension of the ACA Credits. 

Point 3: Unlimited Senate Debate Obstructs the Framers' Common-Sense Intent and Deviates from Globally Accepted Parliamentary Procedure.

https://share.google/aimode/FwCHsc0l0lB5GWmzH

I believe the filibuster should be completely eliminated and I cannot support its use by Minority Leader Schumer in this case on principled parliamentary procedural grounds, however much I sympathize with the substance of Schumer's concerns about a healthcare affordability cliff. 

Point 4: AFGE, Cortez Masto, Fetterman and King Supported Passage of H.R. 5371 in yesterday's cloture vote.

Point 5: The Best Solution to the US Healthcare Crisis is Probably Something Like a Temporary Extension of the ACA Credits on the Way to a Public Option on the Way to "Medicare for All" with or without an Elite Private Insurance Tier.

https://share.google/aimode/QgGvttdZUpUTXLhva

Point 6: The Multistate SNAP Lawsuit Is Likely to Work for Part or All of November, But It Won't End the Shutdown that is Hurting Federal Employees and It Won't Fund SNAP if the Shutdown Continues into December.  

https://share.google/aimode/OzdrQ0kOKKRsOe1Te

Cf. Attorney General James Sues Federal Government for Illegally Suspending SNAP Benefits During Shutdown.

End 9:30 AM (plus a little bit after I returned from vaccination appointment).