by Hayes Brown | Dec 11, 2025 | Congress, Economy, Opinion
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., promised a group of Democratic lawmakers last month that if they voted to end the longest federal shutdown in history, he’d allow a vote on their proposal to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire. Consequently, a pair of competing bills hits the Senate floor Thursday. Both are doomed to fail, but because health care premiums are set to skyrocket for millions of Americans, the looming failure will likely have Thune and his fellow Republicans feeling like they’re the ones trapped in a corner.
Crafting health care policy isn’t a muscle congressional Republicans have exercised in well over a decade
Senate Democrats put forward a simple bill last week that would extend by three years the cap on premiums for an average plan sold on Obamacare markets. That cap, which ensures that consumers pay no more than 8.5% of their income on such policies, was passed as part of a massive Covid stimulus package in 2021. That provision is due to expire at the end of the year. And if it does, health policy research organization KFF says that in January, the cost of health care for an estimated 22 million Americans will spike by an average of 114 percent.
Thune’s offer to moderate Democrats came with the implicit acknowledgement that no such bill would pass the Republican-controlled Senate. The three-year extension is far beyond what anyone in his caucus will support. All reporting indicates that — until this week, at least — Thune was fine with just having the vote and letting it fail, so he could say he’d kept his end of the bargain.
by Sharon Zhang | Dec 10, 2025 | AI, Capitalism, Economy, grocery costs, Instacart, Kroger, News, price gouging
A new investigation has revealed that grocery delivery service Instacart is using a covert, AI-powered dynamic pricing scheme to charge customers different prices for the same items — potentially costing households over $1,000 more a year. Groundwork Collaborative, Consumer Reports, and More Perfect Union collaborated on an experiment with 437 shoppers across four U.S. locations…
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by Mansa Musa | Dec 1, 2025 | Economy, Economy and Inequality, labor, Podcast, prison reform, Prisons and Policing, Rattling the Bars
In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with Miami-based organizer Katherine Passley about how prison labor, temp agencies, and the 13th Amendment have created a system that traps formerly incarcerated people in unending cycles of cheap, hyper-exploited work. Passley, co-executive director of Beyond the Bars, also talks with Musa about how her organization is fighting to win free jail phone calls, erase millions of dollars in fines and fees for systems-impacted people, and build powerful bridges between the prison abolition movement and the labor movement in Florida.
Guest:
Katherine Passley is co-executive director of Beyond the Bars, a worker center in South Florida building the social and economic power of workers with criminal records and their families. Passley was named the 2025 Labor Organizer of the Year by In These Times magazine.
Additional links/info:
Kim Kelly, In These Times, “Building bridges and erasing jail debt: Katherine Passley“
Mansa Musa, The Real News Network, “America is built on prison labor. When will the labor movement defend prisoners?“
Credits:
Producer / Videographer / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Mansa Musa:
My name is Mansa Musa. I’m a former political prisoner, member of the Black Panther Party. And prior to being released from prison, I served 48 years. Now I’m the host of rallying the bars on the Real News Network when we think of labor and labor movement in this country. More importantly, when we think of the quote from Marxist, when Marx say, workers of the world Unite. Was Marx talking about only workers of a certain ethnic group? Was Marx talking about all
by Chris Walker | Nov 26, 2025 | affordability, Donald Trump, Economy, Golf, Inflation, Jack Nicklaus, Joint Base Andrews, News
This past weekend, President Donald Trump announced that golf courses managed by the federal government at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland will be restored — a development that comes as millions of Americans are in the depths of an affordability crisis. The courses are offered to presidents, military officers, Department of Defense officials, and family members of those individuals…
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by Chris Walker | Nov 25, 2025 | affordability, Donald Trump, Economy, gas prices, grocery costs, News, Thanksgiving
President Donald Trump is continuing to peddle the baseless claim that his administration is delivering “economic relief” for Americans — even as prices of consumer goods are rising and polling shows that a majority of Americans are concerned about food and travel costs this Thanksgiving. On Monday, the White House announced that the “worst inflation crisis” from the Biden administration is…
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