Politics and views in the United States.

President Trump justifies Venezuelan boat strike survivor deaths as part of war. The ACA subsidy deadline fuels debates on healthcare affordability and the administration threatens to withhold SNAP funds for Democratic-led states not providing recipient data.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

I think you're gonna find that this is war, that these people were killing our people by the millions, actually, if you look over a few years.

I think last year, close to 300,000 people were killed.

President Donald Trump calls dead boat strike survivors hit while clinging helplessly to floating wreckage normal casualties of war.

Venezuelan boats have been blown up since September for allegedly smuggling drugs, though the administration isn't offering evidence to prove the charge.

Trump says a ground offensive will be next.

About 80,000 Americans actually died in drug overdoses in 2024, a decline from previous years.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says in the case in question, he wasn't aware of the second strike that killed the survivors until later.

He says the fire and smoke from the smoldering ship left him unable to see, calling that, quote, "the fog of war."

Congress is divided.

While some want more answers, Senate Majority Leader John Thunes, as the president was acting within his legal authority to carry out the strikes, which have killed about 80 so far.

A war has been waged by these drug cartels against the United States, and it has come at a great cost to American citizens.

We've lost tens of thousands of lives in just the past year to these drug cartels.

Democrats argue the follow-up attack may have violated US law, especially given that no war has been declared.

Stopping drug boats is typically done by the Coast Guard, generally with arrests and rarely injuries or deaths.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is demanding the unedited tapes of the boat strikes and that Hegseth testify publicly.

He says Republicans need to remember only Congress can declare war.

If Trump were to order an attack on land, that would be an act of war, and Congress would invoke the War Powers Act.

It's Congress's prerogative to go to war, and I hope Republicans will defend that role.

The deadline to renew Affordable Care Act subsidies is coming with their expiration and a sharp rise in insurance premiums at the end of the month.

Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley says the "we just couldn't get it done, we'll try next year" attitude won't suffice, given the healthcare affordability crisis.

If Congress does not take action on this issue in the next few weeks, this will be a crisis for 24 million Americans and counting.

In my state, premiums are already going up between 24 and 50 percent depending on the healthcare plan, depending on the region of the state.

The Trump administration says it's withholding SNAP funding from Democratic-led states if they don't provide data on recipients, including immigration status.

The White House cites a recent investigation into fraud in Minnesota, mostly by members of the state's Somali community.

But states and healthy food programs say tighter qualification rules and federal chaos, including the shutdown, are making it hard to do their job.

In Wisconsin, Hunger Program CEO Amber Dogg says they've been blocked on a program that lets families buy from winter farmers markets.

She says the situation's been bad for producers and that small rural grocery stores are also especially vulnerable when SNAP is stalled.

This prevents small rural farmers, but also grocers, from being able to have the necessary funding and resources to keep their shelves stocked, their purveyors paid, and their staff employed.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.