Politics and views in the United States.

The former CDC director testifies before Congress. Federal budget deadline looms ahead as talks shift to healthcare funding and Former President Barack Obama discusses Charlie Kirk's death.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks.

We're following our democracy in historic times.

I worry about our school systems.

I worry about our medical institutions having to take care of sick kids that could have been prevented by effective and safe vaccines.

I worry about the future of trust in public health.

Former CDC Director Susan Menard has testified before Congress for the first time since her firing last month, saying she was dismissed for, quote, "holding the line on scientific integrity.

Monara says Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told her to accept changes to vaccine policy before they were finalized.

She says in one heated meeting, Kennedy accused CDC staff of killing children.

With a budget deadline at the end of the month, congressional Republicans want a 45-day continuing resolution at current levels.

This would give appropriators until late November to write a budget, but some Democrats are refusing to support it, saying the hard line sends a message to the White House.

Indiana Republican Marlon Stutzman says Senate Democrats want reinstatement of Affordable Care Act subsidies cut in the GOP mega-bill.

He says that would just delay an inevitable reckoning over rising healthcare costs.

This is a challenge that our country's gonna have to deal with because it's one of our largest budget items.

And so I think that we're gonna have to start taking some sort of measures to say, look, we've gotta rein in the cost of healthcare because then that'll bring down the cost of insurance.

Along with mega bill ACA and Medicaid cuts projected to mean they'll have to care for millions more uninsured patients, U.S.

Community Health Centers say they face a fiscal cliff when the budget expires October 1st.

Dr. Q. Rhee with the National Association of Community Health Centers says their budgets are already far short of their needs.

There is an estimate of $7.3 billion more of a gap in terms of lost revenue.

If we can't fill this gap, it will lead to sites closing.

It will lead to staff being laid off.

Rhee cites new studies that show the scale of disruption can cause as many as five to 6,000 preventable deaths a year.

Former President Barack Obama says the country's at an inflection point after the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, while acknowledging political violence an unfortunate part of being a democratic country, he knows vigorous public debate and healthy disagreement are the best ways to respond to differing political arguments.

But he says the Trump administration's response has been misguided.

When we have the weight of the United States government behind extremist views, we've got a problem.

We're at an inflection point in the sense that we always have to fight for our democracy.

Since Kirk's death, conservatives have posted what they describe as examples of people justifying the killing in the hopes those people will be fired or canceled on social media. at the White House have fully endorsed that, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson insists that's not the government censoring free speech.

That's not the government censoring speech.

That's personal behavior and decorum, and you have a right to enforce that.

I don't think it's a violation of court principles for people to have appropriate measures taken when they act like crazy people online.

And ABC television has pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air indefinitely after the host's quote controversial statements about Kirk's killer.

The FCC chairman had said Kimmel's comments put the network's license at risk at a time when Nextar Media Group, which owns many of its affiliates, is seeking approval for a merger.

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

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