ACA Vote, Fed Cuts Interest Rates, US-Venezuela
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.5 • 52.8K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Diane Webber, Rafael Nam, Andrew Sussman and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Our Deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Some House Republicans want to extend Obamacare health insurance subsidies that are set to expire this month. |
| 0:08.4 | They say they want to save their party from itself as millions of voters face price increases. |
| 0:12.8 | I'm Stevenskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:20.6 | The Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates may help the job market but hurt efforts to wrangle inflation. |
| 0:26.8 | Will the central bank continue slashing rates into 2026? |
| 0:30.0 | We think we're well positioned to wait and see how the economy performs. |
| 0:34.1 | Also, the Trump administration says it seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. |
| 0:40.0 | This happens as the admiral overseeing the Venezuelan boat strikes prepares to step down. |
| 0:44.8 | Stay with us for the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:52.8 | Some House Republicans want to force a vote that would extend Obamacare health insurance subsidies that are set to expire in less than three weeks. |
| 1:00.7 | They're warning their own party's leaders that Republicans risk losing their majority in next year's election if they let subsidies expire without a replacement. |
| 1:10.3 | So far, House leaders have not scheduled a vote. |
| 1:12.5 | The Senate has. |
| 1:14.2 | Senators today consider two health policy plans aimed at reducing health care costs for those |
| 1:20.7 | who buy their insurance on health care.gov. |
| 1:23.5 | And Peralina Simmons-Duffin is here to explain. |
| 1:25.7 | Good morning, Selena. |
| 1:26.9 | Good morning, Michelle. So start us off with some quick background about the issue here, if you would. |
| 1:30.9 | Yeah, so these are health insurance plans that individuals can go and buy if they don't get health benefits at work. |
| 1:36.5 | So we're talking about small business owners and workers, farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, |
| 1:42.5 | 24 million people were enrolled in these Obamacare plans this year, |
| 1:47.0 | and almost all of them got these generous federal subsidies that came in during the pandemic |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.