As we embark on the new year,
lots of folks are expecting higher
costs for the health care that they
need to live their best lives.
That's after Congress failed to
extend subsidies to the Affordable
Care Act during last year's
government shutdown and ahead of the
new year.
We're going to talk about how
Austinites in Texans will be
affected in 2026 and
the city of Austin and a former APD
officer are being sued for excessive
force.
Austin has struggled for years to
change the culture at APD's training
academy.
We're gonna have more about both of
these stories that's coming up on
today's show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Plus, we've got some advice on how
to best achieve those financial
goals you set for 2026.
Thank you for investing some time
with us today.
Lots more Austin Signal coming
up next.
Howdy out there and thank you for
tuning in. This is Austin Signal.
We are listener powered public radio
here on KUT News.
It's Tuesday, January 6th.
Thank you for making us part of your
day. It is another warm
one here in Austin and not just
warmer than normal.
High temperatures this week are in
record range.
The forecast high in Austin today of
84 would tie the record set
back in 1989 and
tomorrow's expected high of 81.
Would set a new record for that
date. But the week will end with
a strong cold front, so we
have that going for us at
least.
Let us get into today's
show.
Government subsidies for the
Affordable Care Act expired at
the start of 2026.
So what does this mean for folks who
rely on this to get their insurance?
Well, for one, it means millions of
Texans and many more Americans will
be facing richer healthcare
premiums.
For more about that, we are speaking
with KUT's healthcare reporter,
Olivia Aldridge.
Hi, Olivia, thanks for being here.
Hi, Jerry.
So, take us back a little bit, if
you would, speaking of extending
those subsidies, that's what
Congress was going back and forth
over during that time last year when
the government was shut down,
correct?
That's right. So during that federal
government shut down last fall,
Democrats were trying to hold out
for a deal to renew these enhanced
premium tax credits,
essentially subsidies that offset
the cost of marketplace insurance
for a lot of people.
They didn't get that.
Ultimately, what they got was an
agreement to bring the matter to a
vote in the U.S.
Senate before the end of the year.
And there were plans floated to
address these subsidies, but
ultimately no proposal passed
before December 31st.
So the tax credits did expire.
Okay, and you mentioned a little bit
about what they are, what they do.
Why are they so important to many
Texans and Americans?
Well, so many folks who buy health
insurance through the Affordable
Care Act marketplace get some kind
of tax credit from the government
that offsets their costs.
But historically, people who made
more than 400% of the federal
poverty level got no assistance.
And this changed in 2021
when the Biden administration
instituted this enhanced premium
tax credit and made insurance
affordable for a lot of middle
income earners for the first time.
And it gave additional assistance to
lower earners as well.
And this led to more people
enrolling. So in Texas,
the number of people enrolled in
marketplace plans more than tripled
after 2021.
So there's concern that many of
those folks will choose to forego
insurance this year because they
can't take on these increased costs
without those credits.
And that could have ripple effects
throughout our healthcare system.
Well, our Austin Signal listeners
will remember that you were with us
last month to talk about Blue
Cross Blue Shield and their ongoing
contract dispute with Ascension.
We talked about, you know, how these
fights kind of happen and then maybe
things get resolved a little bit
later.
The subsidies for the ACA have
expired.
Is there a chance that we might see
them be saved later on by
Congress, anything like that.
It is still possible.
Technically, enrollment is still
open through January 15th.
People can still make changes to
their plans through that time
and Congress could extend
that period or even reinstate
the enhanced credits later.
Now, is it likely?
Analysts experienced in this area
are kind of saying no at
this point. Congress is back in
session.
There have been reports of some
bipartisan groups meeting to discuss
a possible deal, but.
We've also heard Democrats kind of
saying President Trump would really
need to give any deal his blessing,
because he has a lot of influence
over the Republican majority.
Many Republicans are hesitant about
how extending these credits would
add to the deficit, and perhaps
wanna see Obamacare replaced or
reformed in some more significant
way.
Now that the subsidies have expired,
the expiration was January 1st,
2026, how will
this or how is this affecting people
who use the Affordable Care Act
Insurance Marketplace?
I mean, the headline is people are
just going to be paying more.
People who enrolled
ahead of the new year are already
paying more, the policy organization
KFF said people will see an average
114% increase
in what they pay each month,
but that will vary depending on your
income, you know, your household
size, your age.
For people whose income is kind of
on the bubble of that 400%
limit, they'll really have to pay
attention to be sure their income
doesn't exceed that this year.
Or else they may have to return
money to the government during next
tax season, a lot of it.
And for many people, this is tough
to predict because they're
self-employed or freelancers,
small business owners, and their
income just fluctuates.
You mentioned a little bit there
that Congress could be working
to possibly extend,
maybe not work with these
subsidies.
What happens next?
Is there a plan to replace
Obamacare, or are folks just kind
of winging it when it comes to
finding insurance this year?
Well, nothing concrete.
President Trump has floated an idea
to replace tax credits with some
kind of health savings account.
There have been some proposals
related to that, but as
of right now, it's kind of back to
that pre-2021 reality,
which is Obamacare is available,
but with higher costs for a lot of
people, especially for those middle
income earners that we talked about.
Alrighty, we have been speaking with
Olivia Aldridge.
She is KUT's healthcare reporter.
You can find more of her reporting
at KUT.org.
Olivia, thanks as always.
This is Austin Signal.
Thank you for spending part of your
Tuesday here with us.
The city of Austin and a former
police officer are being sued after
a woman alleged the officer used
excessive force against her,
causing permanent brain damage.
That officer was fired last
month by APD after an investigation.
For more about this story, we're
talking with KUT's government
accountability reporter, Andrew
Weber. Andrew, thanks for being on
the show.
Yes, sir. Thank you, Jerry.
So can you please tell us first a
little bit about this incident and
who is the woman at the center of
it?
Yeah, Natalie G.
Lennas was visiting Austin from
South Carolina.
She was staying downtown at the
Marriott off Cesar Chavez, and
she got into an altercation with
hotel staff after going
out for, you know, like a lot of
people do at night.
Um, this was around 3 a.m.
Staff called the police, police
showed up and she was handcuffed
and by
officer Joseph Spies and
after that,
you dropped her ID, tried to pick
it up.
He thought she was trying to flee.
And then he flung her down on the
ground and she hit her head very
hard by all accounts.
That's from her lawsuit that she
filed and from APD's investigation
into this.
And then she was taken into a squad
car and then she was sort of shoved
into the squad car.
And hit her head again.
And, um, she filed a lawsuit this
week, uh, saying that this
was excessive force.
And you mentioned that APD filed
an investigation into it.
They found enough evidence to fire
the officer, correct?
They did, which is super rare.
A lot of these instances, the
officer is given a reprimand,
they're suspended for a certain
amount of time, a couple of months,
a couple weeks.
This was an indefinite suspension,
which is APD speak for you're
fired.
And the officer fired was Joseph
Spies. He was an 11-year veteran.
Police found that he
sort of exaggerated the danger
here. He rated it an eight out of
10. They said, no, that wasn't the
case, and he sort misled
investigators, so they ended up
firing him.
OK, one thing that's not as rare
as the Austin Police Department
coming under scrutiny for alleged
use of excessive force.
What does this suit mean for the
department and how many suits or how
many cases were listed in the suit
filed? There were four
This lawsuit was filed by
Jeff Edwards, a local attorney who
files a lot of these cases.
He listed, you know, obviously the
2020 protest cases,
the lawsuits that have resulted in
more than $27 million in payments,
which we've covered a lot.
And he also listed another
incident involving Breanne King,
who was an elementary school
teacher. She was on her way to work,
she was speeding, and was
taken down in a similar way to
G.L. Ennis.
And it, you.
This list of cases goes back all the
way to 2011.
This has been a problem for the
department for at least five years.
The city said we want to revamp how
we do our training because it's
been a concern to citizens.
And it's also been, you know, these
lawsuits aren't cheap.
They usually result in settlements
and the city has to pay out millions
of dollars a year.
That is KUT's government
accountability reporter, Andrew
Weber, as he says, has been doing a
lot of reporting on those
suits. You can find more of that
reporting over at KUT.org.
Andrew, thanks for being here,
buddy. Yes, sir. Thank you.
All right, since Texas is one of the
world's energy hubs, what is
happening in Venezuela right now
could have huge ripple effects
closer to home.
Texas standards David Brown spoke
with Matt Smith, lead energy
analyst at Kepler to talk
about oil and Venezuela.
What do you make of the president's
comments to rebuild the oil
industry?
Perhaps we should think back a
little more about the history of
oil in Venezuela, especially U.S.
Companies.
Yeah, absolutely.
In a nutshell, Venezuela's
oil industry has been destroyed over
the last few decades by corruption
and the lack of investment.
So production was, it
peaked at like three and a half
million barrels a day last century.
Start of this century,
you
2015 it was around two and
a half million barrels a day, but
then has dropped significantly in
the second half of last decade
So what we saw really early in
the century was that
Chavez essentially kicked out
a lot of U.S.
Oil companies there and essentially
seized those assets.
So we have seen the
production really come off.
Now it is below about a million
barrels per day.
So it's just been this There's a
gradual deterioration there.
Yeah, I was reading an article this
weekend that pointed out that the
world's largest oil reserves should
suggest that Venezuela would be a
much wealthier country than it is,
but there just hasn't been an
investment in oil.
President Trump is talking about
rebuilding the oil
infrastructure there.
If you're in the oil biz in
Houston or Irving right now
What do you think this means for the
Texas oil industry?
Are we looking at the possibility
that US companies
could rush down into Venezuela as
a result of what happened this
weekend?
Well, no, so it's a crude
quality thing, right, David?
So if we just consider US production
and Latin American production
in Venezuela specifically,
US shale is light sweet crude.
It is very high quality.
Venezuelan crude is low quality,
heavy sour crude.
And US Gulf Coast refineries
have been geared towards running
this Venezuelian heavy sour
crude, Mexican heavy sour, crude as
well. So it's not
going to impact US production
per se, because it's not going be
displacing that crude.
The way, if you're cynical, you can
look at this is that the US needs
this Venezuelan crude.
And so that's what's driving
President Trump's
efforts here.
Well, what are the markets doing?
What about a price response to the
ousting of Maduro?
Isn't there still a blockade in
place that would stop Venezuelan
oil from reaching some of its
So in terms of all prices, the
response has been fairly muted.
We saw prices sell off immediately
when markets opened last night,
and now they're up about 1%.
So fairly limited
response there, you know, because
there's a lot of uncertainty.
Yes, that blockade is still in place
there, but it's not likely to
last forever.
President Trump wants to keep oil
prices down, prices at the pump
down, and so he's going to
want that crew to move at some point
there.
I think the bigger question is,
is what happens in Venezuela
over the medium term here, because
there could be the expectation that
production will ramp back up as we
get US producers back in
there, operating these all
facilities again, repairing things,
investing, but what it's going to
take is tens of billions of dollars.
It's going to takes many years to do
that, so a lot of time and
money, and so this isn't going to be
fixed in any material
way in the next...
Let's talk short-term here for a
moment. We've been enjoying some
pretty low prices at the pump in
recent months.
With what's happening now in
Venezuela, what's that going to mean
for consumer short-terms?
Well, as long as the oil price
remains around this $60 level,
which it should likely do so,
then it means that prices
of the pump are going to remain in
check. National average is well
below $3 a gallon.
In Texas, it's about $2.40.
We should expect that to continue
at least through the first half of
this year as the oil prices remain
in-check.
Ultimately, that's what President
Trump wants as he heads into the
midterm elections later this year.
Matt Smith, Lead Energy Analyst at
Kepler. Matt, thanks so much.
Thank you, David.
And thank you out there for spending
part of your Tuesday right here
with us on Austin
Signal. This is KUT News
and we are listener powered
public radio.
Coming up after the break, what
sorts of resolutions did you
set for 2026?
Perhaps you want to get out and
experience Austin a little more.
Don't forget that free week is
coming up this weekend.
We talked with KUTX morning host
Taylor Wallace yesterday about
the shows you don't want to miss.
You can find that.
At kut.org slash
signal.
But perhaps you want to save up to
buy a new car or a new house
or a knew something.
Carl Stuart from Money Talk is going
to have some advice that you can
take into the new year.
That's after this break.
This is Austin Signal.
Thanks for being here with us.
This is Austin Signal.
Thank you for joining us today.
We are in the middle of the first
full week of 2026.
And for lots of us, that means
working toward new goals, some
physical, some personal, and for
plenty of us new financial goals.
Here to help us with some of that is
Carl Stuart. He is the host of Money
Talk, all about the world of
financial investment planning.
Money Talk with Carl Stuart airs
Saturday afternoons at five o'clock
here on KUT.
And today we've got Carl here in the
studio with us on Austin Signal,
howdy Carl.
Thanks for being here with us.
Like I said, you have a show here on
KUT as Saturday afternoons,
but for our listeners who might not
have caught your show yet, tell us a
little bit about money talking about
yourself. How long have you been
doing the show?
So I started, I just will
celebrate at the end of January my
31st year on the radio.
Congratulations. Thank you. And it's
been a lot of fun.
I think the reason
that the show, as they say in show
business, has legs is
because the agenda is
driven by the listeners.
People either call or
text and ask their financial
and investment planning question.
And so while the theme
can never be that unique,
because it's important
to the person, she wouldn't
call or text if it weren't.
We're all interested in other
people. We are curious
beings.
And so I think that's the reason
people continue to listen.
I have several goals.
The first is to
treat every caller with respect.
And the second is to
explain hard to understand stuff
in plain English, because
every profession has its own
jargon, whether it's accounting,
or medicine, or engineering, or
architecture, or radio.
And then the third is,
I don't wanna talk about myself.
I want to give people the best
advice I can based on my 47
year experience and not talk
about me and what I do
professionally.
And I think those are the reasons
that the show has frankly
remained popular and
I'm thrilled as of April
of 2025 to
join you and your colleagues at
KUT.
Yeah, we've been glad to have you.
It's one of my favorite shows to
listen to because you you say
that the the listeners drive the
show But you are this driving force
behind it.
You do you know you host Having
been a producer on your show, you
know, it's a really wild ride You
have so much energy and it really
comes through in the show Thank you
And I think lots of folks have
new energy or energy at the
beginning of a new year something
fresh is starting What
is it about the calendar change that
makes us think about important
things like finances when?
We probably should be doing that
every single day, not just the first
day of the year. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Well, there's a fair
amount of literature in behavior
sciences about
doing goal
setting, and that's
what really resolutions are.
But there's also a lot of literature
suggests that we're terrible at
success.
We fail with great regularity
and predictability.
And that's true whether it's I'm
going to lose five pounds, or
I'm gonna quit smoking, or
by golly I'm going to contribute to
my 401k.
They're all great ideas,
but the trick is to make it
permanent behavior.
And what we know is
changing behavior is hard,
because we've been doing something,
or in this case, not doing something
for a long time.
And it's my understanding, if I want
to change my behavior, I
have to go through a period of some
discomfort, cognitive dissonance,
if you will, until I
have a new habit.
So, for example, I take a
walk every morning.
So if I'm on a long vacation,
say, out of the country,
I may not be able to do that.
But when I get back, the first
day I get up, what do I do?
I take a walk.
Because it's now permanent
behavior.
So financial planning and
resolutions are about
changing behavior, and
more importantly, sustaining that
new behavior.
Well, speaking of sustainment,
the U.S. Stock market had a bit of a
volatile 2025.
The year did end on an upswing.
Can we take anything away from that
and apply it to our investment
decisions as we go forward in 2026?
Absolutely.
If I had told you at
the beginning of 2025 that
the war in Ukraine would continue,
that we would have the highest
tariffs in American
history, that
artificial intelligence would
likely put lots of people
out of work, you
would have said, Carl, I don't think
it's a particularly good time to
invest in the stock market.
And of course, you'd have been
mistaken.
The big takeaway from 2025
is you cannot let,
and you must not let, the headlines
make your investment and financial
planning decisions because the
headlines are important.
You wanna stay alert, you wanna
listen to KUT, but you
also wanna divorce that
from your own personal goals.
So if you are investing in
a company-sponsored plan
for your future financial
independence, then that's
what you need to keep your eye on.
Not what's happening today.
The other thing is most people don't
have all the money they're ever
gonna have to invest for their
future. It comes in dribs
and drabs.
That turns out to be a good thing.
Let's take 2022.
In 2022,
the U.S. Stock market, measured by
the Standard& Poor 500, was down
19%.
The NASDAQ, which is an index,
lots of high-tech companies, down
33%.
And bonds a safe investment down
13%.
If you had been investing regularly
on your own, in your
IRA, in your 401k,
every pay period, as stocks
declined and you got your statement,
you say, oh man, I'm putting this
money in, and it's just like putting
it down a hole.
What happened was, you bought more
and more shares at lower prices,
and then in 2023,
2024, you had lower
average costs, greater
gains. So how
important
is it's a 2-2 jump in
despite that volatility.
It's absolutely critical and
we have to look at history and not
allow the headlines to drive our
investment decisions.
All right, we have been speaking
with Carl Stuart, the host of Money
Talk. If you enjoyed what you were
just hearing, you can hear the show
Saturday afternoons, five o'clock,
right here on KUT News.
Carl, thank you for joining us
today. You're welcome.
You're welcome. A lot of fun.
Thank you.
And that is it for
today's show.
Thank you for joining us.
And thank you to Olivia Aldridge,
Andrew Weber, and Carl Stuart for
making today's show a reality,
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
producer, Rayna Sevilla is
our technical director, and
Jimmy Mass is our show runner.
And I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
Now, I'm no financial expert, but
I certainly hope you'll invest in
yourself this year.
You are 100% worth
it. And we will be back with you
tomorrow afternoon.
At one o'clock here on KUT,
you can find all our episodes at
kut.org slash signal.
And don't forget to subscribe to the
show wherever you listen to
your podcasts.