This is from AOC sounding the alarm.
Got this from Balloon Juice:
Her key points:
She’s on the Energy and Commerce Committee now.
Markup on the reconciliation bill is starting Monday.
There are Republicans on the committee who are in tough districts (PVI EVEN or single digits).
Medicaid is on the chopping block (as is SNAP).
The bill will blow up the deficit and add to the debt.
Waste, fraud and abuse is a common talking point, and if it is found, the savings should be re-invested into these programs. The claim is $50 billion in waste, fraud and abuse, though the cuts proposed are $880 billion.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid even though they pay taxes to support it, despite the lies that Republicans tell.
All of this is for tax breaks for billionaires.
She has a tool here to look up whether your rep is on the committee and give you a call script to use.
She suggests not just calling Republicans to tell them to oppose this bill, but also to call your Democratic rep to thank them if they’re doing the right thing.
She would not be telling us to call unless she thought it would make a difference — she believes the Republicans are starting to crack.
Red states have a better Medicaid reimbursement rate (Kentucky is 70% fed and 30% state vs New York which is 50/50). This means Medicaid cuts will blow a hole in state budgets.
40% of Pennsylvania’s total budget is the federal match for Medicaid, 36% in Colorado (Gabe Evans is on the committee).The committee meeting will be live streamed on C-SPAN Tuesday. Expect Democrats to propose many amendments to “grind this thing to a halt”.
Some Republicans will probably try to “take a walk” and avoid tough votes. Committee votes aren’t well tracked by the public, but tracking them adds pressure to vulnerable members. Getting view counts high, commenting on their social media, etc. amps up the pressure.
In the Q&A, she noted that the rallies that she and Bernie held are seeing a lot of first-timers (e.g., in Vegas, 50% of their RSVPs were brand-new to politics).
She called the administration’s approach the “Wizard of Oz” approach — televised as much as possible, trying to make examples out of a few immigrants to deter millions of others. She also mentioned the arrest of Newark’s mayor, noting that it’s not clear that the prison there has a certificate of occupancy. Those facilities are also run by contractors. She emphasized that Members of Congress have an absolute legal right to conduct oversight at ICE/CBP facilities, and the lawbreakers if MoCs are not admitted are ICE and CBP.
Don’t forget this:
Congressman Greg Landsman (@RepGregLandsman) posted at 5:21 PM on Mon, May 05, 2025:
1. “Kick it to the states”Medicaid covers 70 million Americans. The federal government pays 70% of the cost– states cover the rest. If you “kick it to the states,” they can’t make up the difference.
Translation: they’re cutting healthcare.
https://t.co/ZWRSkuvvro
(https://x.com/RepGregLandsman/status/1919517729729450046?t=sioLJ9-zqjb8sVtROmWKmw&s=03)
S.V. Dáte (@svdate) posted at 10:53 AM on Thu, May 15, 2025:
NEW — Trump’s White House is hiding the vast majority of the transcripts of his remarks.
Why? The White House won’t say…
But maybe reading the following might offer a clue:
https://t.co/BZzdlMcmp8 https://t.co/MbmWaoTfcj
(https://x.com/svdate/status/1923044119808491809?s=02)
Erik Uebelacker
@Uebey
Reuters reporting that the FBI will start devoting a third (!) of its time on immigration cases.
“Pursuing white-collar cases, they were told, will be deprioritized for at least the remainder of 2025…”
https://x.com/Uebey/status/1922327222397858032
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
Acyn
@Acyn
Swalwell to Noem: I’m a former prosecutor. I have put people away for life sentences who are gang members. I don’t need to wear costumes to show how tough I am. What makes me different from you is when I put those people away, I did it with the weight of the law behind me
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1922669118232113388
Republicans Slip Nonprofit Killer Bill Into Budget Plan
The “nonprofit killer bill” is hidden at the very end of Republicans’ massive 389-page budget package.
House Republicans’ draft budget bill includes a clause to give Donald Trump the ability to revoke the tax-exempt status of any group the Treasury Department says is a supporter of terrorism.
The move appears to be a revival of the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which the House passed in November under President Biden. The Senate had not taken up the measure, which drew criticism for granting dangerous powers to the president. Now those powers have resurfaced deep within the GOP’s “big beautiful bill”: on page 380, to be exact.
https://newrepublic.com/post/195192/republicans-trump-kill-nonprofits-tax-bill
Rotimi Adeoye (@_rotimia) posted at 2:12 PM on Tue, May 13, 2025:
The public and independents soured on Biden. But if you spend time on here, look at the comments on this, or at events, it’s obvious a lot of core Democratic voters—across the board—still genuinely love him. The disconnect between base enthusiasm and broader perception is real.
(https://x.com/_rotimia/status/1922369361555210749?t=PTELf_ixUgA0Fp6iYzqGNw&s=03)
Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) posted at 8:52 AM on Wed, May 14, 2025:
“He chose to visit first not a democracy but a despotism; not a free nation but one of the world’s most unfree; not a land of tolerance but of repression…The American president admires the Saudi achievements in autocracy, plutocracy, and kleptocracy.” https://t.co/vu1fyQhfCC
(https://x.com/BillKristol/status/1922651333506576684?t=BeP_dNAluyMrRURjev05OQ&s=03)
Tim 🇺🇸 (@trouble_man90) posted at 3:34 PM on Tue, May 13, 2025:
So CNN covers Biden unfairly for years, engaged in the months long pile on to overthrow him, and then one of their leading anchors has an anti-Biden book come out just a few months after he leaves office?? Am I understanding this correctly??
(https://x.com/trouble_man90/status/1922389999003021795?t=hA6ACSAjFDFEOyx0myT9bA&s=03)
Luther Luke Campbell (@unclelukereal1) posted at 5:10 AM on Wed, May 14, 2025:
“You should’ve known part of the Elon deal was getting his people into the country. You thought it was just about free speech? It was about visas, tech dominance, and replacing American workers while y’all were busy blaming the border.”
(https://x.com/unclelukereal1/status/1922595339732742168?t=DTbmYIApzYQiMnm1CvFJLg&s=03)
Danielle Candela (@DanielleCandela) posted at 3:37 PM on Tue, May 13, 2025:
There is a special place in hell for someone who decides to profit off slandering and attempting to ruin a good man. President Biden is a good man, a spiritual man, a kind, generous man, a compassionate man, a man who knows pain. President Biden was a very successful President. https://t.co/iNqRUzIe15
(https://x.com/DanielleCandela/status/1922390715247591836?t=m68tynwNzzyJCKSTWDiH1Q&s=03)
PATENTLY ABSURD
Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) posted at 5:37 AM on Wed, May 14, 2025:
Fox News hosts are working so hard to justify Trump’s blatant from of corruption.
“I think we would be crazy not to accept the plane. I think people have been watching too many spy movies… I think it’s totally okay. We have been gifting the world for decades. It feels good to https://t.co/1YO6UQX97v
(https://x.com/Ronxyz00/status/1922602049700528386?s=03)
Chuck Rocha (@ChuckRocha) posted at 9:00 AM on Wed, May 14, 2025:
What nobody is talking about is how every one of these Sr. Biden/Harris Democratic consultants are currently working for every major Democratic presidential campaign for 2028 and every top Dem Senate and governors race. There’s absolutely no accountability in Dem political
(https://x.com/ChuckRocha/status/1922653193344795095?t=IAV2SsJZai1qzMTPAnchwA&s=03)
Coomtown USA (@CentristMadness) posted at 0:07 PM on Tue, May 13, 2025:
Voters were concerned about Biden’s age so he responded to their concerns and dropped out. Then Kamala was clearly in the lead and dominated the debate. What happened AFTER that wasn’t about Biden’s age. Trump closed the gap with ads about trans people and immigrants. That’s it.
(https://x.com/CentristMadness/status/1922337942980182331?t=mwEipcoh6AMNfkO5e90YgQ&s=03)
Magdi Jacobs (@magi_jay) posted at 8:57 AM on Wed, May 14, 2025:
Here are some things we know from empirical research:
-Voters already view Dems are more feminine/weak & Republicans as more masculine/strong.
-Voters view people of color as more left-wing (radical) than they actually are
These + other factors: Kamala gets dinged harder
(https://x.com/magi_jay/status/1922652601423696007?t=uk5mvTjB2–JdIItkZeLXw&s=03)
Magdi Jacobs (@magi_jay) posted at 9:02 AM on Wed, May 14, 2025:
I also think the fact that KH is a woman of mixed *non-white* ethnic background may have activated both subtle biases & outright bigotry against her in ways that deserve to be examined. Easier to paint her ideas as both ~dangerous & unknowable~. I’m doing research on this now.
(https://x.com/magi_jay/status/1922653765343056261?t=rg-c4rWd_qsIOupP49wQKw&s=03)
Democratic Wins Media (@DemocraticWins) posted at 8:47 AM on Wed, May 14, 2025:
BREAKING: In a stunning moment, Fox News just exposed the Republican plan to gut Medicaid. This is huge. https://t.co/qbqFrSEKcu
(https://x.com/DemocraticWins/status/1922649981602656438?t=vtIoctgRryqbg1mjt3NXGw&s=03)
Art Candee 🍿🥤
@ArtCandee
It’s not just Elon Musk that went to meet MBS and the government in Saudi Arabia.
The CEOs of BlackRock, IBM, Amazon, Boeing, Google, Palantir, Halliburton, and more attended with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump froze the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, so I’m sure they’re all thrilled they can bribe the Saudis now to do business with them.
If this happened under Biden, MAGA would be screeching for years.
https://x.com/ArtCandee/status/1922284277623882159
A Black man as Mayor-elect of OMAHA, NEBRASKA??😳😳😳
Omaha Elects Democratic Mayor
Yesterday, the good people of Omaha, NE, headed to the polls to elect a mayor. And although Omaha mayoral races are nominally nonpartisan, this one was just like every other “nonpartisan” race these days. That is to say, everyone knows that three-term incumbent Jean Stothert is a Republican, and that challenger John Ewing Jr. is a Democrat. And once the ballots were counted, Ewing won a crushing victory, taking 56% of the vote to 44% for Stothert. That makes the mayor-elect the first Black person to serve as the city’s chief executive.
Naturally, given the small number of elections of any significance right now, people are glomming onto this result as a referendum on Donald Trump. Let us begin by pointing out the main reasons you will want to be cautious about that conclusion. Omaha is pretty cosmopolitan and pretty purple, and of the last six people to serve as mayor, three were Republicans and three were Democrats. The congressional district in which Omaha is located, NE-02, is D+3, and while it’s gone Republican in every House election save one since 1995, its electoral vote has gone for the Democrat in three of the last five elections. Also, if you look at the “issues” page of Ewing’s website, it actually looks pretty Republican, unless you keep reading for a while. The issues highlighted at the top of the page are things like crime prevention, fiscal responsibility and homeland security. It isn’t until you get into the 27th and 28th items on the page that Ewing talks about women’s rights and support for immigrants.
Now, let’s note a couple of reasons that “this election was a referendum on Trump” is not completely out of the question. First, although the race retained a local focus until the last few weeks, Stothert eventually saw she was in trouble, and started attacking Ewing as someone who really wants trans girls to be able to play girls’ sports. Undoubtedly, there are two, maybe even three trans girls trying to do so in Nebraska, so it’s clearly a very relevant issue. Ewing returned fire with claims that Stothert is just a Trump stooge who wants to implement the worst parts of his agenda. Point is, the election wasn’t terribly Trumpy… until it was.
Second, Ewing didn’t just win; as we note, it was a laugher. Elections in Omaha and/or NE-02 are rarely decided by double-digits. Further, if the Democrats are going to retake the House, this is precisely the kind of district they need to flip (in fact, the current NE-02 representative, Republican Don Bacon, is a top target of the DCCC). What the blue team needs is to swing 2-3% of the vote in 15-20 of these purple districts, and the House will almost certainly be theirs. And Ewing just swung considerably more than 2-3% of the vote
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/May14-5.html
Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) posted at 7:49 PM on Sun, May 11, 2025:
Elon donated $291 million to Trump.
Then, Trump’s administration didn’t take action on 40 investigations and killed cases involving Tesla, Space X, and Neuralink — saving Elon billions.
The $291 million was a bribe.
This is what corruption looks like. https://t.co/zcaEwfBq3d
(https://x.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1921729530596634775?t=tkW44Uh5JqqrG_SEhkJs0Q&s=03)
Manisha Sinha (@ProfMSinha) posted at 5:35 AM on Tue, May 13, 2025:
Historian here habeas corpus was one way fugitive slaves were rescued in court rooms all across the northern states before the Civil War.
(https://x.com/ProfMSinha/status/1922239193398358285?t=QYRu0dzLPeE1jMsT_wAnWA&s=03)
Centrism Fan Acct 🔹 (@Wilson__Valdez) posted at 3:17 PM on Mon, May 12, 2025:
If you said during the campaign that a Trump admin would deport (fully vetted) non-violent black/brown refugees, while importing a Whites only group of immigrants, you would be called a hysterical, race-baiter with a severe case of TDS.
And now…
(https://x.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1922023228140089566?t=9uuhdC9Ahq2aTylnvLcy-w&s=03)
Black, Beautiful, & Blessed (@MelanatedTalk) posted at 10:13 AM on Tue, May 13, 2025:
I’m feeling Tyler Perry on this. This is my attitude all day. My decision to stop caring what people think is the most valuable thing I’ve ever done. Eff em!
#TylerPerry #HowBlackPeopleFeel #WeDoNotCare #BlackPeople
#WellSaid https://t.co/cJXHphqiqi
(https://x.com/MelanatedTalk/status/1922309229894889474?t=fSZwXgoFGNrUdjZ9g1f0IQ&s=03)
just phucking evil
The Ag Committee’s part of the Reconciliation Bill changes the SNAP definition of “dependent child” from under 18 years to under 7 years old to determine “Able-bodied adult without dependents.”
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊