NO CUTS TO MEDICAID!
May 3, 2025 12:42 PM Subscribe
"[But] if what they're proposing actually becomes law, it would be the single biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single bill in US history." Paul Krugman interviews Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress about Trump's "big, beautiful" budget.
Post title comes from the May Day rally I attended, where organizers suggested this would be a good focus to get as many people involved in the resistance as possible.
The goal is to have TEN times more people attend the next set of rallies... Across party lines if possible.
Krugman and Kogan estimate this budget won't be up for a final vote until June, which gives some time to get the message out.
Post title comes from the May Day rally I attended, where organizers suggested this would be a good focus to get as many people involved in the resistance as possible.
The goal is to have TEN times more people attend the next set of rallies... Across party lines if possible.
Krugman and Kogan estimate this budget won't be up for a final vote until June, which gives some time to get the message out.
Across party lines if possible.
Get word out to the snowbirds in Florida that cuts to Medicaid will also affect Medicare.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:01 PM on May 3 [10 favorites]
Get word out to the snowbirds in Florida that cuts to Medicaid will also affect Medicare.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:01 PM on May 3 [10 favorites]
I think this is quite excellent and they should enact every measure ASAP. The water has been boiling too slowly.
It's the only way to snap the country out of the compelling spell of the Hypno-Choads.
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:38 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
It's the only way to snap the country out of the compelling spell of the Hypno-Choads.
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:38 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
that’s a typo it should say “no, cuts to medicaid!”
posted by Sperry Topsider at 2:48 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
posted by Sperry Topsider at 2:48 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
Yeah, if you're ever find yourself taking the position that millions of people deserve to have bad things happening to them because it will make your desired ends come about quicker...
Well, that's just a shitty thing to say.
posted by Gygesringtone at 2:51 PM on May 3 [9 favorites]
Well, that's just a shitty thing to say.
posted by Gygesringtone at 2:51 PM on May 3 [9 favorites]
> the water has been boiling too slowly.
this is where i ask everyone to promise that they won’t denounce people for being prematurely accelerationist.
(okay, mostly just said that for the joke, really the situation is that there was some threshold such that before the threshold was reached it was a bad idea to do an accelerationism, but after the threshold was reached it became necessary to do an accelerationism. at some undetermined moment in the past we crossed that threshold and well here we are. also there is the obvious asterisk re: how many of the theil-adjacent members of the project 2025 coalition are themselves right-accelerationists aiming to accelerate directly into the neofeudalist wall, and i really wish we had strangled that ideological baby in its nick land / harry potter and the methods of rationality crib)
posted by Sperry Topsider at 2:57 PM on May 3 [2 favorites]
this is where i ask everyone to promise that they won’t denounce people for being prematurely accelerationist.
(okay, mostly just said that for the joke, really the situation is that there was some threshold such that before the threshold was reached it was a bad idea to do an accelerationism, but after the threshold was reached it became necessary to do an accelerationism. at some undetermined moment in the past we crossed that threshold and well here we are. also there is the obvious asterisk re: how many of the theil-adjacent members of the project 2025 coalition are themselves right-accelerationists aiming to accelerate directly into the neofeudalist wall, and i really wish we had strangled that ideological baby in its nick land / harry potter and the methods of rationality crib)
posted by Sperry Topsider at 2:57 PM on May 3 [2 favorites]
Chuck Schumer is the leader of the Democratic Party, which should be the opposition party to the Republicans. But Schumer is weak and feckless. Just yesterday he made some pathetic show of anger about a $20 car tax. With all this tariff and recession and immigration madness--and now this impending budget hell--Schumer is focused on a...$20 car tax? Is this comedy? Does he think that's what the Baileys are upset about?
The dissolving of norms has been happening slowly since the rise of Newt Gingrich in the 90s and is now on turbo mode with Trump. Yet Democrats are clinging to the norms and procedure and rule of law like Republicans cling to their guns and bibles. Democrats: get smarter. We can't fight asymmetrically like this, with Schumer already half-checked out. Those in the way need to get out of the way, and people with some salt need to take center stage.
Democrats don't have the votes, not for another 18 months or so. So they need to be yelling and visible and angry to hopefully shift the Overton Window back leftward or at the very least stop its rapid shift to the right.
posted by zardoz at 3:03 PM on May 3 [20 favorites]
The dissolving of norms has been happening slowly since the rise of Newt Gingrich in the 90s and is now on turbo mode with Trump. Yet Democrats are clinging to the norms and procedure and rule of law like Republicans cling to their guns and bibles. Democrats: get smarter. We can't fight asymmetrically like this, with Schumer already half-checked out. Those in the way need to get out of the way, and people with some salt need to take center stage.
Democrats don't have the votes, not for another 18 months or so. So they need to be yelling and visible and angry to hopefully shift the Overton Window back leftward or at the very least stop its rapid shift to the right.
posted by zardoz at 3:03 PM on May 3 [20 favorites]
Cory Booker and Hakeem Jeffries held a sit-in protest on the steps of the capitol last week. Elizabeth Warren has been giving interviews where she says the tariffs are a distraction from the budget. AOC and Sanders are making the budget a major focus of their tour. Those are just the ones I know about. So there are some Dems being loud about this, as they should be.
Schumer could be out of touch, I don't follow him closely enough to know, but more and more I think he was right to keep the courts open and fight the budget later down the road. Most of the encouraging news has been coming out of the courts even if the Trump administration is ignoring court orders.
posted by subdee at 3:11 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
Schumer could be out of touch, I don't follow him closely enough to know, but more and more I think he was right to keep the courts open and fight the budget later down the road. Most of the encouraging news has been coming out of the courts even if the Trump administration is ignoring court orders.
posted by subdee at 3:11 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
Well, that's just a shitty thing to say.
I am reading Burkhard Bilger's Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets - in it, he quotes an unnamed German sociologist interviewed by Milton Mayer in the early 50s for his book They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45:
What happened here was gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise. Each act, each occasion, is worst than the last, but only a little worse. You would wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. But that one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds of thousands will join you, never comes.
People are going to die if this bill is passed. But I am convinced that many more will die if the true, unvarnished, nihilistic sadism of the US right isn't shown to average Americans in a way that shocks us - from a desire for basic self-preservation - out of our collective stupor.
posted by reedbird_hill at 3:12 PM on May 3 [11 favorites]
I am reading Burkhard Bilger's Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets - in it, he quotes an unnamed German sociologist interviewed by Milton Mayer in the early 50s for his book They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45:
What happened here was gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise. Each act, each occasion, is worst than the last, but only a little worse. You would wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. But that one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds of thousands will join you, never comes.
People are going to die if this bill is passed. But I am convinced that many more will die if the true, unvarnished, nihilistic sadism of the US right isn't shown to average Americans in a way that shocks us - from a desire for basic self-preservation - out of our collective stupor.
posted by reedbird_hill at 3:12 PM on May 3 [11 favorites]
Chris Murphy (D-Sen CT) is holding town halls in red states. More of this please and thank you.
posted by drowsy at 3:14 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
posted by drowsy at 3:14 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
It's the only way to snap the country out of the compelling spell of the Hypno-Choads.West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the union. WV's state house is 32R-2D in the lower house and 91R-9D in the upper house. They repeatedly send Republicans to Congress, more so now that their only reliable Democrat has retired.
Mississippi is also one of the poorest states in the union. It's 79R-41D. It sends a Democratic rep to Congress.
What's the difference? WV is 90.9% white. MS is 56% white.
If you take the economic data, the percentage white, and the Republican vote, by my reckoning R^3 is pretty damn close to 1. So you tell me if the hypno-choads will snap out of the spell as they start dying en masse on the altar of politics of spite and racism from lack of healthcare. Because it seems to me they're perfectly happy to be fucked by capitalism as long as Black people are fucked more.
So miss me with that "white people just need to be punished and hard" crap as a reason to be gleefully callous because these people are already being punished and treated cruelly and they don't care as long as it's worse for the other.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 3:26 PM on May 3 [11 favorites]
Schumer was too much of a b**** to even get us legal weed, so now we all have to rawdog it. I’m in Florida where, if you step outside, you can literally see the tsunami coming. But I guess if you stay inside your air-conditioned mansion, you won’t even know what hits you
posted by toodleydoodley at 3:47 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
posted by toodleydoodley at 3:47 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I can't really get behind "surely, this..." as a strategy.
posted by aubilenon at 3:51 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 3:51 PM on May 3 [5 favorites]
Yeah, if you're ever find yourself taking the position that millions of people deserve to have bad things happening to them because it will make your desired ends come about quicker...
Well, that's just a shitty thing to say.
I've been hoping for a stock market crash, because I don't think Americans care enough about all the other horrible shit Trump is doing. I think economic ruin might be the only thing that can force the Republicans to change course.
Should I instead be hoping number go up?
posted by ryanrs at 3:56 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
Well, that's just a shitty thing to say.
I've been hoping for a stock market crash, because I don't think Americans care enough about all the other horrible shit Trump is doing. I think economic ruin might be the only thing that can force the Republicans to change course.
Should I instead be hoping number go up?
posted by ryanrs at 3:56 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
It's not a surely this, it's a slow peeling off. It's working for independents they're now at 70% disapproval on Trump. What's the alternative? Lay down and wait for the end?
posted by subdee at 4:04 PM on May 3
posted by subdee at 4:04 PM on May 3
There could be -- and there may very well be -- 100% disapproval for Trump. He will, however, still be the president.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:21 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:21 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
Should I instead be hoping number go up?
I mean, you could recognize that this is going to cause a lot of people real suffering and then hope that your actions work towards harm reduction. Including actively resisting the policies that will cause harm. I mean, we have real life examples on what allows people to leave cults, change their mind about things, etc. It's not being shown that the cult is wrong. So if you're betting on THIS being the real world consequence that will get people to rethink their position, you're engaging in some willful ignoring of reality yourself.
posted by Gygesringtone at 4:31 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
I mean, you could recognize that this is going to cause a lot of people real suffering and then hope that your actions work towards harm reduction. Including actively resisting the policies that will cause harm. I mean, we have real life examples on what allows people to leave cults, change their mind about things, etc. It's not being shown that the cult is wrong. So if you're betting on THIS being the real world consequence that will get people to rethink their position, you're engaging in some willful ignoring of reality yourself.
posted by Gygesringtone at 4:31 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
And he can make all the executive orders he wants, and weaponize the government as much as he wants, and destroy research and civil rights and the environment as much as he wants, but the Republican Congress are the ones who have to pass this budget. And the goal here is to make it political suicide for them to do that.
posted by subdee at 4:35 PM on May 3 [4 favorites]
posted by subdee at 4:35 PM on May 3 [4 favorites]
People freaked the fuck out about the toilet paper shortage, so maybe empty shelves will get people out on the streets?
posted by ryanrs at 4:37 PM on May 3
posted by ryanrs at 4:37 PM on May 3
People freaked the fuck out about the toilet paper shortage, so maybe empty shelves will get people out on the streets?
My takeaway is that a not inconsiderable number of Americans were OK with shivving democracy if it got egg prices down. That we're collective batshit and unstable and A) probably always have been; B) this is just likely how human beings are. So maybe we pull out of this and maybe we don't, but I'm done voluntarily engaging in anything that presupposes basic collective goodwill, sanity and a solid bottom that won't arbitrarily fall out because, say, lunch meat gets pricey.
posted by reedbird_hill at 4:45 PM on May 3 [2 favorites]
My takeaway is that a not inconsiderable number of Americans were OK with shivving democracy if it got egg prices down. That we're collective batshit and unstable and A) probably always have been; B) this is just likely how human beings are. So maybe we pull out of this and maybe we don't, but I'm done voluntarily engaging in anything that presupposes basic collective goodwill, sanity and a solid bottom that won't arbitrarily fall out because, say, lunch meat gets pricey.
posted by reedbird_hill at 4:45 PM on May 3 [2 favorites]
My understanding is that lunch meat prices are going to go down, because of retaliatory tariffs reducing exports.
posted by ryanrs at 5:14 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
posted by ryanrs at 5:14 PM on May 3 [1 favorite]
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