Send a message thanking those who stood up and voted against this monstrosity of a bill, or send a message to your members of Congress who voted for it, admonishing them for their vote.
Congress has enacted the Big Brutal Bill and Donald Trump has signed it into law.
This bill is deadly.
According to researchers from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts plus other health care cuts—the largest in history—will result in the deaths of 51,000 people per year. Those deaths include 18,200 people who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare, 20,000 people who will lose health care coverage due to the elimination of the premium tax credit for the Affordable Care Act, and 13,000 deaths due to staffing cuts at nursing homes.
At a time when so many are struggling to afford the basic costs of living including groceries, new data from the Urban Institute shows that 5.3 million families will lose $25 or more per month in SNAP benefits, with the average such family losing $146 a month in help paying for food. Sixty-two percent of the families experiencing these very large SNAP losses include children.
All of this is being done in order to pay for extending the Trump tax scam—making tax breaks for the rich permanent—and funding Trump’s mass immigration detention and removal machine.
Economists Recognize SNAP’s Importance for Economic Success A new report released this week by the White House Council of Economic Advisers shows that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) is highly effective in reducing food insecurity and is critical for low-income families. The good outcomes…
https://www.facebook.com/144519585571873/photos/a.385759741447855.99027.144519585571873/1059747964049026/?type=3&permPage=1 By the end of the week Congress needs to pass a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. Even if a one-week funding bill is needed to buy more time for final negotiations, the proposed solution for the rest of the fiscal year is an omnibus package that will represent…
American workers are the backbone of our economy; they keep our country and our society running. Yet some members of Congress want to chip away at federal rules that protect hard-working Americans. If you saw our posts from last week, you likely noticed we’re focusing a lot lately on the…
During this holiday season, business will be booming. Companies, both on the street and online, will be catering to millions of customers spending billions of dollars. And it’s not just traditional retailers who will be getting in on the act. Banks will supply loans to help you get end-of-year deals…
Editor’s Note: Making Syrian and Iraqi refugees hostages to the politics of the must-pass federal appropriations bill is a serious moral issue to us. Take a look at this excellent piece by CLASP’s Executive Director Olivia Golden, who brings first-hand experience to this topic. It was originally published online in…
With the holiday season upon us and the majority of the nation looking forward to celebrating Christmas, Congress still has some business it must take care of before they can go home to family, friends and fundraisers. In a little over a week the government will run out of funding…
With Thanksgiving barely over, many Americans turned their attention immediately to Christmas. A less-than-scientific poll (my personal Facebook feed) showed that lots of friends went to their local Christmas tree lot in the days following Thanksgiving and spent time over the weekend hanging lights, ornaments, and garlands on their trees….
Gathering with friends and family. Packed roads and airports. Turkey with all the trimmings. Thanksgiving is upon us once again. In this time of bounty, we are mindful of course of the millions who can’t afford a big feast or a warm home in which to host it. And we’ll…
There’s been a lot of terrible anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiments from some pretty high-up sources lately – governors, members of Congress, even Presidential candidates. There’s been harmful anti-refugee legislation – like the House bill to stall and disrupt refugee screening for resettlement in the U.S., and anti-immigration legislation, like a…
Earlier today, I made a mistake in saying that the House vote in favor of H.R. 4038 (the anti-Syrian/Iraqi refugee resettlement bill) would not have been enough to override a Presidential veto. Sorry to report that if the same votes were cast to override, it would have been enough to…
Some follow-up from yesterday’s post about Tamam (age 5) and the other refugees escaping from Syrian violence: the House of Representatives voted for H.R. 4038, the legislation that would stall and disrupt refugee screening for resettlement in the U.S. The vote was 289-137, with 242 Republicans and 47 Democrats voting…
This is Tamam, a five year old Syrian refugee. She cries every night, associating her pillow with the night air raids she lived through in her hometown of Homs. She escaped Syria two years ago and is in Azraq, Jordan now. This photo was taken by Magnus Wennman, who photographed…