Democracy Out Loud#422: Turning Point

We must fight as hard as we can for Medicaid and against tax cuts for the wealthy. Republicans have given us both fights simultaneously. But time is short.

The resistance to MAGA is waking up, and not a moment too soon. We have a rogue President who is clearly a Russian asset. His uncritical reposting of a video on Truth Social about Gaza, and other recent actions reveal that he lives in an alternate and hideous reality. Cracks are forming between Musk and the Administration as well as among the Republicans in Congress who are under pressure to pass a budget without the help of Democrats. We need to keep up the pressure, and be joined by millions of others very soon, because the rule of law will not save us from this Administration as it continues to consolidate its power and defy the courts.

The most important thing we can do right now is to spread the word any way we can that the GOP is poised to massively cut Medicaid funding in order to cut taxes for the very wealthy. The vote on the budget resolution narrowly passed this week, paving the way for devastating cuts to Medicaid in order to renew Trump’s expiring tax cuts. Here are the numbers: 4.5 Trillion dollars in tax cuts to the wealthy, 19 Trillion dollars added to the deficit, and an 800 Billion dollar cut to Medicaid.

The NC Budget and Tax Center released a statement about how this House budget, if it is finalized, will have a devastating effect on our state. Their fact sheet is especially instructive, as is Paul Krugman writing about West Virginia and Medicaid in general. You can use 5 calls to urge your Representative and our Senators to vote against cutting Medicaid to fund billionaire tax breaks.

For this particular well-timed fight, we need to do much more.

According to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the fight about Medicaid will happen in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC9) serves on that committee. The fight about the tax cuts will happen in the House Ways and Means Committee, where Representative Greg Murphy (R-NC3) serves. This is an important fight and it is one we can win if we can mobilize enough support. What about protests at the offices of these and other Republicans?

We have less than two weeks, and the fight for Medicaid and against continuing the tax cuts for the wealthy is the most important thing we can do during that time. Consider what organizers you know and what organizations you are connected to. Can we find enough people who are willing to go to Washington DC to spend a few days visiting Senators and Representatives and joining actions there? Should we be organizing visits to every single Republican Representative in North Carolina?

If you agree that this particular fight is not only crucial but also well-timed and you want to work on it over the next two weeks, please email me at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com. Let’s have a special brainstorming zoom this coming Saturday, March 1 at 11 am. It will be at a new zoom address, and you can register at this link.

Another really urgent thing is the SAVE Act, which would disenfranchise vast numbers of voters, notably the 80% of married women who have changed their name. Find out more about this outrageous voter suppression bill and join Common Cause in fighting it at this link.

This week, a lot of us were at a protest at the Raleigh Tesla dealership, led by NC Democrats and Engaged Durhamites for Democracy. It was a great success and a lot of fun. Meanwhile, there will be another protest at the Tesla dealership in Raleigh at 4 pm Thursday March 6. You can sign up at this link.

The brilliant organizers of this rally are also organizing a sign-making party on Saturday March 1 at 7 pm in Durham. Signs are fun, always in short supply, and essential. You can sign up at this link.

If your group plans a protest and needs publicity or technical assistance, we may be able to help. Write to us at democracyoutloud@gmail.com.

(Below photo by Jenny Warburg, Tuesday February 25, used by permission)

It is becoming rather clear that Musk’s DOGE is a big mistake and has not found fraud and abuse, but there is so much propaganda that it will take a long time for most Americans to figure this out. According to The Atlantic, many government employees who observed this chaotic process before being fired themselves wonder “if casual cruelty was as much the point as the government overhaul itself.”

“A program is not waste just because it doesn’t help the richest man in the world. It is not fraud just because he doesn’t like it.” US Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)

Everyone is invited to our weekly zoom call from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on Tuesdays. Doors open at 10:45 am; come early so we can welcome you. If you don’t have the zoom link, email Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com. This week our MC will be Eloise Harris, a deeply respected and beloved leader.

Everyone is also invited to our weekly guided meditation at 10 am every Thursday. On March 6, this will only be happening on zoom because I hope to be at the beach. If you need the link, email Jewel as above.

Just before MSNBC celebrated Black History Month by inexplicably firing Joy Reid, who is not only Black but also one of the best journalists on television, she advised us all to read this article in The Atlantic, The Great Resegregation: The Trump Administration’s Attacks on DEI are aimed at Reversing the Civil Rights Movement. The article concludes, “For all the big talk about putting an end to “social engineering,” the Great Resegregation is itself a radical attempt to socially engineer America to be poorer, whiter, less equal, and less democratic. Much as the old Jim Crow measures kept many southern white people impoverished and disenfranchised alongside the Black southerners they targeted, the Great Resegregation will leave wealthy white elites with a firmer grip on power and the working classes with fewer opportunities and a weakened social safety net. The only people left with more will be those who already had more than they needed to begin with.”

Let’s keep pushing back in every way we can. And please take good care of yourself. We are all needed in this fight.

love, Karen

“Our country is in uncharted territory. We have an administration that is waging war against the rule of law. The evidence is everywhere. We don’t yet know how far it will go as it seeks to control, reinterpret, rewrite, ignore or defy legal constraints, including the Constitution itself. The replacement of the military JAG leadership is one skirmish in that war, but it’s time for the American people, across the political spectrum, to recognize what is happening. America has a rogue president and a rogue administration, and we need to acknowledge that and respond.” - Frank Kendall, The New York Times (gift article), America has a Rogue President

“Fascism is a new name for that kind of terror the Negro has always faced in America.” - Langston Hughes, 1936