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Report from the Senate Floor by Chris Murphy (D - CT):
Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.
So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back. The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted.
In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.
Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.
So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires. The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.
The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children. They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.
Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM.
This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials. So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.
And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment.
Every best wish,
US Senator Chris Murphy (D - CT)
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Yes, More of that please. That’s what EVERY. SINGLE. DEMOCRAT. in BOTH houses NEED to be doing on a daily basis. Gum up the works, let people know that the republicans are trying to sell our democracy down the river!!!
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Ug. Here’s a political strategy that I definitely don’t agree with, but evidence suggests that a lot of Democrats are currently following:
Meanwhile, in Ezra Klein’s latest podcast he said that he’s been talking to congressional Democrats, asking them what the top legislative priority would have been for them if positions had been reversed, and Democrats has won a trifecta in the latest election. He says that almost all of them said they didn’t know.
Obstructing the Trump administration is very important and they really need to get on that, but it seems clear to me that the party (and country) would benefit if they could clearly articulate an alternative to what Trump’s up to, especially an alternative that the public doesn’t see as just an argument for the status quo, which is always hard to sell.
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The dems currently have no leadership, and they are clearly rudderless as a party without that. I know that Raskin, Crockett and AOC are doing their best, but the party isn’t falling in line with them.
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And this is the dweeb that they put in over AOC.
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Yeah, that’s for sure. As they’ve recently shown the entrenched party leadership would still rather elect committee chairs based on seniority than based on effectiveness or communication skills so it’s hard to know how this situation changes other than maybe a bunch of primary challenges to the old guard Democratic leaders. Or else a really charismatic new Democratic politician who hasn’t made an appearance yet.
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Depressingly accurate.
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No, you see, Connolly is taking a brave stand against the DoD, DoJ and OPM who have stated that compliance with DOGE emails is voluntary and even suggested that Federal employees should not comply. 
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"Consider what was at the center of both the 2010 and 2018 House landslides — the creation and attempted repeal, respectively, of the Affordable Care Act, the biggest overhaul of American health care in a generation.
"Now consider what Republicans will begin voting on in the House this week: a vast domestic policy agenda that could include huge cuts to Medicaid, a cornerstone of the nation’s health care safety net, to the tune of more than $800 billion over the coming decade.
"That’s what the GOP should really be worried about. It’s no mistake that President Donald Trump has himself expressed reservations about Medicaid cuts, and it’s causing severe anxiety for the party’s vulnerable lawmakers as Speaker Mike Johnson moves forward with a budget written to placate his most conservative members.
…
"The recent history of grassroots political movements is instructive here: Major political reckonings are often triggered by Americans who are fearful of losing what they once had.
"In 2010, it was conservatives and moderates who worried that Democrats were trying to radically remake the health care system, jeopardizing their own private coverage and increasing the government’s role in health care. Then it was the millions of low- and middle-income Americans who pushed back on GOP attempts to claw back those new federal subsidies and undo the ACA’s very popular protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
"This time, the GOP’s bet seems to be that the public equates Medicaid with welfare — a program that largely benefits the poor and undeserving…What they are papering over is just how much the program has been transformed over the past decade: The ACA greatly expanded its enrollment in most states beyond the truly indigent, and many seniors rely on it for nursing and other high-intensity care. The program also includes a program for safety-net hospitals that, if touched, could blow a hole in private health care systems’ budgets.
"Trump, notably, seems to have an intuitive sense of the distinction here. He has shown no sign yet of flinching on DOGE — in fact, he argued this weekend Musk should be “MORE AGGRESSIVE” in slashing away. And yet on Medicaid, he has said many times, publicly and privately, that he’s not interested in making cuts.
…
It’s not just the swing-district Republicans who are sweating. Steve Bannon, the godfather of the MAGA movement himself, argued Thursday on the War Room podcast that Medicaid cuts would hurt working-class members of Trump’s own coalition. He added: “Just can’t take a meat ax to it, although I would love to.”
Even Trump allies who roll their eyes at Bannon agree with his assessment. One longtime Trump confidant told me yesterday that tons of seniors who backed Trump rely on Medicaid, not just Medicare. Those are the types of voters who show up at town halls and inundate offices with phone calls if their benefits are threatened."
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/24/medicaid-cuts-republicans-gop-town-halls-00205667
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Congressional Dems DO have power. Fingers crossed they used it!
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/red-alert-now-is-the-moment-folks
Over recent weeks I’ve told you several times that while Democrats are shut out of power in Washington and few means of arresting the Trump-Musk spree of criminal conduct across the executive branch they do have two points of leverage: the need for a new “continuing resolution” to keep the government funded by March 14th and the need to raise the debt ceiling at some point in the coming months – the exact date on that isn’t clear.
At present Republicans are on course to shut down the government on March 14th. Essentially the Freedom Caucus is holding them hostage demanding not the draconian budget cuts favored by most of the GOP caucus but draconian-plus cuts, the kind that they fear will get their members in swing districts defeated. So they’re coming to Democrats, hat in hand, asking for help.
I’ve explained in probably a dozen posts over the last month that this is the line not just on policy and anti-constitutional actions but also a key moment in the drama of performative power between President Trump and the opposition that will have repercussions and reverberations for months and perhaps years to come.
There are already plenty of signs the public is turning against Musk’s wilding spree of criminal conduct through the federal government. To put it in the vulgar and rapacious terms that are the only ones that do it justice, Donald Trump and Elon Musk have spent the last month slapping around like bitches the Constitution, federal workers, the Democrats and really the sovereignty of the American people. Democrats have this moment to decide whether they’ll not only arrest the damage but change the tone through the idiom of power.
Well, now we appear to be at the crunch moment.
Republicans are coming to the Democrats hat in hand: We’re about to shut down the government. Help us prevent our extremists from doing that. Dems have to name their price. That’s presumably or should be no help until the criminal conduct stops. But according to Politico the Republicans are saying something like, ‘Be reasonable. Trump will never agree to that.’
I want to keep this brief. If you want your voice to be part of this negotiation the time to make your voice heard is tomorrow morning. It may be the last chance you have.
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Congressional democrats have bill that will end taxes on tips, but also the sub-minimum wage. We’ll see if house republicans support it.
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That’s a big hope.
There’s plenty of raw red meat out already to throw to voters. The GOP would go on and on about conspiracies while Obama/Biden was president, and when called out, simply jumped to a new one. There’s actual verifiable facts these guys can use now. Thousands of people out of work. A passed bill slashing Medicaid. Same sex marriage bills. Any of the dozen insane bills proposed that would make a toddler embarrassed.
They should be on every program right now, 27 hours a day, talking about these until you couldn’t stand it. GOP was a constant firehose of hate and racism that got them addicted to a sort of anger adrenalin drip. There’s statistically far more liberal people in the country, but they are, in general, lazier about politics. So you have to go to them.
I think Harris did a dang good job on her campaign in the tiny time she had - they finally started using non-traditional communication paths. Dems suck so very bad at messaging. They should just put Bernie (yes, I know, independent) and AOC in charge of messaging and tell everyone else to follow their lead. Bernie is widely respected by everyone. AOC understands social media and has zero issue giving back after taking a shot.
I’m still seeing ads for Trump on TV. He won, why are these still on? And the Sinclair owned Spanish channel in my area had a multihour program the other day to talk about the impact to immigration from the administration and multiple times glossed over what was being done.
I want to see AOC on Hot Ones and Mark Rober. Send Bernie to drop bowling balls with Dude Perfect. Bring back Pete and send to curbstomp Fox some more. And then use the new voices that are getting traction. Pritzker has been heavily anti Trump since the pandemic and is loved in his state. Get David Hogg to the rural areas. Put Murphy and Crockett on every TV channel they can get on.
The old school needs to take their money and step back for the good of the country, if not for themselves. They’re slow targets and Trump wants vengeance.
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It is indeed, fingers crossed, as I said.
Sure, and I don’t think Marshall is saying Dems shouldn’t do that. He’s talking about legislative work, and you’re talking about appeals to voters.
Agreed. I thought the same thing while reading James Carville’s plea that Dems simply step back, watch Republicans lose all credibilty, and then step in and save the day. No, James. Dems are increasingly seen as weak, ineffectual and at best, oddly quiet-- why reinforce that perception? More of them should be shouting, protesting, and otherwise chiming in with voters’ growing outrage.
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My fellow Kansas Citians are making me feel better about moving back here.
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Not unless the Republicans get Musk and DOGE out of our agencies and systems and all of the impounded money flowing again, no exceptions. It needs to be enforceable and verifiable, too.
Until then, Dems need to hold firm. You can make your voice heard on this by calling your blue district rep and saying, “No help on the budget unless they get DOGE and Musk out!”
And if you live in a red district, call and say, “No cuts to Medicaid just to give billionaires tax breaks.”
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Shared the link to the other sites I comment on.
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