Letters: Finance continues to rule U.S. health care
Also: Dan Walters | Legislative consequences | Therapy stigma | Trump hatred. East Bay Times reader letters to the editor for May 21, 2025.
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Trump says Medicaid-slashing tax bill doesn't cut 'anything meaningful'
Dear Leader Donald Trump left the gilded White House on Tuesday to head to Capitol Hill, where he tried to strong-arm House Republicans into voting for his "
Dear Leader Donald Trump left the gilded White House on Tuesday to head to Capitol Hill, where he tried to strong-arm House Republicans into voting for his "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" by saying that the legislation, which is expected to rip health care and food stamps away from millions of low-income Americans, doesn't cut "anything meaningful."
Trump made the wildly out-of-touch and false comment after he held a closed-door meeting with the sycophantic House Republican conference, which, as of this writing, appears not to have the votes to pass his dog-shit legislation. His visit was an effort to twist arms and get enough of the holdouts onboard to pass the bill.
"We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful," Trump said, referring to the bill that is expected to cause 13.7 million people to lose their health insurance, and put nearly 11 million at risk of losing food assistance. "The only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud, and abuse. With Medicaidâwaste, fraud, and abuse. There's tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse. ⌠We have illegal aliens that are multiple killers, with multiple murder records, getting Medicaid."
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YouTube VideoIn fact, the bill creates Medicaid work requirements, which experts say will be extremely costly to enforce and will lead people who are eligible to receive Medicaid benefits to lose their coverage because of bureaucratic red tape. The bill will also let enhanced premium tax credits that help Americans pay for Affordable Care Act plans expire, which would cause more than 4 million people to lose their insurance.Â
The bill also shifts more of the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, onto states, which may not have the resources to fund the program at current levels. And it expands work requirements to receive the food aid, which could again cause eligible people to lose their benefits.
After meeting with House Republicans, however, Trump falsely claimed that no one would lose food benefits because food prices âare coming way down.
âThe cut is going to give everybody much more food,â Trump said, an idiotic comment that we wonât even try to understand.
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YouTube VideoUltimately, House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to ram the legislation through his chamber before Republicans flee Washington, D.C., for the Memorial Day holiday.Â
As of this writing, Johnson plans to hold a House Rules Committee meeting at 1 AM ET on Wednesday to change the legislation so that it will appease the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, which is demanding deeper Medicaid cuts in order to pay for the billâs tax cuts.
But it's unclear whether Trump's pep talk to his caucus of sycophants will be enough to get the legislation passed. Warring factions within the House conference are still not pleased, and hard-liners want more spending cuts.
"We all are here to advance the agenda that the president ran on and that we all ran on. ⌠I don't think the bill is exactly where it needs to be yet,â Rep. Chip Roy, a far-right Republican from Texas, said on Fox Business after the meeting with Trump, adding in a post on X, âWe need to extend the Trump tax cuts, but we also need to deliver on the spending restraint."
Meanwhile, a group of Republicans from New York and California want changes to the tax code to allow Americans to deduct more of the state and local taxes they payâwhich would add to the deficit. Johnson had been negotiating with this group, which calls themselves the âSALT Caucus,â but no deal has been made so far, and Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday morning that the members are still pledging to vote against the bill.Â
Of course, Republicans almost always cave when Dear Leader demands it, so we are under no pretenses that this reverse-Robin-Hood bill is destined to fail.
But as of this writing, it does not have the votes.
Contact your lawmakers and tell them to vote against a bill that steals from the poor to give to the rich.
Campaign Action
Also: Dan Walters | Legislative consequences | Therapy stigma | Trump hatred. East Bay Times reader letters to the editor for May 21, 2025.
Read more >> : Cick here
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They have some similarities, Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump â guys in their 70s with homes in New Jersey and big constituencies among white American men middle-aged and older. And bothâŚ
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The project has been a priority for President Trump since he took office, having promised during the campaign to build a defense system against foreign threats similar to Israelâs Iron Dome.
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Deborah Rutter spoke out on claims that she oversaw financial fraud.
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High cost of living, lower wages might be making international tech talent think twice about relocating
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The top Democrat in the House took a swipe at Alina Habba, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, after she announced plans to charge a sitting member of Congress with assault.Habba has held high-profile roles but had no prior prosecutorial experience and limited federal court expe...
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The president has expanded on his vision for overhauling the USâs missile defence system with space-based interceptors.
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President Trump has accused Joe Bidenâs aides of committing âtreason at the highest levelâ by allegedly exploiting his cognitive decline
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Ange Postecoglou says he has no concerns about his future as Tottenham manager, arguing all his focus is on his side's Europa League final against Manchester United.
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Tax and budget bill being debated in Congress includes $25bn for the project
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FDA advisers are set to meet Thursday to decide on updates for this fall's COVID shots.
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Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is leading three days of meetings with top finance officials from the world's largest economies, where tariffs are set to dominate.
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Donald Trumpâ??s savage swipe at a reporter during a live broadcast has gone viral. The US president, who has frequently called out journalists, took it upon himself to give the reporter some career advice. Speaking to the media after his â??beautiful billâ? meeting with Republicans on Tuesday (20 May), the NOTUS journalist asked Mr Trump: â??Andy Harris said that you didnâ??t adequately convince enough people to vote for the bill?â? Trump asked the reporter who he worked for and when he replied NOTUS, Trump said: â??Who? I don't even know what the hell that is. Get yourself a real job.â?Â
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BILBAO, Spain (AP) â Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim and Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou donât think their jobs are at stake in Wednesdayâs Europa League final. Both coaches are un...
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Comedian Sarah Silverman discusses her brother's death and her father's revelation in a Rolling Stone interview, shedding light on a family tragedy.
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Twitter (X), Inc. was an American social media company based in San Francisco, California, which operated and was named for its flagship social media network prior to its rebrand as X. In addition to Twitter, the company previously operated the Vine short video app and Periscope livestreaming service
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