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The Dems Could Have Shielded DC From Trump By Pushing for Statehood When It Mattered
As in so many arenas of American politics today, the Democrats’ inability or unwillingness to seize more power when the opportunity presents itself has led to disastrous downstream effects.
Aug 12, 2025
On Monday, August 11, U.S. President Donald Trump’s authoritarian gaze landed on Washington, D.C., the city of 700,000 people in the White House’s backyard. In a move of extreme overreach, he announced that he would be invoking Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, which gives the president the ability to command D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department for “federal purposes.” Trump claimed, despite much evidence to the contrary, that D.C. was in the midst of a crippling crime wave that necessitated a federal response. That Trump’s power grab is legally dubious and almost certainly outside the ambit of what the authors of the Home Rule Act had in mind is beside the point. Because of its lack of statehood, D.C. has been a sitting target for the right wing for decades.
D.C. statehood is often framed as a daunting, pie-in-the-sky goal, but making D.C. a state would only be as hard as getting a bill passed through Congress. D.C. could be granted statehood by an act of Congress, signed into law by the president, and immediately be given the rights to self-government which residents of all 50 states currently enjoy.
A bill granting D.C. statehood, HR 51, has already been introduced in this session by D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. ( A companion Senate bill has been introduced by Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen.) In fact, bills granting D.C. statehood have been introduced consistently since 2017. In 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter uprisings in D.C. and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard against protestors, the House of Representatives passed an act admitting D.C. as the 51st state. This bill, however, died in the Republican-controlled Senate.
These efforts have been largely ceremonial. Congressional Democrats should be well aware that these bills stand no chance of passing a Republican-controlled Senate chamber, nor is there any way such legislation would avoid a veto by a Republican president. The reason is simple: If granted the full benefits of statehood, D.C. would immediately become the bluest state in the country. (D.C.’s percentage of registered Democrats, 75%, is more than 20 points ahead of the next-bluest state by registration, Maryland.) That would mean two more reliably Democratic senators, and at least one more Democrat in the House.
If the shoe were on the other foot, it is hard to imagine the current Republican Party feeling any compunction about forcing through the establishment of a 51st state that would guarantee two more Republican seats in the Senate.
Instead of jumping at the opportunity to consolidate this advantage, however, Democrats have been gun shy at the prospect of pushing in earnest for D.C. statehood when the right conditions have arisen. In the first few months of Barack Obama’s first term in office Democrats held a filibuster-proof majority. This era is remembered largely for being the window that Obama and Democrats used to pass the Affordable Care Act. Democrats could have also used this moment to push through a D.C. statehood bill; no such legislation was introduced by the majority party in either chamber of Congress.
More recently, Democrats held control of both the House and Senate during the first half of Joe Biden’s term as president. Rep. Holmes Norton also introduced a statehood bill during that session of Congress, which passed the House along a largely party-line vote. However, the bill was not taken up in the Senate, despite Democrats’ control of that body. This had largely to do with then-Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema’s pivotal positions in determining what legislation had a chance at passage in the Senate. Manchin declared that he did not support the statehood bill while Sinema’s support was unclear. This effectively killed the legislation, which would have also required Democrats to make the politically risky move of scrapping the filibuster to realize D.C. statehood.
With inconstant support from Democrats in Congress, the statehood movement has stalled out again. While Democrats profess support for D.C. statehood, they have done little to prioritize it in practice. Their 2024 platform makes a single mention of the party’s support for statehood, and pins the responsibility entirely on Republicans for blocking statehood votes when, in reality, intransigence within the Democratic ranks shares equal blame in recent history.
If the shoe were on the other foot, it is hard to imagine the current Republican Party feeling any compunction about forcing through the establishment of a 51st state that would guarantee two more Republican seats in the Senate. As in so many arenas of American politics today, the Democrats’ inability or unwillingness to seize more power when the opportunity presents itself has led to disastrous downstream effects.
Now, D.C.’s residents are entirely exposed to Trump’s capricious and volatile brand of politicking. He has vowed to clear encampments of the unhoused, arrest children, and target the undocumented using the full force of the Metropolitan Police Department and the National Guard. He has encouraged police to brutalize citizens if they wish, and raised the specter of calling active duty military into the city. These actions are clearly designed to create a spectacle and shore up his strongman image, at the expense of 700,000 people who are American citizens without political recourse or representation.
Whatever happens in the coming days and weeks, it is important to remember that D.C. residents don’t have to live like this. The Democratic Party should put D.C. statehood at the front of its political platform, in 2028 and beyond, and ensure that no wannabe despot can ever use the city as his punching bag again.
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Texas AG Paxton Files 'Baseless' Lawsuit to Unseat 13 Democratic State Lawmakers
"This seat doesn't belong to him or me—it belongs to the people," one targeted legislator defiantly declared.
Aug 08, 2025
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday sued former Congressman Beto O'Rourke and his political action committee in what critics called a "baseless" bid to oust 13 Democratic lawmakers who left the state in an effort to thwart a GOP gerrymandering scheme.
Paxton's office claimed that O'Rourke, a Democrat, and his Powered by People PAC illegally solicited donations to cover personal expenses for Democratic state legislators who fled Texas in an effort to block a Republican plan to rig the state's congressional map at the behest of President Donald Trump.
Paxton is seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction to stop O'Rourke and Powered by People from raising or distributing funds to support the more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left Texas. The attorney general argued that 13 state legislative seats "have been vacated due to continued unlawful absences."
"Democrat runaways are likely accepting Beto Bribes to underwrite their jet-setting sideshow in far-flung places and misleadingly raising political funds to pay for personal expenses," Paxton alleged in a statement. "This out-of-state, cowardly cabal is abandoning their constitutional duties. I will not allow failed political has-beens to buy off Texas elected officials."
This, after Paxton and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-83) asked an Illinois court to enforce civil arrest warrants issued Monday in a bid to compel Democratic state legislators to return to Austin to vote on the legislation. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also enlisted the FBI's assistance to track down and arrest the absconding Democrats.
O'Rourke said Friday that Powered by People filed a retaliatory lawsuit accusing Paxton of using "the power of the state of Texas to try and intimidate Mr. O'Rourke from challenging defendant in a free and fair election."
"The guy impeached for bribery is going after the folks trying to stop the theft of five congressional seats," O'Rourke told KVUE. "Let's stop these thugs before they steal our country."
Targeted Democratic lawmakers also waxed defiant, backed by officials in the states to which they fled including Illinois, where Gov. JB Pritzer asserted that "there literally is no federal law applicable to this situation."
Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D-50) said on social media that "Ken Paxton just filed a lawsuit to remove me from office. But this seat doesn't belong to him or me—it belongs to the people."
Advocacy groups also denounced Paxton's lawsuit, with Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs at Stand Up America, contending that the attorney general and Texas Republicans "are so desperate to pass their partisan redistricting scheme that they're launching a baseless legal assault to unseat democratically elected lawmakers."
"It's just the latest threat against lawmakers who refuse to carry out Trump's demands and rig congressional maps to bank five new Republican congressional districts," Edkins added. "The courts shouldn't entertain this undemocratic attack for even one second."
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With Texas Dems on the Run, Vance Urges GOP Gerrymandering in Indiana
"We're in a knife fight for our democracy here in Indiana," said Democratic state lawmakers. "Trump is trying to bully the Indiana GOP into tearing apart our democracy."
Aug 07, 2025
Amid the specter of federal agents hunting down absconding Democratic state lawmakers resisting a Republican bid to gerrymander Texas' congressional map, U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday traveled to Indiana, where his pitch for rigging that state's House districts was met with raucous opposition.
Vance met with Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, who was reportedly "noncommittal" about redrawing the state's congressional map. In a Thursday interview on Fox News, Braun said that Indiana has "become more Republican over time, and these maps probably need to be looked at"—even as he admitted that a mid-decade redraw not linked to the decennial census would be "unusual."
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a Republican, took to social media to thank Vance for his visit and voice support for redistricting.
"Redistricting isn't just politics—it's about ensuring the voice of We the People is heard loud and clear," Beckwith said. "Indiana is proud to play a key role in shaping a stronger, freer future for our nation and as lieutenant governor I fully support this effort!"
According to the Indianapolis Star, protestors organized by the nonprofit group MADVoters booed for more than a minute after learning that Vance was in the State House. Opponents of gerrymandering, led by Democratic state lawmakers, staged an hourslong sit-in protest.
"This is clearly a power grab," state Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-94) told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. "This is simply an attempt by the president to stay in power forever."
Julia Vaughn, executive director of the advocacy group Common Cause Indiana, said Republicans should be prepared for a legal fight over any redistricting.
"We will see you in court, Gov. Braun," she said. "Leave our congressional maps alone!"
More than 100 demonstrators also rallied outside the Indiana Governor's Mansion to protest Republican gerrymandering machinations.
Via IndyStar:Close to 100 people have gathered outside of the Indiana Governor’s Mansion to protest the state government, who floated the idea of redistricting the state in favor of Republican candidates.Indiana GOP already hold 7 of the state's 9 US. House seats. #indianapolis #hoosiersky
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— Noe Padilla (@noepadilla.bsky.social) August 7, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Republicans already occupy seven of Indiana's nine House seats. Any redistricting would likely target the state's 1st District, which is represented by Congressman Frank Mrvan, a Democrat.
"The Trump administration has recognized that their harmful policies to benefit wealthy elites at the expense of working families are wildly unpopular. They know that their only hope to maintain control is to pressure the Indiana General Assembly to violate the Indiana Constitution and redistrict U.S. House of Representative seats mid-decade," Mrvan said in a statement.
"My mission throughout my career as a public servant and as a member of the U.S. House is to advocate for the most vulnerable in our communities," Mrvan added. "Any attempt to redistrict now is simply an attempt to silence those very voices."
Indiana's other Democratic congressman, André Carson of the 7th District, said: "Redistricting attempts in Indiana are a power grab. It's unethical and the move of a dictator."
"We won't accept our democracy turning into a dictatorship," Carson added. "Attempts to silence our vote exist right now. We want our Republican friends to do the right thing."
Democrats in the Indiana House of Representatives also issued a statement, saying that "we're in a knife fight for our democracy here in Indiana."
"We're getting the word out that President [Donald] Trump is trying to bully the Indiana GOP into tearing apart our democracy—but we're not letting this happen without a big, public fight," the Democrats added.
Responding to the vice president's gerrymandering pitch, Brett Edkins, managing director for policy and political affairs at the pro-democracy group Stand Up America, said in a statement that "Vance didn't visit Indiana for a friendly chat—he was there on marching orders from Donald Trump to strong-arm and intimidate state leaders into rigging the electoral maps in his favor so that congressional Republicans can avoid accountability from the voters in next year's midterm elections."
"Hoosiers deserve leaders who listen to them—not bullies from Washington, D.C. doing Trump's bidding behind closed doors," Edkins added. "Gov. Braun and Indiana's leaders should reject any effort to redraw Indiana's political maps for partisan ends."
Republicans are weighing plans for congressional redistricting in other states, including Florida, Missouri, and Ohio, ahead of next year's midterm elections. Governors and lawmakers in some Democrat-controlled states have vowed to respond in kind, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul saying earlier this week that members of her party should "fight fire with fire."
Vance's Indiana visit came amid an escalating standoff between Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in a bid to stymie a vote on a GOP-grerrymandered congressional map and Republican officials who ordered their arrest and enlisted the FBI to help track them down and force them back to Austin.
"Let's call this what it is: a clear attempt to rig federal elections and cheat the American people out of a voice," National Democratic Redistricting Committee president John Bisognano said Thursday of the GOP gerrymandering push in Indiana and other states.
"Republicans in the Hoosier State have a choice," he added. "They can stand up against the authoritarian regime in Washington and help stop this attempt to steal an election—just as Republicans in Georgia and Arizona did in 2020—or they can roll over to Donald Trump, sacrificing the rights and freedoms of all Americans, and see the wall of resistance Texas Republicans are seeing right now."
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Spineless Mike Johnson Grovels to Trump and Shutters the House Early
Imagine Johnson, a lawyer, took an oath to uphold the Constitution yet has no interest in safeguarding the independence of the congressional branch of our government.
Jul 26, 2025
The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson—probably the worst speaker in American history—shut down the House early this week before its five-week vacation. He wants to avoid holding votes on releasing the Epstein files that reportedly include, among other notables, President Donald J. Trump.
This is the latest valet service provided by a spineless Johnson, a Trump toady, whose groveling has no known boundaries. Imagine Johnson, a lawyer, took an oath to uphold the Constitution yet has no interest in safeguarding the independence of the congressional branch of our government.
Like Trump, he falsely characterizes what is in the Trump corporate giveaway tax-budget bill that shattered the country’s social safety net for American families. No one has ever even dared to promote such a draconian tax bill. Our country’s safety net has had the support of both parties until the wrecking crew of Trump, Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) showed up.
Johnson declined to protect his own party members who were raising serious questions about Trump’s big, destructive bill. He allowed the Trumpsters to physically threaten these dissenters to get them back in line.
No matter who is in control, the GOP or the Democrats, the crass obeisance to the executive branch remains the surrendering norm.
Most seriously, he has further crumpled the Founders’ system of checks and balances by turning the House of Representatives into an automatic rubber stamp for Trump. Johnson even refuses to allow his committee chairs to hold hearings on legislation Trump wants to ram through Congress. Johnson and his cronies do no oversight of the executive branch despite Trump’s vast violations and vicious cruelties, such as firing tens of thousands of key federal civil servants and further debilitating the resources of the Internal Revenue Service to collect taxes from the evasive super-rich and big companies. And the list goes on.
As The New York Times elaborated further with this description:
Mr. Johnson’s decision to shut down the House early was the latest example of how the speaker has in many ways ceded the chamber’s independence in order to please or avoid angering Mr. Trump. He has deferred to the president on matters large and small, including when it comes to Congress’ spending power. He quietly maneuvered this year to yield the House’s ability to weigh in on Mr. Trump’s tariffs, in order to spare Republicans from having to cast politically tricky votes on whether to end them.
The larger decline of Congress providing countervailing checks and balances reflecting the interests of the people, whose sovereign power under the Constitution has been delegated to it as a public trust, and has been eroded for decades. (See, “Congressional Surrender and Presidential Overreach” by Bruce Fein).
No matter who is in control, the GOP or the Democrats, the crass obeisance to the executive branch remains the surrendering norm.
The consensus by the two parties extends to the minimal days that Congress is actually in session. The members take numerous vacations (they call them “recesses”). They see the weeks they work as starting on Tuesday and ending on Thursday. In between even those days, they are busy in fundraising offices dialing for campaign dollars.
With such limited workdays for a full-time, well-paying job, members of Congress have less time for hearings to investigate wrongdoing, waste, and neglect of actions in the executive branch or the dubious ethical practices in the federal judiciary and federal prosecutors’ offices.
Increasingly, it is nearly impossible for informed citizens to secure congressional hearings and be invited as witnesses, as was the case in the 60s and 70s. Congress is, however, “open for business” if you represent big corporations. Congress has built a cocoon around itself with a sign reading: Business Lobbyists Only. People are bitterly complaining about their inability to get through to their senators or representatives if they are not big campaign contributors or from big business. (See, The Incommunicados by Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein).
The solution is obvious. The people back home must organize Congress Watch Groups—call it a crucial civic hobby (See: The Day the Rats Vetoed Congress)—and establish a tradition of formally summoning their wayward lawmakers to the people’s Town Meetings with the people’s agendas on the table (See, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think, City Lights Books).
There are many overdue changes and reforms backed by large majorities of liberal and conservative voters to make Watchdog Groups a formidable force. One percent of the voters can change Congress, especially because the necessities of the People are widely and strongly supported by millions of voters.
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'Huge Win for the American People' as House Subcommittee Votes to Subpoena Epstein Docs
"The public deserves to know who was complicit in Epstein's heinous crimes, including people with immense power in our government," said the top House Oversight Committee Democrat.
Jul 23, 2025
A congressional subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over files related to deceased convicted child sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, thwarting an apparent effort by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to delay further action on the matter until after summer recess.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement voted 8-2 on a motion by Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) to subpoena the DOJ for all records related to the investigation into Epstein. The longtime former friend of President Donald Trump was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008 and faced federal child sex trafficking charges at the time of his suspicious 2019 jailhouse death, which was officially ruled a suicide.
"Numerous members of this committee and this subcommittee have called for answers and transparency," said Lee, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. "So let's do something about it."
In addition to Lee, the motion was backed by Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Reps. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), Brian Jack (R-Ga.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.).
"Today, Oversight Democrats fought for transparency and accountability on the Epstein files and won," Garcia said in a statement. "House Republicans didn't make it easy, but the motion was finally passed to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files."
"Let's be clear: This is a huge win for the American people," he added. "The public deserves to know who was complicit in Epstein's heinous crimes, including people with immense power in our government. Today's vote was just the first step toward accountability, and we will continue pushing for the truth."
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) must now sign the subpoena so it may be officially issued to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Comer agreed to subpoena Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell—who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes as part of Epstein's alleged operation—following a separate Oversight subcommittee's vote on Tuesday.
Johnson (La.) on Tuesday said the lower chamber would adjourn on Wednesday, one day earlier than scheduled. Critics called the move a blatant attempt to thwart a vote on the Epstein documents, pointing to other recent moves, including the House Rules Committee blocking an amendment that would have forced the DOJ to release the full files to the public, as proof of GOP stonewalling.
Epstein allegedly ran a sex trafficking network involving underage girls, whom he is accused of flying aboard his personal jet—dubbed the "Lolita Express"—to his private island, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the billionaire financier and his guests abused the children.
Trump partied with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s and flew on the "Lolita Express" numerous times—although there is no evidence that he ever visited Little St. James or was involved in any of Epstein's crimes. Still, the president has appeared eager to move on from the issue after he and key members of his administration repeatedly advocated for the release of the Epstein files. Trump has accused Democrats of amplifying the Epstein "hoax" and has derided his supporters demanding full disclosure of all related documents as "weaklings."
Apparently confirming what estranged Trump adviser Elon Musk and others have asserted, Bondi informed the president in May that his name appears in the Epstein files, according to Wall Street Journal reporting published Wednesday. Trump is suing the paper and two reporters, as well as parent company News Corp and its founder Rupert Murdoch, over reporting about a bawdily illustrated letter Trump allegedly wrote for Epstein.
Asked by CNN Wednesday whether her constituents care about the Epstein case, Lee replied, "Yes, I think the American people want transparency."
"At the end of the day, we have to send a message that whether you are the littlest guy or you are the most powerful person in this nation, that if you commit a crime, if you do things that we aren't supposed to do, that there will be some accountability," she added. "Right now, if we don't vote on this, or if we don't release these files, we're sending a message that if you are a powerful abuser... you'll be covered."
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Act Now to Defend Public Media
In the U.S., public broadcasting plays a unique role in our media diets as free, reliable, and trusted information. If it goes, we won’t get it back.
Jul 17, 2025
Our public radio and TV stations are in grave peril, and with them the unique services they perform for our communities.
By the end of day Friday July 18, we’ll know if Congress has clawed back the money it already gave to public broadcasting, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB. (The House will decide; this is your moment to call your representatives to ask them to support their public radio and TV stations, and to join—for free—Protectmypublicmedia.org.) Even if that money stays protected, though, public radio and TV will continue to be attacked.
I’ve studied public broadcasting here and around the world for 40 years. And I serve on the board of directors of the taxpayer-funded Independent Television Service, which coproduces a lot of the documentaries you might see on public TV. So, of course, I think it’s an important part of our media in America. But I think you probably do, too.
You might know public broadcasting through your local TV or radio station, both private nonprofits. Or you might know it through the services many such stations depend on for daily, high-quality, award-winning programs: National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Both of them are private nonprofits that make, select, and bundle programs for public stations.
So far, public broadcasting has weathered political attacks, which didn’t begin with this administration but have reached a new high with it. But it has only done so by depending on its users—you and me—to come out and show their support.
Either way, you’re in good company. PBS and NPR are the most trusted media brands in the United States. Half of PBS viewers depend on PBS for news and information, including more than half of people who identify as “extreme conservatives” or “extreme liberals.” NPR’s news is trusted by more than half of those who have heard of it. Americans trust public media news and public affairs much more (by half) than they do commercial mainstream media.
Public stations, like those in Oklahoma, are the ones to issue emergency warnings in time of crisis. Kids learn about job opportunities from CPB’s American Graduate: Jobs Explained series—supported among others by Iowa, Tennessee, and Arizona public broadcasters. In rural Eureka, California, the public station carries program for the local indigenous communities. In south Texas, KDET provides distance learning for kids whose first language is Spanish. ITVS documentaries have brought you inside stories from small towns like Medora, Indiana; Taft, Oklahoma; Norco, Louisiana; and Huslia, Alaska.
American taxpayers contribute, overall, about 15% of the budgets of public radio and TV stations—a percentage that’s usually lower for the bigger, more urban stations, and higher for smaller, rural stations. Alleghany Mountain Radio and KTNA in Talkeetna, Alaska for instance depend on federal funds for about two-third of their budgets. Last year CPB’s budget was $535 million. (For comparison, military marching bands cost the American taxpayers more than $300 million a year.) The rest comes from us as individual donors, from private and corporate foundations, and from local and state taxes.
So it’s not big funding and cutting it would make no dent in the deficit. But it’s critical funding; it’s the money that leverages all the rest of it, and that provides the stability to be able to do the work year after year.
The people who designed public broadcasting—and that included a lot of people, from the late Bill Moyers as an aide to President Lyndon Johnson, to military experts and educators—were worried about how government funding could become censorship. So they created CPB as a private nonprofit, not as a government agency. That is why the Trump administration cannot fire its staff or its board. CPB and local stations all have First Amendment protection against government interference. And that is why the Trump administration cannot tell them what to program or which services, like NPR and PBS, to use. The designers required Congress to give CPB its budget two years in advance, to protect against political shenanigans. That is why Congress has to vote to claw that money back.
What public broadcasting’s designers created is unique in the world—most countries’ public broadcasting is just a mouthpiece for government. In the U.S., public broadcasting plays a unique role in our media diets as free, reliable, and trusted information, a connection to local communities, and a daily example of the essential role of shared public knowledge in democratic life.
If it goes, we won’t get it back.
So far, public broadcasting has weathered political attacks, which didn’t begin with this administration but have reached a new high with it. But it has only done so by depending on its users—you and me—to come out and show their support. Right now is the time to call your representatives, and to join Protectmypublicmedia.org. (Protect My Public Media makes it super-easy to connect with your reps.) We all have something to lose.
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House Progressives Launch New Effort to Rally Working Class for Electoral Wins in 2026
"In a time of record-breaking income inequality and rampant corporate greed," said one lawmaker, "it is more important than ever that we as Democrats reassert and reinforce our commitment to working people."
Jul 16, 2025
Four task forces announced on Wednesday by the Congressional Progressive Caucus will focus efforts on winning Democratic seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026, with members rallying around one key idea that the party has been criticized for sidelining: "Americans are fed up with an economy and a government that are rigged in favor of the powerful and well-connected while failing to serve working people."
That was what U.S. Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) had to say, in part, as he was named the chair of a new task force on fighting corruption, with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) serving as vice chair.
After prosecuting fraud at the Securities and Exchange Commission and teaching law students at the University of California, Irvine, Min said he was "proud to continue the anti-corruption fight in Congress"—a fight that the CPC said is essential to winning the trust and votes of Americans as they decide whether Democrats or Republicans will control Congress after next year's midterm elections.
The policy proposals that the four new task forces will advance "enjoy support from voters across the ideological and demographic spectrum" and are all focused on making life easier for working-class Americans and shifting political priorities away from serving corporations and the wealthy.
The CPC cited new polling from Data for Progress that showed such policies—like raising the minimum wage and lowering the cost of essentials—"enjoy a supermajority and give a 9-point advantage for Democrats who lead with these themes compared to a generic Democratic message against a Republican opponent."
"Working people in America are getting screwed by corrupt politicians and big corporations that are driving costs up and keeping pay and benefits down."
The other task forces will be focused on lowering costs, with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) chairing; ending corporate greed, with Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) serving as chair; and securing better pay and benefits for U.S. workers, with Rep. Emily Randall (D-Wash.) chairing.
"In my home state of Arizona, families have been crushed by rising costs brought on by [President Donald] Trump and Republicans—whether it's skyrocketing healthcare premiums, unaffordable housing, or the soaring costs of education, childcare, long-term care, and even just commuting to work," said Ansari. "I'm honored to lead the Lowering Costs Task Force as one of the ways we're fighting back to deliver bold policies that will help working families.”
Randall said that in her district in Washington, she has watched as economic security has become less and less accessible for working families in recent decades.
"I've seen my grandparents, my teachers, my neighbors afford homes and vacations and childcare because they had good jobs. But over the years, affording a good life has gotten harder and harder," said Randall. "Our neighbors deserve leaders who put people before profits and stand up for what's right. They deserve leaders who understand that an economy that is centered on working people is a stronger economy for everyone. As chair of the Better Pay and Benefits Task Force, I'm committed to fighting for fairer wages, stronger benefits, safer workplaces, and an economy that puts working people first—right at the center of our policies."
The task forces were announced days after Trump signed his massive domestic policy package, which is opposed by more than 60% of Americans, according to a new poll, and makes the 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy permanent while cutting food assistance and healthcare spending.
"Working people in America are getting screwed by corrupt politicians and big corporations that are driving costs up and keeping pay and benefits down," said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who chairs the CPC. "Our four new task forces go directly at those big problems facing Americans: fighting corruption and corporate greed in order to lower costs and win better pay and benefits."
As the CPC announced the task forces, a coalition of dozens of civil society groups launched a political action committee aimed at centering working-class issues in the 2026 elections and winning back more than 35 House seats for Democrats.
"In a time of record-breaking income inequality and rampant corporate greed," said Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), vice chair of the Better Pay and Benefits Task Force, "it is more important than ever that we as Democrats reassert and reinforce our commitment to working people."
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America Worst, Codified: Trump’s Horrific, Harmful, Horrendous Bill and Our Future
We who believe in justice, equality, diversity, love, sustainability, peace, and so much more, are still here, and we can still, ultimately, win.
Jul 03, 2025
America Worst has arrived in full, right on time for July 4. Cue the war-mimicking fireworks, that ultra-American metaphor for this country’s “virtual” wars and endless militarism. Years in the making, decades of trickle-down, warmongering, and fearmongering insanity have now been codified and more deeply entrenched than ever with President Donald Trump’s huge, horrific, horrendous bill passing the House July 3.
As Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) gaveled in the final results, Republicans chanted “USA, USA, USA” on the House floor, in a truly sickening, pathetic display. They know better: They know they just passed massive tax breaks for the rich at everyone else’s expense, while adding $3.3 TRILLION in debt and slashing healthcare and Medicaid access. They know.
All Americans who are not rich should be angry—very angry. It may take a year or two for much of the pain and suffering to arrive, but be assured, it’s coming (packaged cynically to set in just after the 2026 midterms). Much of the harm will come to Trump voters themselves, working-class and poor people in rural areas that can least afford yet more gutting of already-meager healthcare access. Not to mention the millions who will lose food assistance.
The wreckage and suffering and pain caused by this bill is now fully on the Republicans. They own this disaster entirely.
The pain and hardship and suffering will come. Many Trump voters will lose healthcare; lose food assistance; get less workplace safety and rights on the job; will find their local rivers and streams, their air and drinking water, more polluted and less healthy. Many Trump voters will find far longer wait times—if they’re “lucky”—at local clinics and hospitals due to spending and staffing cuts.
Budgets are indeed moral documents and statements—or, in this case, profoundly immoral and deeply depraved ones. This sickening, sad, shameful bill delivers the ultimate reverse Robin Hood, cutting Medicaid (health insurance for low-income and disabled Americans) by more than $1 trillion over 10 years, cutting off health insurance to about 12 million Americans, and raiding hundreds of billions of dollars from food assistance for low-income Americans.
Lest we forget, this bill decimates our ecological future by gutting renewable energy supports while expanding yet more species-destroying fossil fuels. This less-heralded injury to us all could be the ultimate imperilment, at precisely the time we need the opposite.
All of this is like Reagan redux, along with Trump’s Nixonian vile viciousness and corruption—all on steroids. Actually, Trump and his bill are worse than all of that.
Trump’s disgusting, despicable, disastrous bill could of course ignite a Blue Wave in 2026 and could badly backfire on Republicans. And we can and should work for that, to at least diminish the harm and destruction Trump is causing.
In this razor-close vote battle on Trump’s repugnant, regrettable, regressive bill, the Democrats stayed unified and held strong in their ranks. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) put on an admirable show, breaking the House record with an eight-hour, 44-minute speech to stall things—but, like Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) impressive marathon in the Senate some months ago, it was a show, a performance without concrete impact or consequences.
I beg of you, please, do not count on the Democrats, or the Democratic Party, to rescue us or salve the wide-open gaping wounds of America Worst. I know from extensive firsthand experience just how deeply disappointing and inadequate the less-evil, slower-road-to-hell party is. (And yes, I still will fight for Democrats to win, until we get a serious real alternative, because real human lives are at stake and less harm is still less harm.)
With everything on the line, and with a real chance at defeating Trump’s grotesque, galling, grim bill, the Democrats came up woefully short—not on the vote itself, but in organizing their members to prevent this nightmare. The party failed to organize and promote massive phone banks and other actions to mobilize swing-district voters to pressure their representatives against the bill.
This is a critical moment for us to show ourselves, and the world, this hateful, horrendous, harmful bill is not who we are.
I was astounded to find that the Democratic Party (nationally and in California) failed to put serious resources into the one thing that could have prevented this disaster—mass phone banking in the critical districts where it was most needed. There were some efforts, mostly from progressive and liberal groups, mostly to call one’s own reps. I personally urged the party repeatedly to deploy huge phone banks targeting these swing votes, yet there was shockingly little of it. The national and California Democratic Party social media pages offered no opportunities for this critical action to take place. I checked every day and saw no phone banks.
Finally, I called and messaged the California Democratic Party repeatedly, and finally got a call back from an excellent, overworked, dedicated organizer, who emailed me a link to a phone bank calling voters in swing districts here. That is what it took for me, a highly active, involved, and experienced activist, to get plugged in. I immediately shared the phone bank links widely. None of the California Democratic Party social media pages offered the link. Astounding and bizarre.
How can this be? I checked numerous major labor union social media pages and again found no opportunities to affect swing districts. Just a couple posts here and there to call your own rep. How can this possibly be, with everything on the line? Yes, the big unions did protest, and did have some phone banks here and there—but where was the massive, coordinated nationwide push to apply maximal pressure on those potential swing votes to defeat this outrageously awful bill?
With this atrocious legislation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids will expand and intensify even more, sending yet more terror into immigrant communities nationwide, all while racially profiling Black and Brown people, and often detaining and deporting people to viciously dangerous places, putting their lives in danger. How profoundly and deeply cruel and inhumane and rotten. All of this will get worse and will require even stronger resistance.
America Worst is here, folks. Trump is destroying this country before our eyes. But we who believe in justice, equality, diversity, love, sustainability, peace, and so much more, are still here, and we can still, ultimately, win. We all must rise up and resist. We all must do everything we can, and do it far better, in massive, coordinated fashion. We must build toward a real, labor-and-community-centered General Strike. We must continue to stop every bad, rotten, destructive thing Trump does. We must continue building genuine alternatives on and in the ground, in our communities.
Amid this America Worst moment, let’s remember—Trump’s terrible, tragic, trauma-inducing bill does not represent us. Barely half of Congress passed a measure by a president who didn’t even win a popular vote majority (and narrowly won those swing states). This bill is not us. It is the rich enriching the rich, yet again, at our expense. We are far, far better than this. Amid all this America Worst harm and destruction, this is a critical moment for us to show ourselves, and the world, this hateful, horrendous, harmful bill is not who we are.
The wreckage and suffering and pain caused by this bill is now fully on the Republicans. They own this disaster entirely. But if we all rise up, build stronger movements of resistance, and real political alternatives, we can still own the future.
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Trump’s Big Ugly Bill Is Fascism in Writing
It establishes an anti-immigrant police state in America, replete with a standing army of ICE agents and a gulag of detention facilities, and it was passed by a narrow margin despite popular opinion.
Jul 03, 2025
President Donald Trump’s 940-page Big Ugly Bill was passed today by the House and is now on the way to the White House for Trump’s signature.
It is a disgrace. It takes more than $1 trillion out of Medicaid—leaving about 12 million Americans without insurance by 2034—and slashes Food Stamps, all to give a giant tax cut to wealthy Americans.
It establishes an anti-immigrant police state in America, replete with a standing army of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and a gulag of detention facilities that will transform ICE into the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the government.
The best analogy isn’t to Lyndon Johnson. It’s to the “strongmen” of the 1930s—Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Franco.
It will increase the already-bloated deficit by $3.4 trillion.
It’s also disgraceful because of how it came to be.
Trump was elected with only a plurality of American voters, not a majority. He eked out his win by a margin of only 1.5%.
His Big Ugly Bill squeaked by in the Senate by one vote, supplied by Vice President JD Vance, and by just two votes in the House. No Democrat in either chamber voted for it.
Polls show most Americans oppose it.
It was passed nevertheless—within an artificial deadline set by Trump—because of Trump’s total grip on the Republican Party.
Republican lawmakers feared that Trump would go after defectors with public attacks or endorsements of primary challengers.
They also feared withering blowback from conservative media, “MAGA” diehards, and Trump himself on social media.
After North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis announced his opposition to the bill, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER! He’s even worse than Rand ‘Fauci’ Paul!”
Then Trump pledged to back a primary challenger to Tillis, and Tillis announced he would not seek reelection. Trump called that “good news,” and threatened primary challenges against other Republican fiscal conservatives standing in the way of the bill’s passage.
Other presidents in my lifetime have been able to summon majorities of lawmakers for unpopular causes—I think of Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—but none with the retributive threats, social media fury, and potentially violent base of supporters that Trump is now wielding.
Needless to say, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts made America more inclusive. Trump’s Big Ugly Bill makes America crueler.
The best analogy isn’t to Lyndon Johnson. It’s to the “strongmen” of the 1930s—Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Franco.
That such a regressive, dangerous, gargantuan, and unpopular piece of legislation could get through Congress shows how far Trump has dragged America into modern fascism.
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With Its ‘Big Betrayal Bill,’ the GOP Is Waging War Against Working Class Americans
While Republicans prioritize tax breaks for billionaires, they’re simultaneously stripping away basic healthcare and support systems from those who need them most.
Jul 02, 2025
With U.S. President Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline looming, Senate Republicans just sold out working class families by passing Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”—all to please their billionaire backers. Inside this devastating bill are a host of tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, paid for with cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other essential programs. It would also effectively eliminate the middle class in America as we know it.
To Republicans, and even some Democrats, in Congress these programs are just a line item on a budget. To myself, communities of color, and millions of Americans at risk, they are the difference between having healthcare and living in fear of sickness or injury because we couldn’t afford the care we needed to survive.
When I gave birth to my first child, I lost Medicaid coverage not long after she was born. This meant that in the critical months of my child’s early life, I was not able to see a doctor if something went wrong. It wasn’t until I found a job that offered me healthcare that this changed. In the wealthiest nation in the world, tying critical moments of need in someone’s life, such as postpartum care, to their employment status is unconscionable. Medicaid coverage has since expanded to cover postpartum care for a longer period of time, but this bill would be taking a massive step backward from ensuring all people have access to the care they need.
The GOP has made one thing clear: If they are left in charge, working class families will always come last.
Medicaid covers 41% of all births and nearly half of children with special healthcare needs. The cuts proposed in the newest version of the bill that Republican Senators just passed will push mothers out of postpartum care, shut down rural hospitals, and leave families uninsured. That pain will hardly go unnoticed by people in blue and red states alike, and leaders who support these cuts put the lives of their constituents, as well as their own political futures, at risk. Mothering Justice is committed to fighting against anyone who might support this horrendous bill—regardless of party.
If passed into law, this bill would cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid—the largest cut to Medicaid in history. That is $1 trillion that has been going to healthcare for America’ most vulnerable families sacrificed for the sake of tax cuts for billionaires. In Michigan alone, the Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan estimates that over 200,000 people will lose direct insurance coverage, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates nearly 12 million Americans will lose their coverage over the next decade. Even those with private insurance could lose access to services when hospitals and providers struggle to stay open following cuts to Medicaid. The results are not just devastating, they’re catastrophic.
Health insurance isn’t the only program on the Republicans’ chopping block. SNAP keeps 4.5 million young children fed, and the proposed cuts will deepen food insecurity, especially in Black and Latino households already facing hunger at 2-3 times the national rate. In Michigan alone, SNAP cuts would create a $467 million hole in our economy. If this bill goes through, Trump will still accept luxury planes and lawmakers will still fly in private jets paid for with foreign money, but children will lose access to pediatric care and families will lose their only grocery options, deepening poverty in this country instead of fighting it.
Also buried in the “big, beautiful bill” are work requirements and red tape that deny qualified applicants access to essential programs. Historically, when work requirements for Medicaid recipients have been implemented at the state level, many working recipients lose their insurance due to the administrative hurdles of proving their employment. Republicans’ proposals would bury families in paperwork and procedural hurdles that disproportionately harm single moms, people with disabilities, and those without internet or stable housing. They are not efficiency measures—they are systemic tools of exclusion.
And cuts to SNAP and Medicaid don’t just hurt the people who rely on the program to feed their families. Small businesses, grocers, and local economies rely on SNAP dollars to thrive and support the community. The proposed changes will likely raise costs for states and taxpayers around the country, all for the sake of lining billionaire’s pockets. Under the guise of reducing federal spending, the bill’s proposal burdens states with millions of additional, unnecessary administrative costs, forcing state governments to allocate funds to consulting fees and enforcement of work requirements rather than healthcare.
While Republicans prioritize tax breaks for billionaires, they’re simultaneously stripping away basic healthcare and support systems from those who need them most. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” should actually be called the “Big Betrayal Bill”—because if it’s passed into law the wealth gap in this country will widen to astronomical levels. Mothers of color and working families across the country did not elect their representatives to protect the ultra-wealthy. The GOP has made one thing clear: If they are left in charge, working class families will always come last.
Now, as the bill goes back to the House, Mothering Justice is committed to fighting against anyone who might support this horrendous bill—regardless of party. Now is the time to call your member of Congress and let them know you will not stand for the federal government stealing money from working class families. Tell those we elected to power that they must use every tool at their disposal to stop this bill from being passed into law.
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