by People's Action | Jun 27, 2017 | Breakfast
Health Care Showdown GOP ObamaCare fight faces do-or-die procedural vote. The Hill: "Time is ticking away on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s hopes of passing ObamaCare repeal legislation before the July 4 recess. A CBO score that found the legislation would...
by Claire Snell-Rood, Cathleen Willging | Jun 26, 2017 | Blog
Much has been made of the distress and discontent in rural areas during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Few realize, however, this is also felt through unequal health. Researchers call it the “rural mortality penalty.” While rates of mortality have steadily...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 26, 2017 | Blog
Reams of commentary have been written about the results of the recent special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. Jon Ossoff lost the seat, which was left vacant by Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, to his Republican rival by a margin...
by People's Action | Jun 26, 2017 | Breakfast
GOP Wants Health Vote ASAP Senate Republicans face key week as more lawmakers waver in support for health-care bill. WaPo: "At least five Republicans have already come out against their party’s bill — which can only afford to lose two votes — and over the weekend,...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 26, 2017 | Blog
This is it. The Senate has to decide on health care. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for a Thursday vote on the Senate plan that will deprive millions of Americans of health care coverage, and raise premiums to tens of millions more. There will be...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 23, 2017 | Blog
Charter schools have become a fetish of both Democratic and Republican political establishments, but local news reports continue to drip, drip a constant stream of stories of charter schools doing bad stuff that our tax dollars fund. An independent news outlet in New...
by Valerie Woody | Jun 23, 2017 | Blog
Sleepy but excited voters got on a bus at dawn in Charleston to ride six hours over the Allegheny Mountains to Washington, DC so they could ask their senators to save health care for West Virginians before it's too late. This group of grassroots activists made the...
by People's Action | Jun 23, 2017 | Breakfast
Senate Health Bill Unveiled Obama Rips The Senate GOP Health Care Bill. HuffPost: "'The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill,' the former president wrote in a Facebook post. 'It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 22, 2017 | Blog
The Republican Senate’s draft health bill differs from the House version, but its basic purpose is the same: give millionaires and billionaires a massive new tax cut by slashing health benefits for millions of Americans, and take care away altogether from...
by Sam Portera | Jun 22, 2017 | Blog
Second-District Representative Bruce Poliquin has mostly been avoiding public appearances in Maine following his vote in favor of the Republican health care repeal bill last month, but several dozen of his constituents managed to find him in Massachusetts on Monday,...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 22, 2017 | Blog
The special election for the open congressional seat in Georgia was the most expensive in history, with an obscene $60 million in total spending. Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate, narrowly lost in the upscale, suburban sixth district, which is heavily Republican....
by People's Action | Jun 22, 2017 | Breakfast
Health Care Repeal Senate GOP set to release details of health care repeal. CNN: "Senate Republican leaders plan to release their health care plan Thursday, the first time the public - and their fellow GOP senators - will get to see what they have been working on...
by Sarah Chaisson-Warner | Jun 22, 2017 | Blog
“It should be more open,’ says Colorado Senator Cory Gardner about the way his Republican colleagues are hiding the facts of their plan to repeal health care. “I think there should be (Senate) hearings on this.” We agree, senator. But Gardner’s dismay over the way his...
by Will Rice | Jun 21, 2017 | Blog
There will be a lot of losers if the House GOP’s disastrous plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act ever becomes law: people with preexisting medical conditions, working families, older folks, kids. One of the few winners would be the nation’s...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 21, 2017 | Blog
Donald Trump is right. The House health insurance bill is “mean, mean, mean,” as he put it last week. He correctly called the measure that would strip health insurance from 23 million Americans “a son of a bitch.” The proposal is not at all what Donald Trump promised...
by People's Action | Jun 21, 2017 | Breakfast
Senate to Unveil Health Bill After weeks of secrecy, US Senate to unveil health-care bill. CNBC: "U.S. Senate Republicans plan to unveil the text of their draft health-care bill on Thursday as senators struggle over issues such as the future of the Medicaid program...
by Sarah Chaisson-Warner | Jun 20, 2017 | Blog
223,300 in Arizona. 360,000 in Ohio. That’s how many people will lose their Medicaid coverage if the GOP forces through the health care repeal they're currently drafting behind closed doors in the Senate. Arizona and Ohio voters overwhelmingly oppose the repeal, as...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 20, 2017 | Blog
Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric since 2001, is retiring. The 61-year-old will be making a well-compensated exit. Fortune magazine estimates that Immelt will walk off with “nearly $211 million,” on top of his regular annual pay. Immelt’s overall General...
by People's Action | Jun 20, 2017 | Breakfast
Special Elections Georgia special House vote seen as referendum on Trump. Politico: "It’s Election Day in Georgia, where a House special election has put President Donald Trump’s popularity back on the ballot, turned suburban Atlanta into a battleground for the first...
by Mark Trahant | Jun 20, 2017 | Blog
I have been wondering what I should say about the Republican health care legislation in the Senate. We do know that there is a policy split among Senators about how much and how fast to cut Medicaid. We know the bill will cut taxes. But beyond that there is more...
by Sarah Chaisson-Warner | Jun 19, 2017 | Blog
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is playing political chicken with our lives. Since he and the other Republicans in his 13-member working group are choosing to draft their bill to repeal health care in secret, it’s up to us to share the stories of those who will...
by People's Action | Jun 19, 2017 | Breakfast
Hatred Flares 17-year-old Muslim girl assaulted and killed after leaving Virginia mosque. WaPo: "According to accounts from police and a mosque official, a group of four or five teens were walking back from breakfast at IHOP early Sunday when they were confronted by a...
by Miles Mogulescu | Jun 18, 2017 | Blog
Donald Trump has made clear that there’s little room in his “America First” foreign policy for pressure on authoritarian foreign governments - whether Russia, Saudi Arabia, or China - to improve their human rights record. When it comes to human rights, as Trump told...
by Andy Spears | Jun 16, 2017 | Blog
A group of Tennessee dads gathered inside a dimly-lit parking garage on a rainy Nashville day to send a message to their senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. Their message was simple: this Father's Day, they want their senators to protect Medicaid. The assembled...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 16, 2017 | Blog
Given the Democratic Party's recent failures, isn’t it time to debate ideas and strategy? The populist uprising championed by Senator Bernie Sanders, now America’s most (only?) popular politician, just gathered at the People’s Summit in Chicago. Over...
by People's Action | Jun 16, 2017 | Breakfast
DHS Targets Undocumented Parents, Spares Kids For Now Obama's attempt to grant amnesty to millions of undocumented parents is over before it even began. The Atlantic: "U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly signed a memorandum Thursday revoking an...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 16, 2017 | Blog
One cost of freedom is steel. To remain independent, America must maintain its own vibrant steel industry. Steel is essential to make munitions, armor plate, aircraft carriers, submarines and fighter jets, as well as the roads and bridges on which these armaments are...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
The smell of gun smoke had net yet lifted from an Alexandria baseball field when the calls for unity began. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan. “You're going to hear me say something you've never heard me say...
by Sarah Chaisson-Warner | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
Republican leaders in the Senate are very quietly – and very secretly – forcing through a radical health care repeal that threatens the lives of people across the country. It’s up to us to make noise and demand our voices be heard: In 2005, I was diagnosed with...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
Quick, is this school a nonprofit or for-profit? In the most recent financial filings available, the couple who run a chain of 18 schools pay themselves $315,000 a year, plus nearly $39,000 in benefits. The school also employs their daughters, their son, and even a...
by Samantha Nichols | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
Samantha Nichols of The People’s Lobby and Reclaim Chicago speaks at the People's Summit in Chicago, Illinois about "Resistance and Power," and her participation in the 200-mile march from Chicago to Springfield to demand a People and Planet First Budget for Illinois....
by Maria-Elena Letona | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
Maria Elena Letona, Executive Director of Neighbor to Neighbor Action and vice president of People's Action, speaks about "Our Movement Moment: Beyond Neo-Liberalism & Trumpism" at the People's Summit in Chicago, Illinois on June 10, 2017. Letona, who has more than...
by Tony Pierce | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
Rev. Tony Pierce, the co-senior pastor of the Heaven's View Christian Fellowship in Peoria, Illinois and of board chair of Illinois People's Action and Fair Economy Illinois, speaks about "Winning Climate Justice for All" at the People's Summit in Chicago, Illinois on...
by Tim Wilkins | Jun 15, 2017 | Uncategorized
Show of Unity Baseball shooting changes mood on Capitol Hill. CNN: "Five people were shot Wednesday morning, including Majority Whip Steve Scalise, shattering a sense of security on Capitol Hill. But members' response to the shooting came down to one goal: unity. In a...
by Liz Ryan Murray | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
The Treasury Department has released their report on financial regulations they want to scrap. Spoiler alert: the Wall Street sharpies who Trump put in charge of our economy, who made fortunes on both ends of the housing collapse, think pretty much all regulations on...
by People's Action | Jun 14, 2017 | Breakfast
Tell the Senate We Know What They’re Doing: Trading Our Health Care Away in the Dead of Night Senate Republicans are scheming behind closed doors to raise our premiums, cut and cap Medicaid, and hurt people with preexisting conditions. Let’s stop this silent and...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 13, 2017 | Blog
New Yorkers face a “summer of hell” as Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie seek to hand over the city's historic Penn Station to private investors. This "hell" is the result of our leaders’ “bipartisan” reluctance to invest in needed government infrastructure....
by People's Action | Jun 13, 2017 | Breakfast
Russian Intrusion Russians breached 39 state election systems. Bloomberg: "Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software...
by Alyssa Aguilera, Jeremy Saunders | Jun 13, 2017 | Blog
More people die in the United States from drug overdoses every year than from car crashes or guns. Over half a million lives were lost between 2000 and 2015; data suggests 2016 will have the most overdose deaths in American history. These deaths have spiked because of...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 12, 2017 | Blog
When he withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, Donald Trump gave a speech so filled with falsehoods that it triggered detailed rebuttals by publications ranging from Politifact to Scientific American. The Washington Post's "Fact Checker" column, which hands out...