Well, as you know, the Senate passed their Medicare-slashing, Medicaid-slashing, and taxes-for-the-rich-cutting budget by a 51-49 vote. The good news is that Rand Paul voted against it, and possibly not because it wasn't cruel enough. The bad news is that Bob Corker denounced the whole process for passing the budget and had already said he'd never vote for a budget full of tax cuts that'd increase the deficit, but of course he voted for it. About health care a few Senators finally seemed to get it, but not about taxes -- two health care bill holdouts, alleged "moderate" Susan Collins and alleged "maverick" John McCain, voted for this Medicare- and Medicaid-slashing tax cut bill just a few months after refusing to vote for the Medicare- and Medicaid-slashing health care bills! All that's left for us to do is clog their phone lines with our will that they do not pass this turd of a tax cut plan. The Republicans want to give their rich and corporate cronies a handout, but all they've got for us is the back of their hand out.
Meanwhile, President Trump decided to stop Obamacare subsidy payments last week -- which means our government will spend more on health care due to other subsidies kicking in. And though Congress actually appears to have a patch for the whole thing -- a bill that would force Mr. Trump to fund the Obamacare subsidies and spend money actually reminding people that the Obamacare sign-up is happening, like, right now -- Mr. Trump says he won't sign it. The bill may have the votes to avoid a filibuster in the Senate (if you count all 48 Democrats plus the 12 Republicans who have sponsored the bill), but it doesn't have the votes to overcome a Presidential veto, plus the House seems uninterested in even considering it. Hence the Friends Committee on National Legislation helps you tell your Congressfolk to support the Alexander-Murray health care funding bill. We don't need to let Donald Trump continue to throw a tantrum and refuse to do the job for which 46% of the voters elected him -- we can tell him to do his job, since we're his boss, not the other way around.
Finally, FCC Chair Ajit Pai will likely hold a vote on net neutrality by the end of the year, and if it goes as he wants it to go, we won't have strong net neutrality regulations anymore, and corporations will have more power to dictate to you where you go on the internet, rather than you dictating where you go, as it should be. Just so happens that so many of our Congressfolk have said Congress, not the FCC, should be making laws about the internet. Congressfolk who say that tend to be exactly the kind of Congressfolk who think government shouldn't ever do anything on behalf of its owners, the American people, but let's just take them at their word and let Free Press help us tell our Congressfolk that we support the FCC's Open Internet Order of 2015 and that we oppose the FCC Chair's plan to repeal it. Some Congressfolk say they're on the fence because their constituents aren't saying anything to them about it; it's hard for me to imagine how Congressfolk have failed to read the popular will over the last decade-plus, but again, let's take them at their word and deliver our will to them so that they cannot mistake it.
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