So we might have another vote on the Republican's health care "reform" bill in the House today, and then in the Senate shortly thereafter. This bill apparently differs from the old bill (which Republicans pulled last month after realizing they didn't have the votes to pass it) in that it lets states get waivers from the Obamacare provision that protects folks with pre-existing conditions -- thus not actually protecting good Americans from the whims of health insurance corporations! And the bill still gets rid of the Medicaid expansion, still deforms Obamacare subsidies so that sick folks will have to do without health care, still steals hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare in the form of repealing tax increases on higher incomes, still increases Health Savings Accounts merely so the wealthy can have yet another tax shelter, and still threatens to take away the health insurance of over 20 million Americans. So you can use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or on the bottom of this page, if you're using a cellphone) to tell your Reps and Senators to reject this unpolished turd of a health care "reform" bill.
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has asked to postpone oral arguments in a case against the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics standards -- standards implemented under Barack Obama's EPA, and thus standards Donald Trump would have no interest in defending. And that comes on the heels of the confirmation of notorious pro-polluter Scott Pruitt to head up the EPA, and several Executive Orders aimed at opening up public lands to more oil and gas drilling. Hence the Environmental Defense Fund helps you tell the EPA to put the American people's right to clean air and clean water first in their decision-making. Shame we have to come out and say it, but these are, as they say, Interesting Times. A March Gallup poll found that a mere one out of 10 -- one out of 10! -- Americans think the EPA does "too much" to fight pollution, while nearly six out of 10 think the EPA does "too little." And yet the Trump Administration appears poised to fight for the will of 10 percent of Americans. Is that how democracy is supposed to work -- 10 percent of the people getting all the say about everything? Is that the legacy the Founders bequeathed to us?
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to reject any legislative efforts to weaken or destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, then Demand Progress still helps you do that. Our Congressfolk (not to mention our President!) live in a bubble where they only seem to talk to other people who think all regulations are an evil burden and all banksters can police themselves, but if that were true, why did Wells Fargo get in such trouble last year for opening up accounts for their customers (and charging the fees that went along with those accounts) without telling those customers? Why did banksters pay a $25 billion-plus settlement in 2012 for routinely breaking state and federal law in the "robosigning" scandal? Hell, why did banksters nearly destroy our economy back in 2008? Right-wingers' arguments against regulation haven't evolved at all since that Armageddon. That really irks the hell out of me -- until I consider that maybe the reason they haven't come up with better arguments is that they can't, and, gosh, that's got to be obvious to everyone sooner or later, doesn't it?