Send a message thanking those who stood up and voted against this monstrosity of a bill, or send a message to your members of Congress who voted for it, admonishing them for their vote.
Congress has enacted the Big Brutal Bill and Donald Trump has signed it into law.
This bill is deadly.
According to researchers from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts plus other health care cuts—the largest in history—will result in the deaths of 51,000 people per year. Those deaths include 18,200 people who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare, 20,000 people who will lose health care coverage due to the elimination of the premium tax credit for the Affordable Care Act, and 13,000 deaths due to staffing cuts at nursing homes.
At a time when so many are struggling to afford the basic costs of living including groceries, new data from the Urban Institute shows that 5.3 million families will lose $25 or more per month in SNAP benefits, with the average such family losing $146 a month in help paying for food. Sixty-two percent of the families experiencing these very large SNAP losses include children.
All of this is being done in order to pay for extending the Trump tax scam—making tax breaks for the rich permanent—and funding Trump’s mass immigration detention and removal machine.
In his prime-time address announcing his executive action on immigration, President Obama challenged Congress – particularly those who oppose his action – to “pass a bill.” Today, the House took up that challenge. Unfortunately, they didn’t vote on the comprehensive immigration bill the Senate passed with strong bipartisan support well…
As I was getting ready for work one day last month, I heard a story on NPR that caught my attention. It caught the attention of my boss, Deborah Weinstein, too, and we talked about it shortly after we both arrived at work that morning. The story involved NPR’s Shankar…
While many of us were getting ready for guests or to travel to family, reports surfaced that Senate Majority Leader Reid and some of his colleagues were working out a deal with House tax-writers to extend about $450 billion in tax cuts that would otherwise expire at the end of…
Imagine an elementary school classroom with roughly 30 kids in it, seated at their desks. Pick out and focus on one kid until you can see his or her face. Now imagine that kid is homeless. And not just that kid, but a kid just like him or her in…
The grocery stores were crowded this weekend as people picked up all of the fixings for their upcoming Thanksgiving meal. Soon the roads and airports will be packed with travelers going near and far to see family and friends. In this time of bounty, we are mindful of course of the…
Look at 10-year-old Stephanie Pucheta’s face on the video, sad but determined to tell her family’s story. She describes the day her father was put in jail and then deported, putting a stop to his helping her with her homework and playing with her in the park. Her mother is…
[Editor’s note: In August, CHN organized a conference call with the Obama Administration and several people who provide services to immigrants around the country. With the President’s action last night, we asked the on-the-ground experts who participated in the call to share their reactions. One response is below.] The word that struck…
For far too long, millions of undocumented immigrants who work hard and contribute to our economy and their communities have lived in fear. Fear of being discovered. Fear of being separated from their families and their homes. Fear of not being able to work and provide for their families. Thankfully,…
This post was originally published on Oxfam America’s The Politics of Poverty blog on November 18. Americans are going back to work. US employment numbers are in and we should be glad. A job means a wage, and that means people can cover the essentials: rent, heat, clothes, medicine – and…
Virgil Pack works three jobs in the restaurant industry in order to support his two children. He spoke about his 60-plus hours of work each week, with no sick leave and no benefits, at an event releasing the 2014 Poverty and Inequality Indicators Report. Two of his jobs pay only…
“Determined not to shut down the government again, Republican leaders think short-term measures could be the best way to address both the ire within their caucus and their desire to show the American people they can govern.” (from Congressional Republicans Consider Using Short-term Funding Bill to Pressure Obama, Robert Costa, Washington…
To ensure that kids thrive and succeed from birth onward, we must simultaneously address the obstacles facing their parents. The ability of our children to enter and navigate paths to success has implications for all of us. The 17 million young children in low-income families today will become tomorrow’s parents,…