I think the ‘local’ (ie, Denver-based) news has been doing a fairly decent job of explaining the potential impact of parts of this bill in (my) Colorado. I also presume that many of the major news outlets here draw a broader demographic than simply MAGA.
F’rinstance …
Source:
Essentially, this graph was shown and discussed on the local TV news this morning. The article goes much further, but even the graph talks about who’s at risk, and does a nice job of representing that it isn’t a wholly partisan threat (the way that so many MAGAs would dream it was).
If the Democrats were screaming from the rooftops, as the Republicans certainly would in this situation with a bill with -20% support, this cynical strategy might be more effective. If this is what the Democrats are doing, it is not making it to Canadian media and it is puzzling so little of the public allegedly knows what the bill is about. They have to do better than merely change its name. The Democrats cannot rely only on mainstream media but should have recruited every influencer, be making the rounds in social media podcasts and spending money.
Also, I just checked CNN; as far as I can tell, they’re still referring to it as, y’know, the Big Beautiful Bill, because, (a) why wouldn’t they? And also because, presumably, (b) that’s how people will know what they’re talking about…
This summer, after months of debate, just 23 percent of Americans supported Trump’s “beautiful” legislation and 42 percent opposed it — and 34 percent had no opinion, according to a Washington Post poll conducted last month.
I have no desire to absolve Democrats of anything, but this seems a sentiment from a previous era, when GOP politicians actually felt accountable to their constituents, and voted somewhat accordingly, and when cutting Medicaid was a “third rail of politics.” We don’t live in that world anymore, and GOP pols don’t feel they have to be accountable to anyone, except Trump.
Social media influencers who talk about politics are either pod save america types who always parrot the dems talking ppints (including talking about how shitty this bill is now) and get tuned out by anyone who isn’t a solid democrat, or various other people across the spectrum who wear their mutual dislike of the democrats as a badge of honor.
This is still a massive fail on the part of democrats, but it’s not a short-term failure where they chose not to activate their liberal joe rogan sleeper at the most critical time - they don’t have one.
If so, a success of the “flood the zone” strategy where from day to day the “important” thing in the headlines skips and jumps betwee tariffs, Iran, ICE, Elon, protests, birthright citizenship, corruption, colleges, base names, appointments, Israel, energy, DOGE, transgender, Ukraine, prison camps, climate, DEI, this Bill, etc. then put it all on shuffle and launch it again. No chance to give it attention even if they had the attention span for it.
Onion-worthy. For god’s sake put that political capital into getting substantive changes. And even if they couldn’t block the bill, they ought to be shouting from the rooftops about how awful it is, and how many ordinary people are going to lose access to healthcare in 2 years’ time. That would set them up for the midterms as a chance for the American people to stop this disaster.
Instead, I see news of Dems attacking Mamdani. Where are their priorities?
They have no political capital. And they are shouting from the rooftops, the rooftops they have access to are single-family homes in exurbs where they get drowned out by their neighbors gas powered lawnmower.
CNN, AP etc all have Jeffries filibuster of this bill as the top story. We’re not in an era where any of that can percolate into any pressure for Republicans to change their votes.
When was that? Social Security has always been the “third rail of politics.”
Medicaid (not Medicare that’s Social Security), food stamps (now SNAP), and Section Eight housing (the ‘’‘projects’‘’) have always been the programs conservatives have wanted to destroy because of the “waste, fraud, and abuse” poors commit with them.
Don’t be confused by the fact that Medicaid only pays doctors and hospitals, SNAP only pays grocers, and Section Eight only pays landlords and, as we all know, those folks would never abuse the system to profit from poverty programs that only they can profit from.
Exactly. A lot of people confuse Medicaid and Medicare, as I noted upthread a day or two ago.
This bill is making cuts to Medicaid – that’s government-funded health insurance program for low-income people. These cuts are clearly part of the GOP’s, and the Trump Administration’s, lies to their base, that there are many lazy, undeserving, freeloading people who are taking advantage of Medicaid.
AFAICT, it’s not touching Medicare – which is the government-administered health insurance for people age 65+, and which is funded much like Social Security: you (the taxpayer) pay into the Medicare fund while you’re working, and then benefit from it once you retire.
@crowmanyclouds is correct that it’s Social Security which has always been considered to be the “third rail.” But, that said, Medicare is right up there, as well: if it were dismantled or weakened, you’d have millions of retiree voters who would be up in arms over it.
The most cynical part of that being; while it will save the government money the poors will continue to need medical care, made more expensive because of the new lack of routine care, in the very emergency rooms that could not economically treat said patients pre ACA. Patients who’s bill were, and will be, written off as ‘’‘charity care’‘’ funded by every paying patient in the system.
As Lyndon B. Johnson once almost said, “If you can convince the working class that they are better than the poors, they won’t notice the rich picking their pockets. Hell, give them somebody to look down on, and they’ll support budgets that raise their taxes while cutting, yet again, the taxes the rich pay.”
For god’s sake put that political capital into getting substantive changes. And even if they couldn’t block the bill, they ought to be shouting from the rooftops about how awful it is, and how many ordinary people are going to lose access to healthcare in 2 years’ time. That would set them up for the midterms as a chance for the American people to stop this disaster.