Build Back Worse

This week, Satan’s Council of Demons Who Want To Take Away Your Health Care (aka the Republicans on the Energy and Commerce committee) advanced a tax bill that contains billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts, estimated to kick at least 13.7 million Americans off their health insurance. 

And because they can’t do anything that isn’t extremely tacky, they’ve called it the “One, Big, Beautiful, Bill” (or what we’re calling the Evil BBB).

As our Senior Resident Fellow Matthew Cortland wrote on DFP Insights this week, cuts to Medicaid are highly unpopular — only 8% of voters think that Medicaid funding should be cut. One way to emphasize the impact? Remind people that the home care they need is likely Medicaid, which is the largest payer for home and community-based services (HCBS).
 

As part of their effort to gut the health care system, Republicans plan to impose new “work requirements” for so-called "able-bodied" adults on Medicaid, which, despite the name, do not actually work at all. Instead, they force hard-working Americans to jump through complex bureaucratic hoops, dropping them from Medicaid simply due to factors like lack of internet access or paperwork issues.

Voter opposition to these requirements rises when framed as a “job loss penalty,” which really just describes reality — if you are required to have a job to receive Medicaid, and you lose that job, you will also lose your Medicaid coverage.

We’d just point out that if Republicans were so concerned with figuring out whether someone is actually working or not, they should probably take a look at Elon Musk, who will be getting tax breaks while spending all day tanking his company’s stock price while posting on X. Just saying.

Read the full DFP Insights here.

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Here are some other highlights from DFP this week:
 

Send this to the americorpses running the government…

On April 29, the Trump administration terminated nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants and placed 85% of AmeriCorps staff on administrative leave. 

It’s not like AmeriCorps does anything important… they just teach literacy to kids, provide preventative medical care like diabetes management and blood pressure monitoring, build broadband infrastructure in rural towns, and reduce toxic runoff into streams and rivers. Ya know, nothing as important as throwing large-scale military parades. Although, if we really want to reduce toxins in our nation’s rivers, we should probably do something to get rid of RFK Jr., who apparently loves them.

Data for Progress finds that voters across party lines overwhelmingly support AmeriCorps — including 79% of Democrats, 73% of Independents, and 70% of Republicans.

And after learning about the Trump administration’s cuts to AmeriCorps, a majority of voters (54%) oppose this action, including 60% of Independents.
 

We know that the guys in charge of DOGE have probably never left their computers in their lives, but in the real world, hard-working people under the AmeriCorps program are making real change in their communities, something the Trump administration wouldn’t know anything about.

Read the full poll here.

Undue process

In the U.S., everyone is entitled to due process — and yes, that includes Republicans who have been caught spending campaign funds on Botox, designer fashion, cosmetics, and OnlyFans. Period.

But these days, it feels like the Constitution is becoming less of an exclamation point and more of a question mark. Over the last few months, there have been several major cases of the U.S. detaining and deporting immigrants who have lawful status and no criminal record, most of whom were legally living in the U.S. while their asylum claims were being processed. 

When asked about the U.S. government sending immigrants who had been living in the U.S. with lawful status and no criminal record to be held in prisons outside the U.S., a strong majority of voters (71%), including 81% of Independents and even 51% of Republicans, say they are opposed, while 23% are supportive. 

A majority of voters (58%) also believe “everyone in the U.S. deserves due process and the presumption of innocence, including noncitizens.”
 

Voters see the detainment and deportation of immigrants who have lawful status as a constitutional issue, strongly support affording due process rights to noncitizens, and think the U.S. government should be required to present evidence to justify certain deportations. 

If HBO can bring back HBO Max, the government can and should admit its mistakes and bring back those they’ve unlawfully deported. It’s that simple.

Read the full poll here.


DFP In The News

Jacobin: Zohran Mamdani Is Laser-Focused on an Affordable New York

Daily Kos: Trump reportedly seeking out new horrific places to deport people

Strength in Numbers: What do disengaged voters think about Trump now?

Meme of the Week