Stop the GOP from kicking 8 million people off their health insurance!

Senate advances Trump's catastrophic budget bill after GOP holdouts cave in late-night vote

Sunday Dose of Democracy:

VIDEO OF THE DAY: Elon Musk rekindles fiery feud with Trump, attacks "utterly insane and destructive" GOP Senate budget bill
Elon Musk, clearly wrestling with a serious, quarter-billion-dollar case of buyer's remorse, returned to the political arena and publicly eviscerated the Senate's version of Trump's big bad bill, stating that it will "destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!" He continued: "Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future." Correct! Kinda makes you wonder why he joined forces with MAGA in the first place, eh? For a real smart guy who ostensibly believes in the transformational power and potential of science, he sure cast his lot with an incurious bunch. Elon and Donnie's on-again, off-again, wait-didn't-they-just-mend-fences bromance just officially entered the "it's complicated" phase.

Take Action: Tell the Senate: No cuts to Medicaid or SNAP!

The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling is a 5-alarm catastrophe
Elie Mystal, The Nation: The legal upshot of the Supreme Court’s monumentally disastrous decision in Trump v. CASA (more commonly known as “the birthright citizenship case”) is chaos. Utter legal chaos. In its ruling on Friday, the court’s usual six monarchists granted Donald Trump’s request to reexamine various nationwide injunctions preventing Trump and Stephen Miller from implementing their plans to revoke birthright citizenship to any American who doesn't happen to be white. With the legal sleight of hand so beloved by the Roberts court, the ruling doesn't actually allow Trump to end birthright citizenship. It just makes it incredibly difficult for courts to stop him from ending birthright citizenship. It’s a distinction, one that lawyers will try to exploit for an entire rearguard action to defend citizenship in this country, but one that’s unlikely to make much of a difference if you happen to be born on the Republican side of the tracks. Once you read the fine print, it becomes clear that this decision is a historic, five-alarm catastrophe.

Take Action: Stop the 10-year-ban on AI regulation!

Top scientist takes on the GOP's crusade of ignorance
Jasmine Clark for Georgia: Trump, RFK Jr., and the rest of their cronies in Congress have taken a chainsaw to our scientific research, public health, and climate initatives and are waging an all out-war on science and the truth. PhD scientist Dr. Jasmine Clark has had enough, and she's running for Congress in order to restore sanity to the government and make America a global leader in scientific development once again. Will you chip in to help jump-start her campaign and flip the House blue?

What Mamdani's win can (and can't) teach us
Jared Abbott, Jacobin: Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor was a massive, earth-shaking upset. When he announced his campaign last October, insiders scoffed: "Could this pro-Palestinian socialist really be NYC’s next mayor?" ran the headline at City & State. For Politico’s New York Playbook, he was little more than "a longshot," whose presence in the race might damage established progressives like Brad Lander or Jessica Ramos. Less than a month ago, betting markets gave him a 6 percent chance of defeating the heavy favorite Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani won anyway — not by eking it out in the seventh round of ranked-choice voting, but topping Cuomo among first-choice ballots and claiming outright victory on election night. His triumph sends a clear message: a bold populist campaign and a laser-like focus on economic issues can break through to voters, even when insiders, billionaires, and the party establishment line up in opposition. Mamdani’s stunning victory offers some vivid lessons for left-wing politics, both in New York City and beyond.

GOP Congress is pushing for a Medicaid work requirement. Here's what happened when Georgia tried it
Margaret Flatley, ProPublica: Congressional Republicans, looking for ways to offset their proposed tax cuts, are seeking to mandate that millions of Americans work in order to receive federally subsidized health insurance. The GOP tax and budget bill passed the House in May, and Senate Republicans are working feverishly to advance their draft of federal spending cuts in the coming days. Georgia, the only state with a Medicaid work mandate, started experimenting with the requirement on July 1, 2023. As the Medicaid program’s two-year anniversary approaches, Georgia has enrolled just a fraction of those eligible, a result health policy researchers largely attribute to bureaucratic hurdles in the state’s work verification system. As of May 2025, approximately 7,500 of the nearly 250,000 eligible Georgians were enrolled, even though state statistics show 64% of that group is working. Gov. Brian Kemp has long advocated for Medicaid reform, arguing that the country should move away from government-run healthcare. His spokesperson also told The Current and ProPublica that the program, known as Georgia Pathways to Coverage, was never designed to maximize enrollment. Healthcare analysts and former state Medicaid officials say Georgia’s experience shows that the congressional bill, if it becomes law, would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in administrative costs as it is implemented while threatening healthcare for nearly 16 million people.

Democrats are trying to figure out what to do about John Fetterman. One of them is stepping up
Marc Levy, Associated Press: Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania isn't even up for reelection until 2028, but already a one-time primary foe, former US Rep. Conor Lamb, is crisscrossing Pennsylvania and social media, looking and sounding like he’s preparing to challenge Fetterman again. At town hall after town hall across Pennsylvania, Democrats and allied progressive groups aren't hearing from Fetterman in person — or Republicans who control Washington, for that matter. But they are hearing from Lamb, a living reminder of the Democrat they could have elected instead of Fetterman. The former congressman has emerged as an in-demand town hall headliner, sometimes as a stand-in for Fetterman — who just might bash Fetterman... Lamb’s reemergence comes at an in-between moment, roughly halfway through Fetterman’s six-year term, and is helping define the struggle facing Democrats in swing-state Pennsylvania. There, Democrats figure prominently in their national effort to push back on President Donald Trump, but also in their struggle to figure out what to do about Fetterman, who is under fire from rank-and-file Democrats for being willing to cooperate with Trump and criticizing how Democrats have protested him. Frustration with Fetterman has been on display on social media, at the massive “ No Kings ” rally in Philadelphia and among the Democratic Party’s faithful. The steering committee of the progressive organization Indivisible PA last month asked Fetterman to resign. It’s quite a turnabout for the hoodies-and-shorts-wearing Fetterman, elected in 2022 with an everyman persona and irreverent wit, who was unafraid to challenge convention... For his part, Lamb — a former US Marine and federal prosecutor — says he isn't running for anything right now, but he'll do whatever he can to "stop this slide that we’re on toward a less democratic country and try to create one in which there’s more opportunity for people." To some Democrats, he sounds like a candidate.

How Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri parented his three kids while in ICE detention
Kimmy Yam, NBC News: For months while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Badar Khan Suri, the Georgetown University postdoctoral scholar who was targeted for deportation by the Trump administration, said he spun a tale for his 5-year-old sons to help them cope with his absence. "For my younger twins, I created a story they could hold on to: I told them I was traveling and had gotten lost somewhere in the clouds, trying to find my way back home," Khan Suri said in an email to NBC News. It was one of the ways, Khan Suri said, that he attempted to continue to parent his three children "with love, creativity, and resilience" from detention. Now, just over a month since his release from an ICE facility in Texas, Khan Suri reflected on his experience with family separation, one that he said took a significant toll on his wife and children. Khan Suri credits his wife, Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, with being a critical support system for their children, calling her a "blessing." However, he’s still processing the pain of separation, he said. "For my family also, I feel the power dynamic changed. I am no more the provider or protector I once was," he said. "But I have survivor’s clarity, as I saw the injustice. I am rebuilding my journey with meaning and truth." Parenting from detention, he said, "was one of the most heartbreaking parts of my experience — but also the one that kept me going."

Trump’s big bad bill auctions off our pristine Arctic wilderness for corporate pillaging
Protect the Arctic: You’ve been hearing for weeks about the giant reconciliation bill that Republicans are working to push through Congress. Well, we won’t beat around the bush: THIS IS THE WORST ENVIRONMENTAL BILL IN HISTORY. It FORCES the government to sell off millions of acres of our public Arctic land for oil and gas development, allowing big corporations to run roughshod over sacred Native lands, critical wildlife preserves, and pristine wilderness. They’re selling off our children’s birthright for pennies on the dollar so they can pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. We need all hands on deck ASAP to stop this dystopian nightmare from becoming reality. Click here to make your voice heard and tell the Senate to protect the Arctic and STOP the sale of our public lands!