Welcome to Tuesday, July 30th, domestic and international house of pancakers...

Whose voice will rise? Who will sing their swan song? We find out over the next two nights during the second round of Democratic debates.

Tonight, the two liberal front-runners - Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont - will face off at the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit.

They'll be joined by eight other candidates, including Mayor Pete Buttigieg and self-help guru Marianne Williamson.

Click here to watch the debate live.

How do you feel about the lineup?

On the Radar

9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

In a White House ceremony on Monday, President Donald Trump signed the Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act into law. 

Trump delivered remarks to first responders at the Rose Garden on Monday:

“To every 9/11 hero, you poured out your heart, your sweat, your soul, and everything you had for your country. You ran toward the wreckage, into a ball of flames, like, frankly, nobody in this country had ever seen."

The bill’s enactment extends the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) through FY2090 and will reimburse victims suffering from 9/11-connected illnesses whose benefits have been reduced since February 2019 because of a funding shortfall in the VCF. The bill is named after three 9/11 first responders who advocated for the legislation and were among the 2,000 first responders to die from 9/11-related cancers and illnesses.

How do you feel about Trump signing the Never Forget the Heroes Act into law?

 ‘Medicare for All’ x Private Insurers

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has released a “Medicare for All” plan that stops short of eliminating private insurance.

Harris’ proposal, which comes days before she takes the stage for the second Democratic presidential debate, calls for transitioning to a Medicare for All system over a 10-year period.

“At the end of the 10-year transition, every American will be a part of this new Medicare system. They will get insurance either through the new public Medicare plan or a Medicare plan offered by a private insurer within that system,” Harris said.

Harris’ plan positions her to the right of progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who wants to cover all Americans with a government-administered healthcare plan.

"It's bad policy, bad politics, and compared to Medicare for All it vastly expands the ability for private insurance corporations to profit from over-billing and denying care to vulnerable patients who need it the most," Sanders’ policy director, Josh Orton, told CNN.

Do you support 'Medicare for All' that preserves private insurance?

Under the Radar

Campaigns & Social Media Bots

Candidates, campaigns, and political organizations would be required to disclose information regarding social media bots if Congress passes Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) Bot Disclosure and Accountability Act of 2019.

Social media bots are software programs that replicate human activity on social media platforms, often tricking users into believing they are interacting with another human.

“We know Russia used social media to influence the 2016 election, particularly the deployment of bots that provide content to fake accounts,” Feinstein said. “These bots were used for one purpose: to deceive voters. This bill prohibits bots from being used in any effort that seeks to subvert future elections.”

Jamie Lee Williams, a lawyer at digital rights' advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the measure presents a perilous reduction in free-speech rights.

“What scares me a lot is this idea that First Amendment protections are too great and we should whittle it back and relax our standards and allow more government restrictions on speech—giving the government the power to police speech is a dangerous thing," Williams said.

Do you support banning the use of social media bots in elections?

Medicare & Medicaid Anniversary

On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law, which created America’s first federal health insurance programs: Medicare and Medicaid.

They were part of LBJ’s Great Society, a collection of domestic policies and programs his administration pursued which set a goal of eliminating poverty. Medicare was conceived to provide health insurance for people over age 65, while Medicaid offered coverage to poor families.

After more than a half century of service, Medicare is in need of an overhaul as spending on insurance under the program is expected to outpace incoming tax revenue. Given the distance between Democratic and Republican proposals on the issue, it’s likely that safety net programs such as these will remain a political flashpoint well into the future.

Read about the programs' history, then join the conversation:

How do you feel about Medicare & Medicaid on their anniversary?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should Homeland Security Conduct an Annual Study of ‘Deepfakes’?