#social-safety-net — Public Fediverse posts

https://www.europesays.com/unitedstates/57060/ Choose Traditional Medicare 2026, avoid For-Profit “Medicare Advantage” #Health #HealthCare #Retirement #Retirement&SocialSecurity #SocialSafetyNet #SocialSecurity

#COMMON.GOOD <> #PUBLIC.GOOD <> #SOCIETY #SOCIAL.SAFETY.NET <> #SOCIAL.SECURITY <> #SOCIETY #BAD.POLL.numbers? #Need.some.FEAR.TACTICS?? Be.our.guest #SCREAM.SOCIALISM Every.chance.you.get... We'll.be.watching.you... 🎵heh heh

@naomiaklein.bsky.social "The very process of arguing for a universal #socialsafetynet opens up a space for a full-throated debate about values...what we owe to one another based on our shared humanity & what...we collectively value more than economic growth & corporate profits." #OrderOfTheSacredEarth bit.ly/4sqRlZ3

https://www.europesays.com/conflicts/31624/ Opinion | Books or Bombs? France’s Student Revolt vs. NATO’s Spending Push #France #MilitaryBudget #NATO #Protests #SocialSafetyNet #students #TrumpAdministration

Opinion | Books or Bombs? France’s Student Revolt vs. NATO’s Spending Push https://www.byteseu.com/2440206/ #Europe #France #MilitaryBudget #NATO #Protests #SocialSafetyNet #students #TrumpAdministration

https://www.europesays.com/unitedstates/24698/ State, local governments urge Congress to tweak SNAP’s recent changes under H.R. 1 #Congress #Legislation #LocalGovernment #nga #PaymentErrorRate #SNAP #SocialSafetyNet #StateBudgets #StateGovernment

Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Ad Backfires as MAGA Erupts Over a White Medicaid Recipient

Sarah Huckabee Sanders cast a white Medicaid recipient in her ad. MAGA’s backlash exposes racial resentment—and the politics that turn working people against their own healthcare.

When “National Security” Becomes a Weapon Against Social Security by Lawson Akhigbe

https://lawakhigbe.com/2026/09/10/when-national-security-becomes-a-weapon-against-social-security-by-lawson-akhigbe/

Working full-time, still on food assistance

Why employees at a billion-dollar company still need food stamps

#workingpoor #amazon #socialsafetynet

E-Land Free Meal Center Marks 2nd Anniversary, Serves 370,000 Meals

A full view of the free meal center Achimae Manna near Seoul Station. Photo courtesy of the E-Land…
#EuropeSays #Korea #KR #Seoul #Achim-aeManna #E-LandWelfareFoundation #freemealcenter #privatedonations #SeoulStation #socialsafetynet #volunteerservice #vulnerablepopulations
https://www.europesays.com/korea/92564/

Canada-British Columbia Cooperative Prosperity Agreement announced by Carney & Eby

Prime Minister Mark Carney and BC Premier David Eby make joint prosperity announcement on July 2, 2026 in…
#Canada #MarkCarney #bcelection2028 #Criticalminerals #electricitygrid #FinanceMinisterBrendaBailey #LookWest #Main-Economy #Main-Politics #majorprojects #Mining #Pipelines #premierdavideby #PrimeMinisterMarkCarney #socialsafetynet
https://www.europesays.com/canada/113701/

Millions Lose Food Stamps Under Trump Cuts as Arizona Becomes Ground Zero

https://thedemocracyadvocate.com/economy-and-labor/millions-lose-food-stamps-under-trump-cuts/

Here's another take on the DOJ's "opinion" (against the Olmstead #SCotUS decision).
Mother Jones says it's about putting homeless in institutions, not about physical building access, as other orgs have interepreted.
#fascist #USA #eugenics #GOP #KKK #DEI #ICE #DHS #SocialSafetyNet #public #hospitals #mental #health #disabled #access #ramps #accessible #bathroom
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/06/trump-doj-memo-olmstead-psychiatric-disabilities-institutions-mental-health/

Bangladesh Expands Universal Pension Scheme to Strengthen Private-Sector Social Security

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.pressenza.com/2026/06/bangladesh-expands-universal-pension-scheme-to-strengthen-private-sector-social-security/

Help Is Not the Same as a Future

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 15, 2026

The Difference No One Warns You About

There is a distinction that matters more than most people realize, and it is one America is very careful not to teach explicitly. Help and a future are not the same thing. One can exist without the other, and often does.

I learned that lesson most clearly in Minnesota.

After Illinois, help felt like progress. Assistance existed. People noticed. Systems responded. Compared to what I had known before, that alone felt like a step forward. It took time to understand that help, by itself, does not change trajectory. It only stabilizes the present.

A future requires something else entirely.

When Assistance Works as Designed

Minnesota’s support systems did what they were supposed to do. Food pantries were available. Churches stepped in with grocery vouchers. State assistance existed and was accessible. None of it was humiliating or hostile.

This matters, and it should not be minimized. Compared to many states, Minnesota treats need as a condition rather than a moral failing. That alone reduces suffering.

But systems designed to alleviate immediate hardship are not the same as systems designed to produce long-term mobility. One keeps you afloat. The other gives you a direction.

Minnesota offered flotation. It did not offer direction.

Stabilization Without Movement

Once basic needs are met, the next question is obvious: what comes next? That is where the silence returned.

Work was available, but it clustered in roles that did not lead anywhere else. Security work. Overnight shifts. Positions that absorbed time and energy without building leverage. These jobs kept people alive, but they did not help them move.

Labor economists have noted that many regional economies rely on what are effectively “containment jobs”—roles that stabilize labor markets without creating upward mobility (Autor, 2019). They are not meant to be ladders. They are meant to be endpoints.

If you enter one of those jobs from the outside, you tend to stay there.

The Ceiling You Don’t Hit—You Just Reach

In more openly stratified states, ceilings announce themselves. Wages stall. Housing becomes impossible. You are pushed out.

In Minnesota, the ceiling is quieter. You simply stop rising.

You receive help. You survive. You do not advance.

There is no dramatic rejection. No explicit denial. Just a gradual realization that nothing is opening further, no matter how steady your effort remains.

This is a subtler form of closure, and in some ways, it is more dangerous. It encourages patience where action might otherwise occur. It teaches people to wait.

Temporary Lives Become Permanent

When help replaces opportunity, lives become provisional. You do not plan long-term. You do not invest. You do not imagine permanence.

You tell yourself you are “getting through this period,” even when the period stretches into years.

Sociological research on precarity shows that long-term instability, even when buffered by assistance, erodes planning capacity and future orientation (Standing, 2011). People adapt to the absence of forward motion by shrinking their expectations.

That adaptation is rational. It is also corrosive.

Why Decency Is Not Enough

Minnesota is often held up as evidence that decency solves inequality. The logic is appealing: if systems are kind, outcomes will improve.

But kindness does not rewire labor markets. It does not dismantle closed networks. It does not create pathways where none exist.

Decency reduces harm. It does not redistribute access.

That is not a moral critique. It is a structural one.

The Emotional Cost of Waiting

There is a particular exhaustion that comes from being told, implicitly, that things are fine because you are being helped. Gratitude becomes an obligation. Frustration becomes inappropriate.

After all, the system is doing its part.

This dynamic silences critique. It frames dissatisfaction as ingratitude. It keeps people from naming the absence of a future because the present is tolerable.

I felt that pressure in Minnesota. I felt the need to justify leaving a place that had treated me decently—despite knowing I could not build a life there.

When Leaving Is the Only Honest Choice

Eventually, circumstances made the decision easier. My daughter returned to Texas. The reason I had come to Minnesota dissolved. What remained was a choice between staying static or moving on.

Leaving did not feel dramatic. It felt necessary.

That is often how exits happen in systems that offer help without futures. People do not flee. They drift away when they realize waiting will not change anything.

A National Pattern, Not a Local Failure

This essay is not an indictment of Minnesota alone. It describes a pattern visible across many “well-run” states and cities.

Assistance expands. Opportunity contracts. People survive longer without advancing further.

This is how inequality becomes normalized. Not through cruelty, but through containment.

Naming the Distinction Clearly

Help matters. It saves lives. It reduces suffering. It should exist everywhere.

But help is not a future.

A future requires access to networks, mobility, housing stability, and work that compounds rather than consumes time. Without those, assistance becomes a holding pattern.

Minnesota taught me that lesson clearly.

It showed me that survival and progress are not the same thing—and that confusing the two can cost you years.

References

Autor, D. (2019). Work of the past, work of the future. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109, 1–32.
Standing, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. Bloomsbury Academic.

Navigating uncertainty: Lessons from ongoing social protection responses to high energy prices https://www.byteseu.com/2002715/ #Article #Business&Workforce #CenterForSustainableDevelopment #Climate&Energy #Commentary #DevelopmentFinancing #economy #EnergyMarkets&Governance #FutureDevelopment #GlobalEconomy&Development #GlobalEconomyAndDevelopment #Labor&Unemployment #SocialSafetyNet #USEconomy

Opinion | Tax Day Realities: Nuclear Weapons and Our Dangerous, Misguided Priorities https://www.byteseu.com/1940692/ #BackFromTheBrink #DoomsdayClock #InternationalLaw #Nuclear #NuclearWar #NuclearWeapons #SocialSafetyNet #TAXDAY

https://www.europesays.com/iran/57143/ Mutual aid Helps the Million Lebanese Israel Displaced #Israel #kahanists #Lebanon #SocialSafetyNet #War

Trump Says It Out Loud: GOP Prioritizes War Over Healthcare, Childcare, and Survival

Trump openly dismisses healthcare and childcare as scams, revealing a GOP agenda that prioritizes war over people and shifts the burden to struggling states.

#naomiklein: "The very process of arguing for a universal #socialsafetynet opens up a space for a full-throated debate about values...what we owe to one another based on our shared humanity & what...we collectively value more than economic growth & corporate profits."
#OrderOfTheSacredEarth
https://bit.ly/4sqRlZ3

Capitalism has a Math Problem: How Wealth Growth Devours the Middle Class

Anand Giridharadas reveals how the “Epstein class” protected power and privilege across parties while victims waited for justice.

https://www.europesays.com/2792116/ IMF Urges China to Shift Towards Consumption-Led Growth #ChinaEconomy #ConsumptionLedGrowth #DomesticDemand #Economy #ExportDependence #FiscalStimulus #GlobalGrowth #IMF #IMFReport #InternationalMonetaryFund #MonetaryPolicy #PropertySlump #SocialSafetyNet

A little-known way the tax code subsidizes spending on health care https://www.byteseu.com/1554757/ #Article #Commentary #FederalFiscal&TaxPolicy #Health #Health&Aging #HealthCare #HealthCarePolicy #RetirementSecurityProject #SocialSafetyNet #U.S.Economy

The cost of living is getting worse in Anglosphere countries. These countries include the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.

Resource:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Urbanism/comments/1kil0gl/the_anglosphere_has_a_housing_shortage/

#anglosphere
#affordablehousing
#affordability
#welfare
#socialsafetynet
#us
#uk
#canada
#australia
#ireland

US judge orders Trump administration to fully fund Snap benefits in November as shutdown continues – Firstpost

A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the US President Dona…
#UnitedStates #US #USA #DonaldTrump #federaljudgeruling #foodstampsprogram #low-incomeAmericans #POTUS #presidentdonaldtrump #presidentoftheUnitedStates #presidenttrump #SNAPbenefits #socialsafetynet #supplementalnutritionassistanceprogram #trump #TrumpAdministration #USGovernmentShutdown
https://www.europesays.com/2551679/

https://www.europesays.com/2551679/ US judge orders Trump administration to fully fund Snap benefits in November as shutdown continues – Firstpost #DonaldTrump #FederalJudgeRuling #FoodStampsProgram #LowIncomeAmericans #POTUS #PresidentDonaldTrump #PresidentOfTheUnitedStates #PresidentTrump #SNAPBenefits #SocialSafetyNet #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #trump #TrumpAdministration #USGovernmentShutdown

https://www.europesays.com/uk/554455/ US judge orders Trump administration to fully fund Snap benefits in November as shutdown continues – Firstpost #FederalJudgeRuling #FoodStampsProgram #LowIncomeAmericans #SNAPBenefits #SocialSafetyNet #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #us #USGovernmentShutdown #USA

With the #shutdown, #outofwork / #opentowork despite trying so hard to find a new role, needing #healthinsurance and so much more...? aka doing it tough in the USA? :\
--
Try here maybe? :)
https://www.findhelp.org/
--
#resources #socialsafetynet #findhelp #help #assistance

Now that it looks as though #Labor have NOT looked after the #environment, have NOT done anything about the investment-real estate nexus, it’s time to celebrate Labot NOT doing anthing to fix the messed up #SocialSafetyNet.

Here #FirstDogOnTheMoon explains it all…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/oct/27/welfare-in-australia-is-a-cruel-shambles-how-about-we-actually-try-to-help-people-not-squish-them?

How Wildfires and other Climate Disasters put Health Systems under extreme Pressure https://www.byteseu.com/1484727/ #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #GlobalWarming #HealthCare #SocialSafetyNet #Wildfires

https://www.europesays.com/2522763/ How Wildfires and other Climate Disasters put Health Systems under extreme Pressure #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #GlobalWarming #HealthCare #SocialSafetyNet #wildfires

Democrats halt half the country’s food aid programs over shutdown stalemate

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.theblaze.com/news/democrats-halt-half-the-countrys-food-aid-programs-over-shutdown-stalemate

I had a dicussion about Ford and Trump and I drove the point that what made Ford successful were counter to Trumps policies. How the two are like apples and oranges. Ford increased pay, Trump has increased cost, while firing and reducing pay/purchasing power.

Increasing wages enhances consumer purchasing power, giving workers more disposable income to spend on goods and services. This boost in purchasing power drives demand, benefiting businesses across various sectors. Higher consumer spending stimulates local economies and creates a positive cycle of economic activity. Additionally, elevating wages leads to improved worker morale, reduced turnover, and increased productivity. When employees feel valued and adequately compensated, they are more likely to invest effort and loyalty in their jobs, contributing positively to a company’s bottom line and overall economic growth.

By increasing wages, fewer workers will rely on government assistance programs, which reduces the burden on taxpayers and allows government funds to be redirected toward infrastructure, education, and healthcare—areas that promote long-term economic stability. While tariffs may aim to protect domestic industries, they often result in unintended consequences, such as higher prices for consumers and retaliatory measures from trading partners. Tariffs can distort market dynamics, potentially leading to job losses in sectors reliant on global supply chains. In contrast, investing in wages fosters a more equitable and stable economy, as evidenced by historical data indicating that periods of rising wages often coincide with economic expansion, unlike tariffs which can lead to contraction and instability.

#WageIncrease #EconomicGrowth #ConsumerSpending #EmployeeMorale #Productivity #WorkersRights #EquitableEconomy #TariffImpact #SustainableGrowth #LaborMarket #BusinessStrategy #SocialSafetyNet #EconomicStability

Republican’s #TownHall Blows Up in His Face as He’s Showered in Boos

by Robert McCoy
Fri, August 1, 2025

"#BryanSteil entered the Elkhorn High School auditorium on Thursday to resounding boos, and faced a raucous crowd for the duration of the 80-minute session, including fierce questions on his support of Trump’s agenda, as well as frequent interruptions, chants, and jeering.

"Attendees were evidently fired up over Steil’s support of Trump’s budget, poised to tilt taxes in favor of the #rich while tattering the #SocialSafetyNet. Steil defended his vote on the bill, which is also estimated to balloon the national debt by trillions of dollars. (When the lawmaker mentioned national debt as a pressing issue, one attendee interjected: 'Thanks to you!')

"He also voiced his support of Trump’s controversial immigration policies—a topic which elicited 'some of the loudest boos,' according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"More than one person in attendance referred to the Florida immigrant detention camp callously dubbed '#AlligatorAlcatraz' as a #ConcentrationCamp, which Steil objected to. A constituent noted that 'the difference between a #prison or a #DetentionCenter and a concentration camp is #DueProcess.'

"Steil also had to address Trump’s tariffs (which one attendee called 'a terrible tax that’s going to be placed on the citizens of the United States'), as well as Trump’s push to all but abolish the Department of Education ('Education is best resolved at the local level,' Steil said).

"Many questions Steil faced reflected a widespread perception that Steil is in Trump’s pocket. One attendee said, 'Southeast #Wisconsin has not been represented by you. President Trump seems to run Southeast Wisconsin through you.'

"Another made similar remarks in the context of immigration. 'What I see happening to our #Immigrant population embarrasses me—horrifies me,' she said.
You have not raised a voice to complain about it. Where do I see your leadership? I see no leadership—I see you following Trump 100 percent of the time.' In response to this latter question, Steil, ironically, 'lauded Trump’s executive orders and #deportations,' Wisconsin #PublicRadio reports."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/republican-town-hall-blows-face-132736634.html

#USPol #TaxBreaksForTheRich #BigUglyBill #MedicaidCuts #SNAPCuts #PublicBroadcastingCuts #DoYourJob #WeKnowWhereYouLive

"The children’s savings program included in Pres. Donald Trump’s tax break-and-spending cut law 'is a back door for privatizing Social Security,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said":
https://apnews.com/article/trump-child-savings-bessent-privatizing-social-security-97607050cfed0c423833ee7da88b4830 #SocialSecurity #SocialSafetyNet

Why we need a #solidarity #economy now

As the #US faces historic cuts to the #socialsafetynet, local #economic alternatives can meet #basicneeds and provide #opportunities to #organize for a better future.

https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/07/why-we-need-solidarity-economy-now/

WHAT IS THE "PROBLEM" T****'s #BigBloatedBullshitBill trying to "solve"?

As Jen points out, #Obama's first big bills were to resolve the financial crisis #Dubya left him, and to pass the #AffordableCareAct.

#Biden ALSO had to bailout the country after #DisasterDon collapsed the economy, and end the #Pandemic.

So, what does the #BBB "fix"? It SLASHES the #SocialSafetyNet, but DOESN'T SAVE any money. #UE was only 4.2%.

So what are they wasting so much time & energy on?🤔
https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/the-backlash-begins-republicans-heading-home-from-d-c-face-local-protests-over-trump-bill-242696261879

Paul Krugman warns that Medicaid's rising popularity challenges GOP efforts to slash its funding. He contrasts today's attacks with past failures against Medicare and Social Security, emphasizing Medicaid’s importance for low-income Americans. With an 83% approval rating—helped by Republican support—any attempts to cut it may backfire politically. For more insights, read the full article here: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/republicans-beware-medicaid-is-not #Medicaid #PaulKrugman #Healthcare #Republicans #SocialSafetyNet #PublicOpinion

Doctors Warn Medicaid Cuts in Senate Budget Bill Will Kill Their Patients

Protests against Medicaid cuts continued on June 25, which led to the arrests of 60 activists at the Senate.

https://voices.murica.website/?p=25432

Senator Bernie Sanders' report unveils the alarming consequences of GOP budget cuts to Medicaid, claiming 19 Americans would lose health coverage for every millionaire benefiting from tax breaks. Healthcare professionals warn that these cuts could lead to unnecessary deaths, especially among vulnerable groups. Sanders argues that this legislation is a "death sentence" for low-income families and insists healthcare should be a universal right. Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/trump-mike-johnson-millionaires/ #GOPBudget #Healthcare #BernieSanders #MedicaidCuts #TaxBreaks #PublicHealth #SocialSafetyNet

Whelp, I think it's safe to say political observers who thought the GOP-controlled US Senate might mitigate the homicidal awfulness of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are going to have to eat the L now; in the immortal worlds of Lando Calrissian, "this deal is getting worse all the time." What's worse than a nightmare class war theft and murder bill that will kill labor class Americans to make the uber-wealthy even richer? How about adding an *additional* billion dollars worth of tax breaks for fossil fuel companies boiling you and your children to death, courtesy of James Lankford, the Republican Senator from Oklahoma.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-big-oil-tax-giveaway

Senate GOP Adds $1 Billion Tax 'Giveaway' for Big O​il to Budget Bill

"That provision was secured by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), and the benefits would largely flow to companies based in his home state.

As Dayen wrote, the CAMT is "a fairly clean tax provision as these things go." It currently requires companies that bring in more than $1 billion to pay 15% of the profits they report to shareholders.

However, the Senate Republican draft would modify that calculation to account for "intangible drilling and development costs," which would allow companies to declare lower profits and put many of them below the threshold required to pay the 15% tax.

According to Bloomberg, companies including ConocoPhillips, Ovintiv, and Civitas Resources lobbied in favor of the bill. Lankford, meanwhile, received more than $546,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry—his top source of industry donations—between 2019 and 2024 according to OpenSecrets."

My favorite thing about the Trump-era fascist Republican party is the way their open hatemongering and authoritarianism makes talking about the usual corruption and pro-corporate malevolence they still engage in seem almost quaint. Wait, no, I actually hate that about the Trump-era GOP. Back in the time before you could eliminate entire departments of the government because "woke," what Lankford is doing here by securing tax breaks for gigantic polluters in his district who also donate to his election campaigns, would be described as "pork barreling" by a mainstream media far too polite to just admit this is bog standard bribery and corruption.

Of course, a billion dollars worth of tax credits is a pretty massive fucking barrel of pork, and as the article notes this isn't even the only billion dollar giveaway for oil companies Lankford is trying to engineer right now. Furthermore, this comes in addition to the obscene tax breaks the murderous GOP "Billionaire Bill" already gave giant oil companies and fossil fuel investors when it passed the GOP-controlled House. I guess now we know why the Senate instituted even deeper healthcare cuts after getting their hands on a bill they *still* can't get past the Senate Parliamentarian without just agreeing to ignore him.

All of which doesn't even factor in that the industry bribing Lankford for what amounts to a billion dollar subsidy is actively boiling the planet to death and driving an unfolding climate catastrophe that is already claiming disproportionately labor class American lives. In the end, what this obscene budget reconciliation proves is that at almost every opportunity, and in so many different ways its hard to actually keep track of them all, the Republican party is committed to just straight up killing people so the rich can get richer; and in the second Trump era, they don't really give a shit if you know that either. I'd suggest it's a bold election strategy, but if I'm being entirely honest I don't think a politically-empowered American fascist movement that has already justified militarized repression, ethnic cleansing, and fascist violence against anyone who opposes their political program, is likely to allow anything resembling a free and fair election to curtail their burgeoning power.

#GOP #Budget #USPol #ClassWar #Theft #Murder #BillionaireBill #BigOil #Oligarchy #ClimateCrisis #JamesLankford #Medicaid #SocialSafetyNet

Lazy Caturday Reads

Their Cat, by Pauline Bewick

Good Afternoon!!

The epic spat between Trump and Musk is still dominating the media landscape, but that childish story should get some competition soon from the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. The Trump administration finally decided to bring him back after they invented some “crimes” to charge him with and took them to a grand jury in Tennessee. The trumped up charges led a long-time prosecutor there to abruptly resign. Meanwhile, even though Musk is gone, DOGE is still working to steal all our private data. On the ICE/mass deportation front, Los Angeles looked like a war zone yesterday.

I’ll get to each of these stories, beginning with Abrego Garcia.

The Return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

CNN: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, has been returned to the United States to face federal criminal charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.

For months, the Trump administration has been locked in an intense standoff with the federal judiciary over court orders for the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador, where he was mistakenly deported in mid-March, in a situation that one federal judge warned could present an “incipient crisis” between the two branches.

Abrego Garcia has been indicted on two criminal counts in the Middle District of Tennessee: conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.

The indictment unsealed Friday afternoon accuses Abrego Garcia and others of partaking in a conspiracy in recent years in which they “knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens who had no authorization to be present in the United States, and many of whom were MS-13 members and associates.”

Abrego Garcia and his family say he fled gang violence in El Salvador and have denied allegations he’s associated with MS-13.

The White House and the State Department made the decision to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, accused the Trump administration of “playing games” with the legal system and said his client should appear in immigration court, not criminal court.

“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement to CNN. “Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”

The alleged “crimes”:

The allegations date back to 2016 and involve a half-dozen alleged unnamed co-conspirators, with one, identified as CC-6 of Guatemala, described as being a “primary sources of supply of undocumented aliens for the conspiracy.”

Man with cat, Theresa Tanner

The conspiracy allegations outline how, over the years, Abrego Garcia and others worked to move undocumented aliens between Texas and Maryland and other states more than 100 times.

Working with another co-conspirator, referred to as CC-1, Abrego Garcia and that unnamed individual “ordinarily picked up the undocumented aliens in the Houston, Texas area after the aliens had unlawfully crossed the Southern border of the United States from Mexico,” the indictment said.

The two “then transported the undocumented aliens from Texas to other parts of the United States to further the aliens’ unlawful presence in the United States.”

You can read more details on the trumped up charges at the CNN link.

ABC News: Abrego Garcia indictment led top federal prosecutor in Tennessee to resign: Sources.

The decision to pursue the indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia led to the abrupt departure of Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee, sources briefed on Schrader’s decision told ABC News.

Schrader’s resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons, the sources said.

Schrader, who spent 15 years in the U.S. A

ttorney’s Office in Nashville, and was most recently the chief of the criminal division, did not respond to messages from ABC News seeking comment.

Analysis by Alan Feuer at The New York Times (gift link): Return of Wrongly Deported Man Raises Questions About Trump’s Views of Justice.

When Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Friday that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia had been returned to the United States to face criminal charges after being wrongfully deported to a prison in El Salvador, she sought to portray the move as the White House dutifully upholding the rule of law.

“This,” she said, “is what American justice looks like.”

Her assertion, however, failed to grapple with the fact that for the nearly three months before the Justice Department secured an indictment against Mr. Abrego Garcia, it had repeatedly flouted a series of court orders — including one from the Supreme Court — to “facilitate” his release.

While the indictment filed against Mr. Abrego Garcia contained serious allegations, accusing him of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants as a member of the street gang MS-13, it had no bearing on the issues that have sat at the heart of the case since his summary expulsion in March.

Those were whether Mr. Abrego Garcia had received due process when he was plucked off the streets without a warrant and expelled days later to a prison in El Salvador, in what even Trump officials have repeatedly admitted was an error. And, moreover, whether administration officials should be held in contempt for repeatedly stonewalling a judge’s effort to get to the bottom of their actions.

Well before Mr. Abrego Garcia’s family filed a lawsuit seeking to force the White House to release him from El Salvador, administration officials had tried all means at their disposal to keep him overseas as they figured out a solution to the problem they had created, The New York Times found in a recent investigation.

Will Barnet, Interlude

Feuer discusses the Trump administration’s machinations:

In the days before the administration’s error was made public, officials at the Department of Homeland Security discussed portraying Mr. Abrego Garcia as a “leader” of MS-13, even though they could find no evidence to support the claim. They considered ways to nullify the original order that had barred his deportation to El Salvador. And they sought to downplay the danger he might face in one of that country’s most notorious prisons.

To Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, it was no surprise that the same officials who had fought so hard against securing his return suddenly agreed to bring him back to U.S. soil after they had obtained an indictment that bolstered the story they had been telling from the start.

“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along — that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” said Andrew Rossman, one of the lawyers. “It’s now up to our judicial system to see that Mr. Abrego Garcia receives the due process that the Constitution guarantees.”

Questions have already been raised about the criminal case, filed in Federal District Court in Nashville. There was concern and disagreement in recent weeks among prosecutors about how to proceed with the charges, two people familiar with the matter said, leading to the resignation of a supervisor in the federal prosecutor’s office handling the case.

Use the gift link to read the whole article. You can also read Marcy Wheeler’s take on the indictment at Emptywheel.

The Trump-Musk Split

There are gossipy article at the NYT, the WaPo, and the Atlantic.

Tyler Pager, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Theodore Schleifer, and Ryan Mac at The New York Times: Buildup to a Meltdown: How the Trump-Musk Alliance Collapsed.

Just minutes before he walked into the Oval Office for a televised send-off for Elon Musk last week, an aide had handed him a file.

The papers showed that Mr. Trump’s nominee to run NASA — a close associate of Mr. Musk’s — had donated to prominent Democrats in recent years, including some who Mr. Trump was learning about for the first time.

The president set his outrage aside and mustered through a cordial public farewell. But as soon as the cameras left the Oval Office, the president confronted Mr. Musk. He started to read some of the donations out loud, shaking his head.

This was not good, the president said.

Artist Luis Garces Bonhemio y el gato

Mr. Musk, who was sporting a black eye that he blamed on a punch from his young son, tried to explain. He said Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who was set to become the next NASA administrator, cared about getting things done. Yes, he had donated to Democrats, but so had a lot of people.

Maybe it’s a good thing, Mr. Musk told the president — it shows that you’re willing to hire people of all stripes.

But Mr. Trump was unmoved. He said that people don’t change. These are the types of people who will turn, he said, and it won’t end up being good for us.

The moment of pique was a signal of the simmering tensions between the two men that would explode into the open less than a week later, upending what had been one of the most extraordinary alliances in American politics.

That’s the NYT take. Obviously, having a friend as head of NASA would be very good for Musk’s businesses.

Cat Zakrzewski, Natalie Allison, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Jeff Stein, and Emily Davies at The Washington Post (gift link): Inside the battles that shattered Trump and Musk’s alliance.

President Donald Trump was dejected, processing his very public split with the world’s richest man.

Rattled in the wake of Elon Musk’s public attacks and apparent call for his impeachment, Trump worked the phones, debriefing close confidants and casual acquaintances alike. His former ally was “a big-time drug addict,” Trump said at one point as he tried to make sense of Musk’s behavior, according to a person with knowledge of the call, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Musk has acknowledged using ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, which he says was prescribed for him to treat depression. The New York Times recently reported that he was using so much ketamine on the campaign trail that he told people it was affecting his bladder, and he traveled with a pill box with medication with the marking of Adderall. White House officials said that Trump’s concern about Musk’s drug use, stemming in part from media reports, was one factor driving the two men apart.

But the president, who historically hasn’t hesitated to fire off deeply personal, blistering social media posts about others who have insulted him, was more muted regarding Musk than friends and advisers expected. In the aftermath of his Thursday faceoff with Musk, he urged those around him not to pour gasoline on the fire, according to two people with knowledge of his behavior. He told Vice President JD Vance to be cautious with how he spoke publicly about the Musk situation.

But although the break between Musk and Trump only exploded into public view on Thursday, cracks in the alliance began to appear much earlier. As Musk’s “move fast and break things” bravado complicated the White House’s ambitions to remake American society, the billionaire alienated key members of the White House staff, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and quarreled with Cabinet members, physically coming to blows with one.

That’s the introduction; read all the gossip at the WaPo. I’ve included a gift link, because it’s an interesting article.

Jonathan Lemire, Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, and Russell Berman at The Atlantic (gift link): Inside the Trump-Musk Breakup.

For once, President Donald Trump was trying to be the adult in the room.

Trump and Elon Musk, two billionaires with massive egos and combustible temperaments, had forged an unlikely friendship over the past year, one built on proximity, political expediency, and, yes, a touch of genuine warmth. Relations between the president and his top benefactor had grown somewhat strained in recent weeks, as Trump began to feel that Musk had overstayed his welcome in the West Wing. Musk had suggested privately that he could stay on at the White House, an offer that Trump gently declined, two people familiar with the situation told us. (They, like others we talked with for this story, spoke anonymously in order to share candid details about a sensitive feud.) But Musk was still given a gracious send-off last Friday—complete with a large golden, albeit ceremonial, key—aimed at keeping the mercurial tech baron more friend than foe.

Will Barnet, The Closed Window

The peace didn’t last even a week.

On Tuesday, Musk took to X to attack the Republican spending bill being debated in the Senate, trashing Trump’s signature piece of legislation as “a disgusting abomination.” Even as the White House tried to downplay any differences, Musk couldn’t let go of his grievances—the exclusion of electric-vehicle tax credits from the bill, and Trump’s rejection of Musk’s pick to run NASA.

Yesterday, the planet’s richest man attacked its most powerful. Each took aim at the other from their respective social-media platform, forcing rubberneckers into a madcap toggle between Truth Social and X. Trump deemed his former aide “CRAZY,” while Musk went much further, dramatically escalating the feud by calling for Trump’s impeachment, suggesting that the president had been part of Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious sex-trafficking ring, and—likely worst of all in Trump’s mind—taking credit for the president’s election in November.

For one day, Musk made X great again. The spectacle seemed to subside today, as Trump showed—at least by his standards—some restraint. The president insisted that he was not thinking about Musk and wanted only to pass the reconciliation bill that had featured in the brawl. Musk, meanwhile, has far more to lose: his newfound stardom within the MAGA movement, his personal wealth, and government contracts worth billions to his businesses.

Steven Bannon, the influential Trump adviser who has long been critical of Musk, crowed that the tech billionaire’s attacks on Trump were so personal that he won’t be forgiven by the MAGA crowd. “Only the fanboys are going to stick with him—he’s a man without a country,” Bannon told us.

Use the gift link to read the whole thing if you’re intersted.

Greg Sargent strips away the gossip and gets to the meat of the Trump-Musk disagreements at The New Republic: The Real Reason for the Trump-Musk Feud is Uglier Than You Think.

As the war between Donald Trump and Elon Musk worsens, what’s truly odd about this whole spectacle is that the actual substantive disagreement between them seems to be of little interest to media observers. And when you strip away the trolling and shitposting, here’s what becomes clear: This is really a battle over how comprehensively to screw over poor and working people, largely to the benefit of the wealthy.

The superficial argument between them, of course, is over Musk’s opposition to the “big, beautiful bill” that the House passed and that Trump wants the Senate to adopt. That opposition is rooted in Musk’s claim that the bill is loaded with “pork” and will explode the deficit. Trump, meanwhile, is infuriated by Musk because he can’t brook criticism and wants the bill to pass to notch a victory.

But the respective positions underlying those stances are mysteriously missing from the whole Trump-Musk discourse. Flush them into the open, and it helps illuminate the true spectrum of the MAGA movement’s ideological goals—and why its “pro-worker populist” pretensions are so thoroughly phony.

The House GOP bill would entail a large upward transfer of resources. The bill, which would continue Trump’s 2017 tax law and add new tax giveaways for wealthy investors, heirs, and others, would deliver a big tax cut to those in the highest income brackets. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the tax cuts enjoyed by those in the bottom 20 percent in 2027 would be one seven-hundredth the size of those reaped by the top 1 percent.

By Theresa Tanner

Worse, those relative table scraps for the bottom could be erased by other changes. The bill’s massive cuts to Medicaid and other health care changes would result in over 10 million people losing health insurance. Add in other cuts to the safety net, and you see why the bill ultimately would lower household resources for the bottom 10 percent while raising them for the top 10 percent—a sizable redistribution upward. As Paul Krugman notes, the bill’s “cruelty is exceptional even by right wing standards.”

Musk is angry about the $2.4 trillion those changes would add to the debt. But, crucially, he’s said little—if anything—about the role that those tax cuts for the rich would have in that outcome. He is primarily obsessed with the bill’s “pork,” meaning that he wants the bill to cut more spending—much, much more.

Where would that money come from? Musk’s cuts via his Department of Government Efficiency have already decimated foreign aid and other programs, producing more starvation, disease, and death among the global poor. Given that DOGE searched for “waste, fraud, and abuse” and found very little, if Musk wants massive additional cuts, by definition they would fall more heavily on important government programs, almost certainly ones that low-income Americans rely upon.

Another way to say this is that their real difference is over how far to push the “waste, fraud, and abuse” scam.

Read the rest at TNR.

What DOGE Is Up To

The New York Times: After His Trump Blowup, Musk May Be Out. But DOGE Is Just Getting Started.

Elon Musk’s blowup with President Trump may have doomed Washington’s most potent partnership, but the billionaire’s signature cost-cutting project has become deeply embedded in Mr. Trump’s administration and could be there to stay.

At the Department of Energy, for example, a former member of the Department of Government Efficiency is now serving as the chief of staff.

At the Interior Department, DOGE members have been converted into federal employees and embedded into the agency, said a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. And at the Environmental Protection Agency, where a spokeswoman said that there are two senior officials associated with the DOGE mission, work continues apace on efforts to dismantle an agency that Mr. Trump has long targeted.

“They are still internally going forward; we don’t really feel as if anything has stopped here,” said Nicole Cantello, a former lawyer for the E.P.A. who represents its union in Chicago.

Whether DOGE keeps its current Musk-inspired form remains an open question. Some DOGE members on Friday expressed concern that the president could choose to retaliate against Mr. Musk by firing people associated with the initiative. Others could choose to leave on their own, following Mr. Musk out the door. And DOGE’s role, even its legality, remain the subject of legal battles amid questions over its attempts to use sensitive government data.

But the approach that DOGE embodied at the outset — deep cuts in spending, personnel and projects — appears to have taken root.

Even with Mr. Musk on the sidelines, DOGE on Friday notched two legal victories. The Supreme Court said that it can have access to sensitive Social Security data and ruled that, for now, the organization does not have to turn over internal records to a government watchdog group as part of a public records lawsuit.

Yes, the Supreme Court has struck again.

NBC News: Supreme Court allows DOGE to access Social Security data.

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed members of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security Administration data.

By Will Barnet

The conservative-majority court, with its three liberal justices objecting, granted an emergency application filed by the Trump administration asking the justices to lift an injunction issued by a federal judge in Maryland.

The unsigned order said that members of the DOGE team assigned to the Social Security Administration should have “access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.”

The lawsuit challenging DOGE’s actions was filed by progressive group Democracy Forward on behalf of two unions — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the American Federation of Teachers — as well as the Alliance for Retired Americans.

“This is a sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people,” the groups said in a statement. “This ruling will enable President Trump and DOGE’s affiliates to steal Americans’ private and personal data.” [….]

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a dissenting opinion questioning the need for the court to intervene on an emergency basis.

“In essence, the ‘urgency’ underlying the government’s stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes,” she added.

Dramatic Protests Against ICE in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles ICE raids spark protests, fear, outrage. ‘Our community is under attack.’

A series of surprise U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps in downtown Los Angeles on Friday prompted fierce pushback from elected officials and protesters, who decried the enforcement actions as “cruel and unnecessary” and said they stoked fear in the immigrant community.

Tensions remained high in downtown into the evening. The Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly and ordered about 200 protesters who remained gathered by the Los Angeles Federal Building to disperse around 7 p.m.

Portrait of Edward Gorey with his cat, by Sam Kalda

The use of so-called less-lethal munitions was authorized at 8 p.m. following reports of a small group of “violent individuals” throwing large pieces of concrete at officers, police said. A citywide tactical alert was issued shortly thereafter.

Chaos erupted earlier in the day in the heart of the Fashion District after federal immigration authorities detained employees inside a clothing wholesaler, and used flash-bang grenades and pepper spray on a crowd protesting the raid around 1:30 p.m.

Hundreds of people then rallied outside the Los Angeles Federal Building at 4 p.m., condemning the crackdown and demanding the release of Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta, who was injured and detained while documenting a raid, according to a statement from the labor union.

“Our community is under attack and has been terrorized,” Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, told the crowd of protesters. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers.”

Forty-four people were administratively arrested and one person was arrested for obstruction during Friday’s immigration action, said Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE. Federal agents executed four search warrants related to the suspected harboring of people illegally in the country at three locations in central Los Angeles, she said.

One more at The Washington Post: Protests erupt in Los Angeles after dozens detained in immigration raids.

Multiple ICE raids in Los Angeles on Friday set off a wave of protests that were met with a show of force by officers in tactical gear, as the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigrationescalates.

Aerial video footage from local media showed officers outside clothing wholesaler Ambiance Apparel, one of the reported locations of the raids, putting handcuffed individuals into white vans, with protesters trying to stop themfrom leaving.Later footage shows officers in tactical gear riding armored vehicles as stun grenades go off throughout the crowd.

Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said at a news conference that as of Friday afternoon, there were seven raids happening throughout the city, including at two Home Depots, a doughnut shop and the clothing wholesaler. She said the organization had confirmed that more than 45 people were detained in the operations, which she described as “random sweeps” that appeared to be carried out without a warrant. The Washington Post could not independently confirm the nature of the raids.

“This has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now,” Salas said.

Photos from Friday show police wearing riot gear and holding shields, batons, guns that shoot pepper balls, and zip ties, as well as chaotic scenes with tear gas going off and demonstrators running away. In a video captured by local media, one protester tries to stop one of law enforcement’s SUVs and is knocked down when the vehicle keeps moving forward….

Among demonstrators detained Friday was David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California, the state’s largest public-sector union, who was injured at one of the ICE raids and treated in custody. SEIU California is calling for his immediate release.

Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, a Trump appointee, responded to Huerta’s arrest on social media, writing, “Federal agents were executing a lawful judicial warrant” when Huerta “deliberately obstructed their access.”

“I don’t care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted,” Essayli said.

That’s it for me–sorry this is so long. Have a great weekend, Sky Dancers!

#BigBeautifulBill_ #HouseBudgetBill #ICERaids #KilmarAbreagoGarcia #LosAngeles #Medicaid #NASA #socialSafetyNet #SocialSecurity #TrumpMuskBreakup

Newscats Insights: One Big Beautiful Bill 101: What It Is and Why It Matters: https://newscats.org/newscats-insights-one-big-beautiful-bill-101-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters

#Democrats #DonaldTrump #OneBigBeautifulBill #PolicyExplained #KnowYourBills #USPolitics #TaxReform #EconomicPolicy #SocialSafetyNet #WorkIncentives #FiscalResponsibility #AmericaFirst #PoliticalExplainer #BillBreakdown #VulnerableAmericans #BorderSecurity #TaxRelief

The “Oligarch’s Budget” Wages War on Poor Americans

Unless you’re very wealthy, this bill will ultimately leave you worse off and more economically vulnerable.

https://voices.murica.website/sasha-abramsky/the-oligarchs-budget-wages-war-on-poor-americans/

Next up in our tour of budget analysis on Common Dreams, I'd like to share a report that demonstrates why I'm referring to this bill as a literal "class war" budget. This monstrous bullshit is basically a nesting doll of terrible policies and financial gifts for some of the worst people in our society, at the expense of the most vulnerable. In addition to ripping over a trillion dollars out of social safety net programs, the reconciliation bill *also* creates a tax shelter for rich people funding the longstanding fundie fascist quest to privatize American schools, while effectively disincentivizing actual charitable giving.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/republicans-school-privatization

GOP Bill Gives Rich Funders of Deeply Unpopular School Privatization 'A Lucrative Tax Shelter'

"In effect, according to an analysis published Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the legislation "allows wealthy individuals to avoid paying capital gains tax as a reward for funneling public funds into private schools."

"While the bill significantly cuts charitable giving incentives overall, nonprofits that commit to focusing solely on supporting private K-12 schools would be spared from those cuts and see their donors' tax incentive almost triple relative to what they receive today," ITEP explained. "On top of that, the bill goes out of its way to provide school voucher donors who contribute corporate stock with an extra layer of tax subsidy that works as a lucrative tax shelter."

"The House tax plan would create a system that treats people supporting private K-12 vouchers far more generously than donors to children's hospitals, veterans' groups, and every other cause imaginable," the group added.

ITEP estimated that if the policy had been in effect in 2021, billionaire Elon Musk could have saved $690 million in federal capital gains taxes."

As I wrote back when Trump named school voucher advocate Betsy DeVos his first Education Secretary, the privatization of American schools is a longstanding goal of ruling class fundie fascists, who stand to benefit from that privatization in a plethora of ways. Not only do these folks have billions of dollars invested in private education companies looking to monetize the replacement of America's public education system, they also want to establish those schools as Christian Nationalist indoctrination centers away from the prying eyes of state regulators, advocacy groups, and teachers unions. These folks paid a lot of money to buy GOP politicians and everything about this aligns completely with the Trump administration's fascist agenda, so I'm not at all surprised that the GOP is now trying to actively incentivize investing in school privatization; if you want to know why the Pork Reich is busy trying to sabotage public education, look no further than the millions and millions of dollars the folks behind the Christian Nationalist school voucher lobby stand to gain from it.

#Budget #GOP #Trump #ClassWar #ElonMusk #Vouchers #Privatization #USPol #Murder #Theft #Capitalism #Billionaires #Republicanparty #SocialSafetyNet #SocialPrograms

Okay, so as I mentioned yesterday, I don't think the GOP's embarrassing failure to get their nightmare class war budgetary bill out of committee yesterday, actually means all that much; especially since the GOP freaks who voted against the bill did so because it wasn't going to kill enough poor people to appease their deficit scaremongering bullshit. I suspect most of the homicidal cuts in Trump's "big beautiful bill" aren't going anywhere, so I'm going to keep sharing analysis of that bill until it's actually dead.

To that end, I'd like to look at a compilation of some of Common Dreams excellent budget analysis, because they're doing a much better job grounding their perspective in the concerns of the people who're going to be most affected by these cuts: labor class people, particularly otherwise marginalized labor class people.

First up, as more research proving Medicaid saves thousands of lives is released, it's becoming demonstrably clear that folks calling the GOP's proposed budget bill "homicidal" aren't exaggerating at all. This bill is going to literally kill a whole lot of people.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/medicaid-cuts-nebr-research

GOP Cuts to Medicaid 'Will Kill People,' Advocate Warns and New Research Bolsters

"As Republicans in Congress pressed ahead this week with a plan that would cause at least 8 million Americans to lose Medicaid as part of a sweeping tax and spending bill desired by U.S. President Donald Trump, a recently published working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, first reported on by The New York Times, shows that Medicaid expansion saved over 27,000 lives since 2010.

A provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which went into effect in 2014, allowed states to expand eligibility for Medicaid to all low-income adults regardless of disability or parenthood status. The change is part of the reason that enrollment in the program rose roughly 50% between 2010 and 2021, according to the authors of the study.

The study, which used a dataset of 37 million low-income American adults, found that expansions increased Medicaid enrollment by 12 percentage points. The study estimates that people who enrolled in Medicaid were 21% less likely to die compared to those not enrolled."

The fact is that deficit scaremongers and so-called "fiscal hawks" rely on transforming policies that will murder Americans into piles of numbers and abstractions, to claim we can't anticipate the negative outcomes of economic policy on labor class people. This isn't just right wing wish-casting however, because the GOP has access to the same data everyone else does, and they know real human lives will end on the other side of those numbers. They just don't care; they're fine with lying to you and murdering people to give billionaires huge tax cuts and look tough on "entitlements."

#Budget #GOP #Trump #ClassWar #Medicaid #USPol #Murder #Theft #Capitalism #Billionaires #Republicanparty #SocialSafetyNet #SocialPrograms

How to build a well-designed national basic income program – at half the cost
#Canada #BasicIncome #GuaranteedBasicIncome #PovertyReduction #IncomeSupport #EconomicJustice #SocialPolicy #Budget #IncomeInequality #AffordableSolutions #UBI #SocialSafetyNet
https://the-14.com/how-to-build-a-well-designed-national-basic-income-program-at-half-the-cost/

Economic Downturns Cut Lives Short—But Only If You’re Poor & American.
A new study shows that recessions slash life expectancy for less-educated Americans—yet another sign of how brutal U.S. inequality is compared to Northern Europe, where strong social safety nets protect people from economic shocks.

While Denmark, Norway, and Sweden use universal healthcare, robust unemployment benefits, and proactive welfare policies to shield their citizens, the U.S. leaves its most vulnerable to suffer. The result? A life expectancy gap that widens with every crisis.

#HealthcareForAll #SocialSafetyNet #InequalityKills #LearnFromEurope #auspol #Medicare #fascism

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250418/Economic-downturns-linked-to-shorter-life-expectancy-for-less-educated-Americans.aspx

To learn more, see "The High Moral Stake: Our Budget, Our Future," a report from @BRepairers, the Institute for Policy Studies, & the Economic Policy Institute.

#2025Budget #SocialSafetyNet #MDPPC #PoorPeoplesCampaign #RepairersOfTheBreach #MoralMovement

The Road Not Taken Is Guaranteed Minimum Income

https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-road-not-taken-is-guaranteed-minimum-income/

#HackerNews #GuaranteedMinimumIncome #RoadNotTaken #IncomeInequality #SocialSafetyNet #CodingHorror

Let’s make the gop that voted for this own it, eat it and let it poison their careers and agenda. apnews.com/article/john... #USpol #coup #medicaid #snap #SocialSafetyNet

House GOP pushes 'big' budget ...

Let’s make the gop that voted for this own it, eat it and let it poison their careers and agenda.

https://apnews.com/article/johnson-trump-republicans-budget-vote-tax-cuts-4cb74ca15f6a74a7344355e4507ab9fe

#USpol #coup #medicaid #snap #SocialSafetyNet

One in five Americans over age 50 have no retirement savings according to AARP, and 61% are worried they won’t have enough socked away to live on in their senior years. For 1 in every 3 Americans, credit card debt outpaces their emergency savings, and more than 1 in 4 people have no emergency savings at all. #Baby_boomers #SocialSafetyNet https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/talked-trumps-age-bidens-age-missed-even-larger-story-rcna186428

Um... Proving again that #ProBirth is NOT #ProLife!

In states that ban #abortion, #SocialSafetyNet programs often fail families

By LAURA UNGAR and KIMBERLEE KRUESI, December 27, 2024

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — "Taylor Cagnacci moved from California to Tennessee with hopes of starting a new chapter in a state that touts a low cost of living and natural beauty.

"But she’s infuriated by Tennessee’s meager social services, which leave her and many other moms struggling in a state where abortion is banned with limited exceptions.

"'I was going to have my child no matter what, but for other women, that’s kind of a crappy situation that they put you in,' said Cagnacci, a 29-year-old Kingsport mom who relies on #Medicaid and a federally funded nutrition program. 'You have to have your child. But where’s the assistance afterward?'

"Tennessee has a porous safety net for mothers and young children, recent research and an analysis by The Associated Press found. It’s unknown how many women in the state have given birth because they didn’t have access to abortion, but it is clear that from the time a Tennessee woman gets pregnant, she faces greater obstacles to a #HealthyPregnancy, a #HealthyChild and a financially stable family than the average

"Like other states with strict abortion bans, Tennesseans of childbearing age are more likely to live in maternal care deserts and face overall doctor shortages. Women, infants and children are less likely to be enrolled in a government nutrition program known as #WIC. And Tennessee is one of only 10 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid to a greater share of low-income families."

https://apnews.com/article/abortion-tennessee-medicaid-wic-2a67e38c0d523a008ec8e1b173b67297
#AbortionBans #SafetyNets #ChildPoverty #FoodInsecurity #USPol

So if we dream in technicolor, our improved Charter of Rights would include essential necessities of life that the government mandates as Free or Affordable, including:
- Affordable housing
- Affordable water
- Affordable electricity
- Free internet
- Affordable public transit
- living wage
- Free education, primary to secondary, and Affordable post-secondary.
- Free Universal Healthcare (all medical treatment, dental, drug, eyes, and mental health)

#SocialSafetyNet

Historian #HeatherCoxRichardson with a typically timely, crucial, & interesting history lesson…
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/october-28-2024
#1929StockMarketCrash #GreatDepression #HerbertHoover #FDR #NewDeal #SocialSafetyNet #WWII #fascism #DwightEisenhower