Portside

The Republican budget will gut Medicaid, slash food aid for families, and shutter rural hospitals—just to give tax breaks that will go overwhelmingly to the wealthy. It is a staggering upward redistribution of income.

For the first time, required pre-authorizations are coming to traditional Medicare. The Trump administration proposes to extend pre-authorizations to traditional Medicare, just like Medicare Advantage. This maneuver has gotten little attention.

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Early this morning, House Republicans, rushed to cut not quite $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next 10 years. Today, Medicaid commands not merely a significant voting bloc, but a significant Republican voting bloc.

One tool of Senate procedure—the budget reconciliation process—provides a limited end run around the filibuster. The reconciliation process allows a certain subset of legislation to pass with a simple majority.

Manchin's modest proposal would means-test all new programs and put spending caps on all existing programs. In short, Manchin wants to diminish not just the quantity of necessary social investments, but their quality as well.

This reconciliation bill is being opposed by every Republican in Congress as well as the drug companies, the insurance companies, the fossil fuel industry and the billionaire class. They want to maintain the status quo in which the rich get richer.

Seventeen recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have signed an open letter in support of President Biden’s Build Back Better package currently being considered in Congress.

"We have got to address the reality that a very significant and growing number of Americans no longer have faith that their government is concerned about their needs. This takes us to the whole threat of Trumpism and the attacks on democracy."

Congressional approval of the resolution is crucial first step by Democrats toward enacting President Biden's domestic agenda. The president and Democratic caucus are prepared to go forward in addressing the long-neglected needs of working families.