If you’re going to shut down the government, do it because you think it's worth it. Also this week: The VRA, gerrymandering and the midterms; party favorability ratings update; + more!
If you believe, God help us, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Democrats are in the stronger position here. The reality she alone has publicly acknowledged, that the end of ACA tax credits/ unaffordable premiums will cause an uproar in Republican districts, will increasingly bear on all Republican House members, as will their stonewalling on those files (MTG again!). Odds are, Republicans are going to have to cave, and be seen to cave, with Democrats getting credit for saving the healthcare of millions of Republicans. This will tag them with blame for the shutdown
Tony Fabrizio warned Hill Republicans about ACA credits in July, as in, presented polling forecasting catastrophe in the midterms if they weren't renewed.
Why they've been turning a blind eye to that is quite the question.
I skipped our NK event and instead spent the time canceling subscriptions/memberships to companies and social media owned by Trump supporters and encouraging friends/family to do likewise. Apart from that, I note that on NK day, it was reported that Kristi Noem got $172 million in taxpayer dollars to buy two private jets for herself. Too bad GAO's Fraud Waste and Abuse hotline is closed during the gov shutdown.
I was out yesterday at No Kings. One of the interesting things was that I saw several locally prominent Republican voices. One holding a sign saying "My father didn't die on Omaha Beach for this".
It is worth it to say NO to an aspiring dictator. Both parties are bought and paid for but at least the Dems are willing to hand out a safety net, small though it be. We are really dangerously flirting with losing most, if not all, of our rights. If you think a shutdown is bad, take a guess what their ultimate plan is for America. It won't be liberty and freedom, it will be oppression and deaths of neglect.
BTW, I think Marjorie Taylor Green’s sudden interest in the ACA (her revealed preference regardless of her stated preference) shows us where the public is going to end up on the issue around which Democrats have hung their opposition to passing this budget, which allows ACA subsidies to expire. That is a middle class issue and we could see the polls flip after November when middle class voters learn their insurance options for 2026. Learning can be expensive but voters need to learn. Maybe they begin to desert the Republican Party.
The primary value of “what Americans believe” is just the overall preferences of self-identified affiliation with parties and what that might imply for vote outcomes. It is remarkable how split Americans have become. I thought the polling on issues was important, and specifically on inflation and cost of living (I don’t see here any polling on corruption). The cost of living numbers will continue to get worse over the next year, and that (along with corruption and Epstein Files) should be the focus of attention. Cost of living will become voters’ primary focus of concern as stagflation interacts with the extremely unequal distribution of income and wealth bites hard in the absence of the safety net that Republicans continue to shred. The victims increasingly will not just be “those people”. This is now a five decade decline and will really bite rural and middle class voters.
In the poll showing preferences for reducing the Federal debt, the takeaway was the percentage of Americans who want to increase taxes on the wealthy. But before reading the comment, my immediate takeaway was looking at all the issues the huge split between what Democrats and Republicans think. To me, it seems increasingly irrelevant to refer to what "Americans believe".
If you believe, God help us, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Democrats are in the stronger position here. The reality she alone has publicly acknowledged, that the end of ACA tax credits/ unaffordable premiums will cause an uproar in Republican districts, will increasingly bear on all Republican House members, as will their stonewalling on those files (MTG again!). Odds are, Republicans are going to have to cave, and be seen to cave, with Democrats getting credit for saving the healthcare of millions of Republicans. This will tag them with blame for the shutdown
Tony Fabrizio warned Hill Republicans about ACA credits in July, as in, presented polling forecasting catastrophe in the midterms if they weren't renewed.
Why they've been turning a blind eye to that is quite the question.
Tag Republicans with the blame, that is.
I agree that the Democrats need to focus the message on the Affordable Care Act.
I skipped our NK event and instead spent the time canceling subscriptions/memberships to companies and social media owned by Trump supporters and encouraging friends/family to do likewise. Apart from that, I note that on NK day, it was reported that Kristi Noem got $172 million in taxpayer dollars to buy two private jets for herself. Too bad GAO's Fraud Waste and Abuse hotline is closed during the gov shutdown.
Closed during the shutdown? All oversight is closed during the Trump administration.
You could have attended the No Kings rally and done your cancelling at any time.
I was out yesterday at No Kings. One of the interesting things was that I saw several locally prominent Republican voices. One holding a sign saying "My father didn't die on Omaha Beach for this".
Some of America's original antifa:
https://mohmuseum.org/medal-recipients/recipients-database?recipients%5Brange%5D%5Bcomputed.yearsOfAction%5D=1941%3A1945
https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/page/1?conflicts[]=world-war-ii
Seems people were pretty proud of them. I'm also proud of them.
It is worth it to say NO to an aspiring dictator. Both parties are bought and paid for but at least the Dems are willing to hand out a safety net, small though it be. We are really dangerously flirting with losing most, if not all, of our rights. If you think a shutdown is bad, take a guess what their ultimate plan is for America. It won't be liberty and freedom, it will be oppression and deaths of neglect.
BTW, I think Marjorie Taylor Green’s sudden interest in the ACA (her revealed preference regardless of her stated preference) shows us where the public is going to end up on the issue around which Democrats have hung their opposition to passing this budget, which allows ACA subsidies to expire. That is a middle class issue and we could see the polls flip after November when middle class voters learn their insurance options for 2026. Learning can be expensive but voters need to learn. Maybe they begin to desert the Republican Party.
The primary value of “what Americans believe” is just the overall preferences of self-identified affiliation with parties and what that might imply for vote outcomes. It is remarkable how split Americans have become. I thought the polling on issues was important, and specifically on inflation and cost of living (I don’t see here any polling on corruption). The cost of living numbers will continue to get worse over the next year, and that (along with corruption and Epstein Files) should be the focus of attention. Cost of living will become voters’ primary focus of concern as stagflation interacts with the extremely unequal distribution of income and wealth bites hard in the absence of the safety net that Republicans continue to shred. The victims increasingly will not just be “those people”. This is now a five decade decline and will really bite rural and middle class voters.
In the poll showing preferences for reducing the Federal debt, the takeaway was the percentage of Americans who want to increase taxes on the wealthy. But before reading the comment, my immediate takeaway was looking at all the issues the huge split between what Democrats and Republicans think. To me, it seems increasingly irrelevant to refer to what "Americans believe".