This is the next of our series of missives on our unfinished work to restore the promise of our country and its government. Each will focus on a single element of the many opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. .
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Donald Trump’s opening month was designed to leave you overwhelmed and in despair. The sheer extent of his malevolence has been epic, as has been his boorishness, his antipathy to the Constitution, his racism, his misogyny, and his blindness to other nations and to people in need.
If you don’t die in a flood, eventually you will take stock as the waters recede. If you can, you will check right away for permanent damage, mourn your losses, and try to achieve some measure of equilibrium. That’s difficult enough, isn’t it?
It’s worse with the Musk-like smell in the air, the armed assassin, bursting with self-importance, chortling, surveying the landscape and looking for unintended survivors. And then you get to hear that it isn’t what you say it is. That’s not a Russian dictator your nation is bowing to, and he didn’t attack Kiev. There are no nuclear weapons unprotected, no airways made unsafe, no epidemics invited, no tax cheats empowered, no hospitals closing, no parents desperately seeking medical help for a comatose child, and no vendettas pursued. Just one more day addressing inefficiency.
Already, our despair is not just outdated but unaffordable. Sheer fury stands as the only option, a guided fury that finds, exposes and addresses Trump’s vulnerabilities. However we got to this place, this is where we are. And we know exactly where we need to go. Substack-er Robert Reich got it right. Our progress is already measurable.
Courts will block Trump’s executive orders in many areas, including his efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship. Happily, they will also require the Office of Management and Budget to release most of the appropriated grant and contract funds that Trump has blocked, citing the solidly constitutional Impoundment Control Act of 1942. Ultimately, this will save us from the embarrassing spectacle of Republican Senators using back channels to plead with Trump aides to release funds that the Senators have already appropriated.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has been bent on overturning their 1935 Humphrey’s Executor ruling, which required the President to establish neglect of duty or malfeasance before firing the head of an independent agency. The Court will rule that this standard usurps the President’s constitutional powers. The bigger issue here will be what the Court will do with Trump’s amendments to civil service protections, where he seeks to hugely expand the number of workers who are thought to be involved in “policy” and who thus would serve at the will of the President.
All the more reason for resisters to reactivate the Congress, which is not nearly as hopeless an objective as one might guess. At this point, Speaker Mike Johnson has a two-vote margin and must tend to the dispute between the “Freedom” Caucus who would massacre Medicaid and a small number of “moderates” who would protect it. Not shockingly, Donald Trump has lied, endorsing the budget proposal which would slash Medicaid after saying two days previous that it was not going to be touched. This is what is in Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”
Worse for Johnson, this budget reconciliation process is his only way to increase the debt ceiling (and keep the government open) and his only way to pave the way for Trump’s tax bill, including the candies he passed out on the campaign trail. Johnson has no path forward. Doubly worse for Johnson, he has no way to pass the continuing resolution appropriating the current year’s spending without Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries supplying some votes.
Trump, Johnson and even Senate Majority Leader John Thune are talking like they have a majority and a mandate that does not exist. We can help clarify things for them by doing these three things:
1) Protect Medicaid from Trump and Musk
What could you say about a nation which would seek to cut a person with no money who needs to go to the doctor to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest? Find the right Republican member of Congress and call their number to reject that proposition. You can remind them that Donald Trump said he wouldn’t touch Medicaid.
- Call Rep. David Valadao of California, who has already spoken out. Reach his office at 202-225-4695
- Call Rep. Marianette of Iowa, who won in 2024 by less than a thousand votes. Her number is 202-225-6576
- Call Don Bacon of Nebraska, who has shown in the past that he can stand up. Reach him at 202-225-4155
2) Save Lives by Protecting Vaccines
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is a doctor, who has fought for vaccines his entire medical career. He vouched for Robert Kennedy as HHS Secretary, saying that he had gained important concessions on protecting vaccines. In one of his first acts as HHS Secretary, Kennedy formed a task force to reconsider vaccine requirements. Call Bill Cassidy at 202-224-5824 and tell him what he knows, that lives are hanging in the balance and that a nation is depending on him. Here is a vaccine protection tool kit, and here is the bad news about measles in Texas, helped along by the anti-vaxxers.
3) Build Our Country for the Future
We can and will take back the House in 2026, and that’s not so far away. Attention is always being paid to donations to political organizations and candidates. These are not charitable donations for those that itemize contributions to eligible nonprofits. However, there are important ways to use charitable contributions to bolster organizations that are trying to protect democracy at a critical time. See the attachment to find six important examples of tax-exempt organizations who need your assistance. For those over 70 ½ they can even accept a share of your required minimum distributions (RMD) from your retirement account.
No one is saying we can’t have hearts that are breaking for our country and for our planet. Instead, we are saying that this cannot and will not stand. We are all in for guided fury that finds, exposes and addresses as much as we can of what has befallen us.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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