As someone who has for decades viewed the possibility of a bright future for the Democratic Party as depending on an a dedicated coast-to-coast effort to restore and strengthen state parties so they can—among other things—experiment with innovative policies that have potential for nationwide adoption, stories like the one below excerpted from The Nation give me hope that vision is not just me wandering in fantasy land.
One of the most encouraging things that has been happening are the large number of cities and states that are doing all they can to make The Don’s announced withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord of minor impact by setting deadlines for getting themselves powered by 100 percent renewable sources of energy.
Many other issues besides green energy must be dealt with, of course. Joshua Holland writes—Under Trump, Red States Are Slashing the Safety Net and Blue States Are Fighting Back:
Earlier this month, the Trump administration let states impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. Ten states, all of which have Republican governors, lined up to make it harder for low-income people to get benefits. Kentucky was the first to get approval for the policy.
Only very few working-age Medicaid recipients are able to work and aren’t working. The Kaiser Family Foundation notes that “most nonelderly Medicaid adults already are working or face significant barriers to work, leaving a very small share of adults to whom these policies are directed.” Instead of moving meaningful numbers of Americans into the workforce, the move will only deepen an already massive divide in how states administer their Medicaid programs that was created when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.
The states that expanded Medicaid made the program available to everyone making up to 138 percent of the poverty line; in the states that opted out, the median cutoff for eligibility is just 44 percent of the poverty line for families with children. In all but one of those states, people without children are ineligible for benefits no matter how little they earn.
An estimated 2.4 million Americans have lost out on public insurance in those 19 states. With work requirements, some of these states will soon provide coverage to an even smaller portion of their low-income population—Kentucky governor Matt Bevin brags that the move will kick 100,000 Kentuckians off the Bluegrass State’s Medicaid rolls.
That same week, a very different story came out of New Jersey, where newly elected governor Phil Murphy was sworn in. Murphy ran on a platform of legalizing pot within his first 100 days in office, raising the Garden State’s minimum wage to $15 per hour, closing its gender pay gap, and rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that his Republican predecessor ditched in 2011.
Now that a Democrat is in the governor’s mansion, the state is entirely controlled by Democrats. Key political figures in the state seem eager to enact major progressive policies. According toThe Washington Post, “If Murphy has his way, New Jersey will become a proving ground for every liberal policy idea coming into fashion, from legalized marijuana to a $15 minimum wage, from a ‘millionaire’s tax’ to a virtual bill of rights for undocumented immigrants.”
What’s happening in states like Kentucky and New Jersey is part of a larger trend, as an increasing number of states come under one-party rule at a time when Trump and congressional Republicans are explicitly targeting blue states for punishment and the resistance is both energizing Democrats and holding their elected officials accountable. [...]
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear: All of these increased opportunities--in employment, in education, in housing, and in every field-must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ of Federal law will run, we must abolish not some, but all racial discrimination. For this is not merely an economic issue, or a social, political, or international issue. It is a moral issue, and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the House.
All members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to the public. All members of the public should be equally eligible for Federal benefits that are financed by the public. All members of the public should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the public good.”
~Lyndon Baines Johnson, State of the Union, 1964
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2006—NSA Surveillance: How It Puts You in Danger:
Polls are all over the place on Americans' views on the NSA program, depending on the precise wording of the question, but for the sake of argument, I'll grab the recent CNN poll that claims roughly half of the population thinks it's okay for the feds to conduct surveillance and collect data without a warrant. Based on this, I assume most of us have friends, family members or co-workers who've uttered the words: I have nothing to hide, so why should I care about NSA surveillance?
Here's a primer on why they should care.
It puts you at risk for identify theft ... and IT'S ILLEGAL
From all reports we've heard about the secretive NSA program, it's a vast vacuum operation that collects data, stores it and shares that information with other agencies, all without a warrant. Anything that's done with electronic transmission is trackable in practical terms - meaning online credit card purchases and bill paying, ATM transactions, paying for groceries with a debit/credit card. PINS, passwords, Social Security numbers, driver's license identifier information, bank account numbers, all are available ... all in the hands of federal agencies and their employees.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin and Joan McCarter round up headlines and impressions of the State of the Union address. Summary: Not good. Nunes is “hide-lighting” his “memo.” Joan keeps her laser focused on Ryan’s complicity, with a side-eye at Idaho Gov. Butch Otter’s nullification of the ACA.
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