“Kill the Bill Before It Kills Us!!!”:CD June 25th, No Medicaid cuts action in DC with @popdemocaction and @housingworks
“Dear June 25th Participants, From the Popular Democracy team, we want to express our excitement to see you this week in Washington D.C on a moment where the Senate is debating the last pieces of the Big Ugly Bill. You will come on a week where the Senate will try to push the bill through in order to comply with the President's deadline of having it done by July 4th recess, which means that your presence and our ability to slow it down, will help it make it harder for it to pass.
We left at 420 AM, Yana arriving at my house, picking up Ken, Jennie and Kate.
Drove to DC to take on the monster. Healthcare is a right. The whole drive I agonized over which demo to go to, the Popular Democracy Action or the Healthgap Housing Works action, disrupting a senate hearing over PEPFAR.
Back and forth we talked.
Kate was joining Housing Works.
Ken, Jennie, Yana and myself, Pop Democracy.
We arrived by 1030 AM in time for the press conference. The @popdemocaction press conference was just starting, with constituents and reps from around the country sharing stories about the bill and its damages. “Kill the bill before it kills us,” said health care and trade union groups, Planned Parenthood and ADAPT. The struggles are connected, story after story. Sitting in a wheel chair, ADAPT's Dononique Howell told me why she was in DC to fight the budget bill. “I’m here with ADAPT sisters to fight the medicaid cuts in the bill. People like me who use home health care services paid for by medicaid will be put in harm's way. I work. These cuts will put me in a shelter. I won’t be able to take care of my kids.”
Welcome movement community, said a labor activist. We must wake congress. My family depends upon good affordable healthcare. I join other Americans saying kill the bill...
Gutting medicare will kill people.
I'm Mike with ADAPT. “We are stronger together. We've gotta fight back. ADAPT is led by people with disabilities. We had to do it ourselves. We have been fighting for programs we created ourselves. We had to create it... no one else would...we are the others ... It's us. About all of us. We've been doing this for 50 years... ready to fight for our lives...
“This is a democracy. People are in charge. This is the message. This is the biggest transfer of wealth in US history... 15 million will lose their healthcare. We've got to make sure this bill does not pass.,” said another observer.
“They know what they are doing. That they are packing the pockets of the billionaires.
We have power. Nothing is over till it's over. Medicaid is worth saving.
“Corruption is a core part of authoritarian rule. Our stories inform our populace... a key lever to uphold our democracy. This bill is a violent attack on the poor. It's a pillaging.
“Millions to lose healthcare and snap. Every one dollar cut to snap will cost us 20 dollars in econ impact... this will remove care. It adds barriers to care. The bill is gonna mean people take out credit cards. This system is designed to steal and exact resources. Bleeding our portfolio to deepen to portfolio of billionaires.
Zip codes should not determine if you can enroll in higher ed.
Senator Wyden followed, “here's where we are. This battle this week determines the future of our healthcare. Caviar or kids. The bill is the biggest cut in healthcare in US history. Why give tax cuts to the rich?”
Finishing the press conference, we were given two warnings by the police, who said we were being too rowdy.
One more and the arrests would start.
The CD plan for June 25th:
“Preparation
CD participants will be identified and prepped on the Monday night call and Wednesday orientation at the church
There will be two groups - Red Team and Green Team
We will need 4 Red Team Captains and 3 Green Captains
CADENCE
We arrive the building
First in line should be those with the floor banners, they enter the building and get in position
Then Floor Participants come in
We drop dead, put in the long banner and then drop the ones from the 7th floor
Once we do that, we start doing Mic Check of people’s stories
Warnings
1st warning we all go quite except CD participants
2nd Warning we leave the building…”
The police walked with us to the Rotunda, lined with senate aids and pages, a few senators, ready to gut the safety net.
The police told us we’d be arrested if we stayed, many holding plastic cuffs, ready to start arrests.
Activist photographer Ken Schles posted a note after the action along with a few pics, featured here.
“Some without legs crawled out of wheelchairs to lay on the ground. I watched Capitol Police aggressively zip-tie disabled already immobilized in their wheelchairs. A blind man had his walking stick confiscated and was zip-tied from behind.
What kind of madness is this?
We were given 2 warnings by police as we vocalized outrage over the coming storm of death and suffering during a press conference held earlier in the Dirksen bldg. We were told further “outbursts” would get us evicted and/or arrested—regardless that this presser was in a conf. room expressly reserved for these sorts of events.
16M people could lose healthcare within 10 years. Many losing heart or diabetes meds would be at immediate risk of death. Pulling $1T Medicaid funding out of the budget will implode the US healthcare system, whether you’re on Medicaid or not: Hospitals will close, everyone’s life endangered.
Sen. Wyden (D-OR), “…it’s the most important fight I’ve ever been in, because this battle this week is going to determine the future of American healthcare.”
Sen. Murphy (D-CT) “This isn’t about impacting someone’s life. This is about ending lives.”
McGill Johnson, CEO and Pres. of Planned Parenthood, shared, 50% of US births are financed through Medicaid. PP patients would lose not only reproductive and prenatal services, but cancer screenings and STD treatment. The bill could close 1/3 of their clinics, 90% of them in blue states—a de facto backdoor nationwide abortion ban.
Others anxiously revealed they or loved ones will die if cuts go through.
The protest, organized by Popular Democracy Action along with the Debt Collective and disability civil rights group ADAPT - American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, did not deploy easily. Police dogged attendees after the Dirksen presser for over an hour into the Russell Sen. Off. Bldg. Police massed in large numbers confining throngs of protesters to side hallways while 60+ of us were quickly arrested. Protesters unfurled a banner stating “Senate Republicans don’t kill us” on one of the staircases.
We chanted “No cuts to Medicaid” and “kill the bill” loudly as we were hauled away into the 98F heat.
I spent nearly 4 hours in that heat handcuffed awaiting processing.”
I watched our friends' arrests, the health activists dying in, the police grabbing their banner.
Members of ADAPT in wheel chairs zipped their chairs away, eluding police, who chased them.
Clown cars, congress like the Benny Hill show.
I lay on the ground and screamed, “No cuts to Medicaid!” over and over.
Media took pics.
Said one observer:
"If you’re zip-tying grandmas protesting losing health care maybe you’re not the good guys in the story?"
Kate Barnhart disrupted the senate hearing on PEPFAR.
“Rough arrest interrupting the despicable Russell Vaught, Director of the Office of Management and Budget and one of the authors of Project 2025 as he was about to lie to the Appropriations Committee about global AIDS treatment among other things. Capitol police handled us with uncharacteristic force and also handcuffed us too tightly, but we are just sore and bruised, no major injuries. Once arrested, we were united with our comrades in front the Center for Popular Democracy and Allies who had been arrested earlier protesting Medicaid cuts.
Charles King noted:
“The Capitol Police were definitely testy. But our message got thru. Vaught is killing people with HIV by denying prevention, treatment and care.”
I hope you are feeling better, I replied. Thanks for always being there. And Charles King the police were sick of the ADAPT people who make a stink about their right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness the day before us. Democracy is such a tedious affair.
We spent five hours in custody, Housing Works joining us in jail after their action.
And drove home, sharing stories about the 24 hours fighting for democracy together, roses and thorns, listening to Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Arriving home, we heard the Senate Parliamentarian later reported that the bill cannot move as reconciliation, delaying things. Talking Points Memo notes: “The wildly unpopular “Big Beautiful” reconciliation package has encountered possibly existential challenges, though Senate Republicans still hope to bring it to the floor by this weekend. Senate Republicans are rewriting key provisions of it after Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough rejected many of Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts, forcing their hand. Given that, Senate leadership has said a vote is unlikely before Saturday. But that can only happen if everything goes according to plan (and so far that has not been the case). The revised reconciliation text will have to come out on Friday, goes through the parliamentarian without a hitch and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has a favorable whip count to pass Trump’s megabill. The whip count will be the challenging part as several senators are still worried about the bill’s deep Medicaid cuts, specifically a proposal that would curtail provider taxes. Other senators, like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), continue to push back against the bill for not going far enough, claiming it does not cut nearly enough in spending.”
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Hopefully disruption works.
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