Sunday Hopium - The Mad King's Bad Week, House Budget Vote Tuesday, Supporting Anderson Clayton and The NC Dems

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Happy Sunday all. Sundays are lighter days here at Hopium. Rest and recharge days, disengage days, days to get back things that matter in our lives that have nothing to do with Trump and Musk’s ongoing assault on the America of the Four Freedoms and our allies.

So just a few things today:

The Mad King Had A Bad Week - please read my new post on what was clearly a bad political week for the Mad “Russia First” King - his poll numbers and consumer confidence are dropping, the economy is slowing, inflation is rising, the markets are getting spooked, Zelenskyy and the Europeans are fighting him as courageously as the Canadians, cracks are appearing in his Congressional support and people are starting to rise up all across the country. If we keep working hard these little cracks can become big cracks and our little wins can become big wins. There were truly encouraging signs this week that our nascent opposition movement was beginning to turn into something far more effective and ferocious. See my new essays (here, here) on this process of building the opposition and our critical role in leading the way; watch my new video that goes into greater detail, reminding us that

We are Americans. Fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do. Who we are

Learn why I think it’s time for Congressional Dems to “let Facts be submitted to a candid world;” and read my post that pulls together all my big recommendations for the pro-democracy family now, including this one:

Leaders Schumer and Jeffries should assign senior staff to work with the DNC, DSCC, DCCC and other party committees to come up with a new comms and political structure to ensure that we become the effective and ferocious opposition necessary to preserve our democracy now.

The Leaders have a powerful new team ready to go to work with and for them, as partners in this existential fight not just donors to the cause:

• millions of donors/volunteers/info warriors

• growing pro-democracy media ecosystem

• hundreds of capable and battle tested grassroots groups

• traditional allied groups, and the national party infrastructure

• tens of thousands of elected Democrats at all levels of government across the country

The Leaders should now empower staff to work with the new and hungry team at the DNC to imagine, design and build a new kind of political/comms super-structure integrating all of those who want and can help to respond to the needs of this extraordinary moment. We will not win with what what we have. We can and must build something new, more modern, more muscular, more effective…..

And for fun, let’s watch that great moment from the GA townhall again that has inspired us this week:

The House Is Planning On Taking An Initial Budget Vote This Week - As we’ve reported here there is significant concern about the emerging Trump-House GOP budget blueprint among vulnerable House Republicans; Rs have worrisome early polling about the plutocratic, betrayal of working Americans structure of their approach; and it just isn’t clear that Speaker Johnson has the votes to get their resolution passed this week. Having this Trump backed resolution fail would be a big win for us which is why of all the things we do this week job one should be to call your House Reps and insist they vote against the resolution and fight it with all they got.

As a reminder the emerging House approach will 1) dramatically cut Medicaid, a program that supports 72m Americans and hospitals and doctors across the US 2) dramatically cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations 3) explode the deficit. Here’s how the Hill summed it up this week:

The House GOP budget resolution outlines a $1.5 trillion floor for spending cuts across committees with a target of $2 trillion, a $4.5 trillion cap on the deficit impact of the Republicans’ plan to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and $300 billion in additional spending for the border and defense. It also increases the debt limit by $4 trillion.

Within those numbers, the resolution mandates the Energy and Commerce Committee — which has jurisdiction over Medicaid — to find at least $880 billion in cuts, a number that many do not see feasible without significant slashes to Medicaid. On Tuesday night, during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, however, Trump said “none of that stuff is going to be touched,” referring to Medicare and Medicaid.

The Mad King lied of course. The plan he’s endorsed has a huge almost one trillion dollar cut in Medicaid over 10 years, which along with the ongoing Kennedy and Musk assault on medical research, vaccines and global and American public health care systems, will do extraordinary damage to the health care and health of all Americans. In the past few days Medicare announced it was ending telehealth visits (yes the Mad King has already started cutting Medicare) and Kennedy has already begun to undermine our nation’s vaccine regime. There have been many Trumpian Big Lies but the idea that they were trying to “Make American Healthy Again” is among the most outrageous and dangerous of them all.

Here’s another passage from that same Hill article:

Johnson, however, still faces a number of difficulties as he looks to advance the budget resolution through the House next week. A number of moderate Republicans, for example, have expressed concerns with likely cuts to Medicaid the measure would prompt, and some hardline conservatives have never supported a debt limit increase.

“I still have my concerns,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told The Hill after Trump’s announcement. “I appreciate the president’s comments on Hannity last night reaffirming his commitment to not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but I still need some clarity from my colleagues in the House on how we’re gonna get to the numbers mandated in the resolution without cutting Medicaid in a way that it impacts beneficiaries or my hospitals.”

Rep, Malliotakis knows that what she is asking for is impossible of course. She and many other House Rs have been signaling loudly they are not on board this terrible Trump-House GOP monster.

We have encouraged those of you who can reach into the 17 most vulnerable House GOP districts to work the broader pro-democracy family to mount an aggressive lobbying campaign to peel off these Republicans from supporting the Trump-House GOP resolution. Do what what you can this week. We have to keep working it all!

Our Friend Anderson Clayton Elected To A Second Two Year Term - Last night good Hopium friend Anderson Clayton was elected to lead the NC Dems for another two years. I am asking our community to rally for her again, as we are now shooting to raise $50,000 in the coming weeks to help her start 2025 on a strong note and cover the costs of their ongoing fight to preserve our big Supreme Court win there last November. I’m working to get some time with Anderson this week so we can get a check in on the Supreme Court battle and how she is approaching the next two years. Chip in to send a warm hearty Hopium congrats and good luck to Anderson today!

Let’s Get To Work!!!! - Here are my current working recommendations for calls/contacts this week. Four today, and thanks to all of you who are busting your ass right now:

• Keep calling to stop Musk’s crime spree and assault on the US government. Encourage your Senators and Reps to let Facts be be submitted to a candid world and criminal referrals filed for him and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI; insist Senators and Reps file amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own; encourage them to hold a daily morning press conference to more aggressively challenge Musk’s ransacking of the USG that is making America less prosperous, less healthy, less safe and far less respected in the world.

• For those of you who live in AZ, CA, CO, IA, MI, NE, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WI please start talking to your local orgs - state and local Democratic parties, grassroots groups, traditional Dem allies - about mounting a campaign targeting the most vulnerable 17 Republican House Members to urge them to vote against the emerging - and disastrous - House budget plan. We launched this new effort on Monday, and while we should be urging all our Senators and Reps to vote against these emerging plans, those of you can work these 17 House Rs have a special role to play in the coming battle over the budget. As we saw on Thursday House Rs are wavering on this terrible House budget bill and their polling is telling them to vote it down. Need to keep working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Keep calling Attorneys General in the states. Ask them to protect you and your data, tax returns and privacy, and to keep federally mandated monies flowing to your states and communities. For those in the 19 states that brought the successful Treasury suit thank them and encourage them to keep going. I still believe these 19 states should make criminal referrals of Musk/his posse to DOJ/FBI and raise the stakes.

• Let your electeds know you are outraged by traitorous Trump’s selling out of Zelenskyy, abandonment of Europe and embrace of Putin; and that we cannot accept this level of appeasement of someone who is a clear enemy of America and the West, and certainly not an ally. Demand that Trump not let his Saudi meeting w/Putin become our Munich; demand that he not become our Neville Chamberlain.

Paid subscribers should self-report their actions today in our daily chat. So inspired by how hard so many of you are working. I want to make a special plea to all Hopium readers in states with Republican Senators - please make your calls, every day. Even 50 to 100 people calling every day in every red state can make a difference. We have hundreds of Hopium subscribers in every state in the country and it’s critical that we all do our part now.

A note - while physical protests and rallies are a vital part of how we build our new opposition movement, make sure you only attend or promote events by organizations you know and trust. Please do not support any action - boycott, protest, rally, etc - unless you know and trust the organizers. Given the import of our work now I don’t think it wise or advisable to lend our support to newly formed, opaque organizations without a proven track record of working with Democratic groups and leaders.

For those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have three Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind right now:

Help Susan Crawford and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin - As a way of honoring our good friend Ben Wikler and supporting this critical April Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, I’m asking our community to donate to the Wisconsin Democratic Party today. The money raised here will make sure Ben has the resources he needs to keep his team in place so they can support this critical statewide race. I know many of you are already deeply involved here - thank you all.

Watch our new discussion with Susan and Ben and thanks to a huge surge of support in recent days we have already raised $84,000, blowing past our $50,000 goal. We are now upping this to a stretch goal of $100,000 by March 31st. Amazing work everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Help Get Ken Martin Off To A Strong Start - In this time of extraordinary challenge we need a strong DNC. Two weeks ago we set a goal of raising $100,000 by March 31st for our new Chair. Incredibly, over 1,000 of you have donated over $88,000 so far. Watch my interview with Ken about what he wants to do with the DNC, and chip in whatever you can to help Ken and the new exciting team at the DNC get off to a strong start. We now have a new stretch goal of $150,000 by March 31st after our very strong start for this effort (note that we did have some money clawed back due to an error in the amount someone gave!)

Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Virginia will be one of the big battlegrounds of the November, 2025 elections and we have a great candidate for Governor, Abigail Spanberger. Watch my interview with Abigail, donate, volunteer, and learn more here. Given how many federal employees live in Virginia, this race is also now on the front lines of the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government. We’ve raised more than $46,000 so far towards our March 31st goal of $100,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!

More Things To Do - Dive into my recent interviews with folks who are making a difference. Check out our upcoming events. Register for my March 5th event with Heather Cox Richardson!

Let’s end with one of my favorite passages from Thomas Jefferson today:

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon