Targeting The House GOP 17

This new Hopium project was originally announced in a post on 2/17/2025.

So in addition to our campaign work, and our daily contacts into offices to try to stop the Trump/Musk assault I want to add a new area of action today - creating understanding and opposition to the Republican budget that is taking shape in Washington. While not complete we know it will do three things 1) cut close to a trillion dollars from our health care system, devastating our public health system already under siege from Musk 2) dramatically cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations 3) explode the deficit.

We will be mounting a major education campaign to get all of you up to speed on the various bills as they develop so you can start educating your own communities, networks, friends and families, about what is coming. But we are also going to start working our electeds hard to get them to oppose this extraordinary reckless legislation. While we need to work our electeds wherever they are, those of you in states and districts with the 17 most vulnerable GOP House Members have a special role to play in the coming weeks. Check out this story from Politico, Vulnerable House Republican warns against benefit cuts:

Pennsylvania Rep. Rob Bresnahan is the latest swing-district Republican to issue a warning over deep spending cuts GOP leaders are targeting for key safety net programs in a bill to enact President Donald Trump's massive domestic agenda.

“I ran for Congress under a promise of always doing what is best for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania,” said Bresnahan in a statement Friday. “If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it. Pennsylvania’s Eighth District chose me to advocate for them in Congress. These benefits are promises that were made to the people of NEPA and where I come from, people keep their word.”

Bresnahan could become a major problem for GOP leadership in the coming days. Speaker Mike Johnson can afford to lose only one vote on any party-line legislation he wants to pass on the House floor. That includes the budget resolution the House Budget Committee advanced Thursday night, which is the first step in allowing lawmakers to move ahead on drafting the measure to enact top legislative priorities through the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process.

But Johnson and fellow GOP leaders are facing rising anger from vulnerable Republicans after agreeing to demands from their hard-right flank to force deeper spending cuts of $2 trillion in the budget resolution — which, if adopted, will dictate how much committees need to cut from programs under their jurisdiction to pay for the larger reconciliation legislation.

That means members will likely have to extract deeper spending cuts across Medicaid, food assistance and other safety-net programs. And Bresnahan, who flipped a blue district in northeast Pennsylvania last fall to help maintain the House GOP majority, is among the growing contingent of centrists blanching at that prospect.

Bresnahan is also part of a group of vulnerable Republicans who privately warned GOP leaders last month to not slash key safety net programs as they look for ways to pay for the sweeping domestic policy bill that spans border, energy and tax cuts.

There are 16 more Rob Bresnahans and we need to start organizing to make sure they hear form us. Here they are according to The Cook Report:

Those of you in these states and districts should start contacting the local organizations that are you are active in - the state and local Democratic Parties, Indivisible/Swing Left and other grassroots groups, traditional Dem allied groups - and ask them what they are doing to start lobbying these 17 against the coming Republican budget bill. As I wrote to you last week Trump’s approval rating has dropped by 5-7 points already, and in many of the most reliable polls he has the highest disapproval rating of any President at this stage in their Presidency since polling began in the 1950s. While Trump may not be running in 2026 these 17 are, and they are going to have to defend the Trump/Musk shitshow to voters. It’s why they need to hear from us now, aggressively, relentlessly in all the ways we are learning how to contact our reps. If you live in one of these states or districts, you need to start turning your attention to these 17, and encourage the orgs you work with to develop a plan and start fighting.