When the people lead, our leaders will follow

It was great to see that House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Cory Booker held a "sit in" on the Capitol steps this Sunday morning to denounce the Trump regime's budget plans. 

“Republicans in Congress are proposing cuts that will take food from children, health care from the sick, and dignity from those already struggling," Booker said. "It's wrong. To stop it, we all must say so — clearly, courageously, and together. Speaking out and speaking up is how we will convince four Republicans in the House and Senate to do the right thing and vote no.” NorthJersey.com

Senator Chris Murphy reported one phase of Democratic Senators' push back.

Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.

So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back. The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted. In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that. ...

So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires. The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.

The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children. They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice ....

Dems don't have the votes to completely stop Republican priorities, but they've gotten around to fighting. Angry constituents in town halls and all those phone calls are making a difference.

Senatorial signs of life follow Cory Booker's 25 hour filibuster at the beginning of the month and Senator Chris Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador to check on abducted Marylander Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Several Congressional reps followed after Van Hollen. 

It's notable that Trump doesn't even bother to try implement his wish list by passing laws, instead issuing a blizzard of executive orders. He can't rule with even the pretense of regular process. Republicans have tiny, fractious majorities and couldn't pass most of this stuff. And a multitude of people's lawyers are doing a lot to stymie the executive orders.

Meanwhile Representative Jaime Raskin and Senator Richard Blumenthal are demanding that the big law firms which have capitulated to Trump's threats to their business must reveal what they've promised to our law-breaking president. Legal ethics complaints in the states where they have business could seriously impact their standing; so could the refusal of law students to seek jobs with them. 

Harvard University's vigorous pushback against the Trump regime's attempt to control institution has freed up nearly 500 colleges and universities to affirm their intent to maintain free speech and free inquiry under the First Amendment.

As Josh Marshall has reminded us: All political power is unitary. ... It’s all one thing. Everywhere that Trump/Musk/MAGA meets resistance helps every other form of resistance to tyranny. That's the other side of Republican's "flood the zone with shit" strategy; as the push back grows, they'll find a free people sniping from every side. 

We are doing this. Find a May Day rally near you.