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Budget Showdown: Senate Democratic Women Preserve Party’s Principles

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A great moment in Democratic Party politics occurred  at ‘High Noon’ on Friday when the so-called “budget impasse” between the House, the Senate, and the White House was looking as if we might really have a government shut-down. But Democratic women pro-choice senators took to a public stage, led by Patty Murray (D-WA), who was seething at a low boil, as she rebuked House Republicans for their naked attempts to end health care for low-income women and their families, under the guise of “saving” taxpayer dollars.

“The Democratic women of the Senate are here this afternoon to express our anger and disappointment, that after weeks of being told that the continuation of funding for this government was about budget cuts, and deficits and spending,” Murray said. “Well, now we find out at the 11th hour, hours before the the government shuts down, that that’s not what it’s all about.”

I was really moved by each senator’s leadership who confronted and called out Republican tactics for what they really are–a war on women and low-income Americans. It was the most vigorous and articulate defense of Democratic Party principles during this entire sordid budget affair.

We at The New Civil Rights Movement take these battles seriously as this site has dedicated ample editorial to an examination of the Republican Party’s war on women, children, poor people and immigrants, as they are directly connected to the extreme right-wing’s war on obstructing the extension of civil rights to LGBT peoples in America.

Read: The GOP’s War on Women and Children

If there were any doubt in President Barack Obama and what he would be willing to give up to the House in his compromising spirit, after the Democratic women senators spoke, it was clear that defunding Planned Parenthood was not one of them.

Democratic woman drew the line in the sand that compromising by NOT protecting women’s health care access was absolutely a bridge too far to go, even for the president who took a decidedly distant approach to the budget fracas to stay above the political fray.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aJ3_ZqkunjU%3Ffs%3D1%26hl%3Den_US

As the worm turned on Thursday following a week of nearly daily feuding press conferences in the nation’s capital, Planned Parenthood and Naral Pro-Choice America hastily organized a rally on the mall in support of maintaining funding for women’s health. Cheered on by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Patty Murray (D-WA), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was presented with a petition signed by thousands of supporters in their opposition to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and other health clinics around the country that provide birth contraceptives and general health care to women and men.

There was no mistaking why Schumer would appear at this rally. Schumer emerged this week as a major Democratic leader in the Senate and will be for a long time to come.

(Bob Dole, former Senate Republican Majority Leader once quipped that “the most dangerous place in Washington is between Chuck Schumer and the television.”)

Famous for his Sunday afternoon press conferences in New York, Schumer has seamlessly pivoted to his new role as the Senate Democrats’ messenger-in-chief. His uncanny ability to synthesize political policies into effective media messaging came to the forefront, prominently displayed, this past week in the Democrats’ first major battle in the 112th Congress with Republicans.

With many more battles likely to occur, as Congress finally turns its attention to the business of the FY 2012 authorizations and appropriations, the Democrats will need all of Schumer’s messaging skills, as I predict it is going to get much more difficult dealing with the House Republicans, along with their Tea Party caucus, before it gets better, until we can await new and more hopeful results from the 2012 elections.

But what became abundantly clear as the week’s political events unfolded was the unabashed Republican objective to defund Planned Parenthood’s health care services under Title X of  the Public Health Service Act of 1970, a 41-year-old health care program that includes family planning services for low-income Americans, made into law by Republican President Richard Nixon.

(Nixon, who in comparison to current extreme Republican Party ideologues, probably couldn’t get elected today to dog catcher and that is saying something considerable when it comes to Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign his presidency in 1974, due to his administration’s cover-up of a burglary by Republican campaign loyalists who broke into the Democratic Party headquarter’s offices located at the infamous Watergate Hotel.)


“No American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition.  I believe, therefore, that we should establish as a national goal the provision of family planning services…to all who want but cannot afford them.”

– President Richard M. Nixon, 1970

 

The House Republican women members fecklessly responded to the Democratic women in their desperate attempt to defend the Republican goal of cutting spending, but chose to inartfully ignore reporters’ more pointed questions about Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-IN) policy rider to defund Title X or else shut down the government. When the group of 15 congresswomen began talking over one another in an uncoordinated response, according to Talking Points Memo, Rep. Jean Schmitt (R-OH), jumped to the microphone and said, “This is about a package. We can’t tell you what we’re going to do until we see the next package. What the Senate is doing is deflecting the real issue and the real issue is to cut the unnecessary spending in Washington, period. And you can continue to ask the question but the answer is cutting unnecessary spending in Washington.”

So while the GOP women wouldn’t discuss why the government should end a 41-year old effective public health program that provides family planning and contraceptives, ideally preventing unintended pregnancies and therefore more abortions, back in the Senate, perhaps the sorriest performance of the week belonged to Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who simply lied by falsely accusing Planned Parenthood of using federal funds to pay for legal abortions, a separate medical service that is not connected to its general health services. Kyl also lied by saying, “If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.” Abortions represent only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s activities.

And I guess Kyl forgot that federal funds to pay for abortions were banned by the Hyde Amendment, adopted by the Congress 34 years ago. Why not beat a dead, truly dead horse and lie about it too?  Then he had the audacity to say he didn’t mean it and was misunderstood. Really!

All of these developments taken together are foreboding enough to contemplate what the future portends to be with the patients running the asylum in the House. Now, we have to wait to know more about the $38 billion worth of budget cuts–“the biggest in history”–even President  Obama and some members of Congress are now bragging about, will land. Most likely these sobering cuts will fall on those who can least afford it.

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Trump Claims ‘Tremendous Power’ to Run ‘Places’ Like DC and NYC

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July 8, 2025

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President Donald Trump claimed the White House has legal authority to run parts of the country including Washington, D.C. and New York City, especially should he oppose its elected leaders. His remarks were another attack on the nation’s largest city, which his Transportation Secretary also targeted earlier on Tuesday.

Trump told reporters, “we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”

“We could run D.C.” he alleged. “I mean, we’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well.” Hey also claimed that the White House is currently “testing” running D.C.

Washington, D.C. and its 700,000 residents have an elected city council and mayor. While Congress maintains some control over the nation’s capital, a complete federal government takeover of a city would be unprecedented. Presidents have, at times, had to send in the National Guard, but never to permanently occupy and run a local government.

READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

Trump added that his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, “is working very closely with the mayor and they’re doing alright. I mean, in the sense that we would run it so good, it would be run so proper, we’d get the best person to run it.”

“The crime would be down to a minimal, would be much less, you know, we’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you. We want we want a capital that’s run flawlessly and it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”

If attempted, a federal takeover could raise serious concerns about voter disenfranchisement and further inflame opposition from advocates of D.C. statehood.

Trump also attacked Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, as “a man who’s not very capable, in my opinion, other than he’s got a good line of b—s—.”

READ MORE: ‘Absolutely Mind Blowing’: Trump’s Ukraine Weapons Remark Draws Concern, Backlash

“I can tell you this,” Trump continued, I used to say, ‘We will not ever be a socialist country,’ right? Well, I’ll say it again. We’re not gonna have if a communist get elected to run New York, it can never be the same, but we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”

Trump has previously threatened Mamdani “with arrest, denaturalization and removal from the country while repeatedly branding him a communist,” according to The Independent.

Watch the video below or at this link.


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‘Absolutely Mind Blowing’: Trump’s Ukraine Weapons Remark Draws Concern, Backlash

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7 hours ago

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July 8, 2025

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President Donald Trump is claiming he does not know who ordered last week’s halt in critical U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine—a statement that immediately sparked backlash and renewed questions by critics over whether the Commander in Chief is in control of the U.S. military.

“Last week, the Pentagon paused some shipments of weapons to Ukraine,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins told President Trump (video below) after Tuesday’s White House Cabinet meeting. “Did you approve of that pause?”

The President, appearing to deflect or misunderstand the question, replied, “We wanted to put defensive weapons,” in Ukraine, “because Putin is not treating human beings right. He’s killing too many people. So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I’ve approved that.”

“So who ordered the pause last week?” Collins pressed.

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “Why don’t you tell me?”

READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

After Trump delivered that remark, The Washington Post reported: “President Donald Trump’s decision to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine came after he privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing a pause last week in the delivery of some critical weapons to Ukraine.”

The Post called it “a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House.”

Trump’s “I don’t know” remark comes amid a separate controversy in which he has repeatedly insisted that farmers need reliable workers and that ICE would not raid agricultural sites. He suggested the administration was developing a program allowing farmers to effectively sponsor undocumented laborers—only to have multiple senior officials publicly contradict or appear to override his plan, as recently as just hours ago.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, also on Tuesday, told reporters there will be “no amnesty” for undocumented immigrants working on farms, and, “mass deportations continue.”

RELATED: ‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan

Critics are blasting the President for not knowing who paused the critical weapons shipment to Ukraine.

“When in charge, be in charge,” remarked veteran and veterans activist Paul Rieckhoff.

“This is absolutely mind blowing,” commented Jeanne Ava Plaumann, a journalist at the German newspaper Bild.

“I don’t know is always an alarming response when asked for accountability on major national security decisions,” noted Brett Bruen, president of a global public affairs agency.

Former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a Democrat, wrote: “Proving every day that he is mentally failing.”

Trump’s “I don’t know” remark also follows numerous instances of similar claims, which have led critics to question if—or declare that—the President is not in charge.

In May, during an Oval Office executive order signing ceremony, Trump posed multiple questions to attendees about what was in at least one of the orders.

“Are we doing something about the regulatory in here?” was one question Trump asked.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum responded, “You are, sir.”

Earlier in May, the 79-year old president was asked if he is obligated to “uphold the Constitution.” He infamously told NBC News’ Kristen Welker, “I don’t know.”

Also in May, in an Oval Office press gaggle, reporters asked, “Mr. President, is your administration sending migrants to Libya?”

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “You’ll have to ask Homeland Security.”

That same day, a reporter told Trump, “Your Treasury Secretary just told lawmakers that a tariff exemption for certain baby items like car seats is under consideration. Will you exempt some products that families rely on?”

“I don’t know,” was the President’s response.

Back in April, Trump told reporters, “Many, many people come from the Congo. I don’t know what that is, but they came from the Congo.”

The Atlantic’s James Surowiecki, back in March noted: “Trump also didn’t know that his administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua members, even though he had supposedly signed the executive order invoking it. ‘I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it,’ he said.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan

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10 hours ago

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July 8, 2025

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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has declared that the Trump administration’s massive deportation plans will continue without any amnesty for migrant farm workers, and insisted that “able-bodied” American adults who access Medicaid for health care insurance should be the ones to replace deported migrant farm workers. Critics have pushed back.

“I can’t underscore enough,” Secretary Rollins said at a press conference at the USDA on Tuesday, ahead of a White House Cabinet meeting. “There will be no amnesty, the mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation.

She added that, “with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.”

READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

Secretary Rollins’ remarks do not take into account that nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults under 65 accessing Medicaid are already working, according to KFF. Another 28% are exempt due to illness, school, or care-giving responsibilities.

Her statistic of 34 million able-bodied adults on Medicaid is promoted by a right-wing think tank, the Foundation for Government Accountability, which advocates for reducing work restrictions on teenagers, and opposes expanding Medicaid.

Also, there is not large-scale farm work available in every state, nor, does it appear, that would many Americans want to perform that work, especially for low wages. Farm work rarely offers employer-paid health care. And farm work is often seasonal.

Critics blasted Secretary Rollins.

READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech

“They’re like cartoon villains,” wrote Bloomberg Opinion columnist Patricia Lopez. “So send Medicaid recipients in as field hands? Also, what is meant by strategic mass deportations? Just Blue states?”

“Lol,” exclaimed Yahoo News reporter Jordan Werissmann, “we’ve gone from ‘the USAID program analysts will make shoes’ to ‘people will pick strawberries to keep their health care’.”

“I have talked to literally thousands of MAGAs and have not found a single one who will work on a farm. Not one,” wrote New York Times bestselling author Ramit Sethi. “This is simply anti-immigrant bigotry from Republicans.”

“Ah, yes,” remarked journalist Lydia Polgreen, “those high paying farm labor jobs that include health insurance!”

“Did not think the script for 2025 would feature villains co-written by Charles Dickens and Pol Pot,” added historian Mike Cosgrave.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms

 

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