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Senator Tom Cotton Held a Town Hall Last Night. Thousands of His Constituents Showed Up. It Didn’t Go Well for Him.

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‘Without the Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions I Will Die’

Republican freshman U.S. Senator Tom Cotton Wednesday night held a town hall. Thousands of his Arkansas constituents showed up at a theater in the Springdale High School. It did not go well for him. Cotton, a former Army Captain who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, defeated Democrat Mark Pryor in 2014 after running as a hard core conservative, and he is among the furthest right wing members of the Senate.

In a conservative state like Arkansas, some might think his town hall would have been easy. But Republicans in congress are waking up to the fact that, despite all their false claims about Obamacare, people actually like it. They need it. And they don’t want it repealed. 

Some, like this eloquent young woman who shared her story, truly need the protections the Affordable Care Act has given them. 

“Without the coverage for pre-existing conditions, I will die,” Kati McFarland, speaking from a wheelchair, told Sen. Cotton. “That’s not hyperbole.”

Arkansas Online adds, “McFarland will turn 26 on Sunday, she told the senator, losing her eligibility to be carried on her parents health insurance. She has incurable Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS, which weakens her heart and veins.”

“You want to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which does my cancer screening,” McFarland said. “You and your party talk a lot about repeal of the ACA, but you don’t talk much about what you will replace it with,” she said. “What are you going to replace it with?”

RELATED: ‘Do Your Job!’: Angry Constituents at Town Hall Force Sen. Joni Ernst to Flee 45 Minutes Early (Video)

“I don’t see replacement having the commitment of members of your party as much as their commitment to repeal,” McFarland also told Cotton.

(UPDATE: There is an online fundraiser for Kati at YouCaring.)

Another woman wanted to know how Republicans are going to do better than a plan that costs $29 a month for her husband who she says is dying, and $39 for her. And why she contacted him many times asking to meet and all she’s gotten is a form letter from his office.

She wasn’t the only one who held Cotton’s feet to the fire.

This woman wanted to know why Cotton doesn’t care President Trump hasn’t released his tax returns. She didn’t care for Cotton’s answer, nor did the audience. “I mean, the former president showed his birth certificate,” she reminded him.

And still another woman unhappy with President Trump told Cotton she is not a paid protestor, and she’s concerned because “it appears that this administration is trampling our constitutional rights.”

And then there was this seven year-old named Toby who said “Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important to people who are in Arkansas,” and said his whole family likes Mexicans – the audience cheered. He then said Trump is taking away PBS kids “just to make a wall.”

“He shouldn’t do all that stuff for just the wall.”

Cotton went on to say America is a “melting pot and we are all one people.”

An audience member shouted out, “prove it!”

 

To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.

Image by Greg Leding/Twitter

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‘If It Is the Last Thing I Do’: Musk Vows to Unseat Lawmakers Voting for Budget Bill

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June 30, 2025

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Billionaire Elon Musk is threatening to target members of Congress for defeat if they support President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” after campaigning on promises to cut government spending. Although Musk did not specifically name a party, no Democrat is expected to back the budget measure.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk wrote late Monday afternoon, as the Senate began voting on the legislation. “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

Musk’s threat comes after his numerous attacks on the bill—which is critical to Trump’s agenda—based largely on its massive increases to the federal debt.

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Incoherence’: Fox Host Mocked for Spinning Trump’s Work Visa Flip-Flop

“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” Musk declared one hour earlier. “Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people.”

New York magazine’s Intelligencer reported on Monday that Musk is “not done” fighting Trump.

“How can you call yourself the Freedom Caucus if you vote for a DEBT SLAVERY bill with the biggest debt ceiling increase in history?” Musk also wrote, lashing out at the far-right caucus, and mentioning two Members by name: U.S. Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland, the group’s chairman, and Chip Roy of Texas.

On Saturday, Musk had warned, “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

“Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party,” he also warned.

New York magazine noted that “Trump, presumably, isn’t thrilled about Musk’s last-minute attempt to sink his signature legislative package. But so far he’s refrained from hitting back.”

READ MORE: Despite Bill’s $1T Cut Trump Official Insists ‘We’re Not Taking Away Anybody’s Medicaid’

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Stunning Incoherence’: Fox Host Mocked for Spinning Trump’s Work Visa Flip-Flop

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June 30, 2025

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Fox News host Maria Bartiromo is facing criticism for calling President Donald Trump’s latest reversal on undocumented immigrant workers “big news,” after the President floated creating “temporary passes.”

Earlier this month, Trump announced ICE would back off from detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants working on farms and in hotels, only to announce just days later an apparent reversal to that policy, by declaring he would enact “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

Bartiromo, in a White House interview on Sunday (video below), told Trump that he had “said, let’s ease up on, you know, taking in people that are working hardworking, like, in farms and hotels,” while ignoring his statement from days later.

“I don’t back away,” Trump insisted. “What I do, I cherish our farmers, and when we go into a farm and we take away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years who who are good, who possibly came in incorrectly, and what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna do something for farmers where we can let the farmers sort of be in charge.”

READ MORE: Despite Bill’s $1T Cut Trump Official Insists ‘We’re Not Taking Away Anybody’s Medicaid’

“The farmer knows, he’s not gonna hire a murderer, but, you know, when you go into a farmer and he’s had somebody working with him for nine years doing this kind of work, which is hard work to do, and a lot of people aren’t gonna do it, and you end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away,” Trump explained. “It’s a problem.”

Trump announced the White House is “gonna work it so that,” there is “some kind of a temporary pass, where people pay taxes, with a farmer can have a little control as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away.”

On social media, Bartiromo trumpeted: “Big news on the border from my interview @realDonaldTrump is working on a ‘temporary pass’ for workers on farms and in hotels where they pay taxes but it’s up to the farmer for a temporary pass even if they came into the country ‘incorrectly.'”

What Trump described sounds similar to the existing H-2A temporary visa program for agricultural workers.

“The H-2A program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

READ MORE: American Pride Plunges to New Low, Again, Again Under Trump

Critics mocked the Fox News host.

“So a work permit?” snarked U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).

“They just invented the work visa,” mocked retired intelligence officer Travis Akers.

“But wait,” urged former Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky, “we were told Americans would be doing these jobs and that everyone who came into this country illegally would be deported. What could have possibly changed?”

“Donald Trump has no idea what his immigration policy is,” noted Democratic strategist Max Burns.

“Stunning incoherence on his signature policy issue,” observed Gregg Nunziata, executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democratic Reps Say FEMA Cuts Are Leading to Hurricane Katrina-Level Disaster

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Despite Bill’s $1T Cut Trump Official Insists ‘We’re Not Taking Away Anybody’s Medicaid’

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6 hours ago

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June 30, 2025

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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that the Senate Republicans’ budget bill will slash $1 trillion from Medicaid, but according to Kevin Hassett, the White House Director of the National Economic Council, no one’s Medicaid is being taken away.

The CBO projects the current Republican Senate budget bill will cut $930 billion from Medicaid, but an amendment from Florida GOP Senator Rick Scott would make additional cuts of $313 billion, for a total of $1.24 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, according to The Hill.

But according to the White House’s Kevin Hassett, “we’re not taking away anybody’s Medicaid.”

After Fox News host Bill Hemmer told Hassett on Monday that the White House is “getting hammered on these Medicaid cuts,” Hassett, chuckling, said: “The bottom line is that we’re just, we’re not taking away anybody’s Medicaid. We’re definitely not taking away anybody’s Medicare.”

READ MORE: American Pride Plunges to New Low, Again, Again Under Trump

Hassett insisted that Republicans are merely “going after waste, fraud, and abuse,” and claimed “there’s a heck of a lot of it out there.”

Some experts put the waste, fraud, and abuse numbers—which can include improper payments and errors—at about five percent of Medicaid spending.

Hassett appears to disagree.

“A lot of budget savings have been found by people really in the House, in the Senate—not just conservatives—moderates agree that there’s a lot of money that can be saved. And the bottom line is that we’re, in the end going to balance this budget, and we’ve got to balance this budget by getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, and we’re going to do it.”

The Congressional Budget Office, according to KFF, has also estimated that by 2034 there will be an additional 16 million more uninsured people if the bill is signed into law.

READ MORE: Democratic Reps Say FEMA Cuts Are Leading to Hurricane Katrina-Level Disaster

“The scale of the proposed reductions in Medicaid is unprecedented in the history of the program, which has tended to expand coverage over time since its creation in 1965,” The New York Times reports.

Calling the cuts “savings,” the Times reports the bill in part “would establish a new, strict national work requirement for some people on the program, who would need to demonstrate they had worked at least 80 hours the month before they sign up, or qualified for an exemption.”

More cuts to Medicaid in the bill could be coming. The Times also reports that U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Sunday “told reporters that he would propose an amendment that would cut Medicaid even further.”

Watch the video below or at this link.


READ MORE: Ketanji Brown Jackson Compares SCOTUS Planned Parenthood Ruling to Jim Crow in Dissent

 

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