Ever since the MAGA Murder Bill (officially H.R. 1, the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act") was passed by Republicans in the U.S. Senate & House and signed into law by Donald Trump a few days ago, I've seen a growing conventional wisdom taking hold on social media: People keep claiming that either all, "nearly all" or at least "most of" the budget cuts & other gutting of various programs and departments won't actually kick in until after the November 2026 midterms.
Now, don't get me wrong--most of those making these claims are well-intentioned; they're saying this cynically, to underscore how disingenuous Congressional Republicans are by back-loading the pain until the midterms are safely in their rearview mirrors. And, to be fair, much of the damage won't being until well after next November.
Over at The New Republic, Greg Sargent has taken this thinking one step further, noting that by delaying so much of the ugliness of the new law until 2027 or beyond...
With the ongoing budget battle approaching the Sept. 30th federal government shut down deadline, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) have formally introduced a bicameral Continuing Resolution bill to fund the government for an extra month to buy more time to negotiate and avoid a shutdown by the Republican-controlled federal government:
ashington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member, introduced a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded and allow negotiations to continue over full-year bills that ensure Congress, not President Trump or Russ Vought, decide how taxpayer dollars are spent. The CR also addresses the health care crisis Republicans have single-handedly created and protects Congress’ power of the purse, rejecting President Trump’s illegal “pocket rescission.”
In a statement, Vice Chair Murray and Ranking Member DeLauro said:
Our survey of voters in the most competitive Congressional Districts shows Republicans have an opportunity to overcome a current generic ballot deficit and take the lead by extending the healthcare premium tax credits for those who purchase health insurance for themselves. Without Congressional action, the tax credit expires this year.
With the pending dire threat to several of these programs (primarily Medicaid & the ACA) from the House Republican Budget Proposal which recently passed, I'm going a step further and am generating pie charts which visualize just how much of every Congressional District's total population is at risk of losing healthcare coverage.
USE THE DROP-DOWN MENU ABOVE TO FIND YOUR STATE & DISTRICT.
Political battles are usually won based on appealing to emotion, not to facts, policy or logic.
However, you should still have those facts at your disposal for two reasons: First, they still help you craft appeals to emotion. Second, they also help you craft the actual policy. Besides, I'm a data guy; my primary job is to help put facts & policy into easily-understandable context.
With the pending dire threat to several of these programs (primarily Medicaid & the ACA) from the House Republican Budget Proposal which recently passed, I'm going a step further and am generating pie charts which visualize just how much of every Congressional District's total population is at risk of losing healthcare coverage.
USE THE DROP-DOWN MENU ABOVE TO FIND YOUR STATE & DISTRICT.
There are 29 House districts where Republicans won by 12 points or less.
Below I've posted district-wide enrollment in ACA exchange-based Qualified Health Plans (QHPs), ACA Basic Health Plans (BHPs) and Medicaid via ACA expansion.
Across these 29 districts alone, a total of nearly 2.7 million Americans are at risk of either losing healthcare coverage entirely or, if they don't, having to deal with MASSIVE premium hikes and/or a MOUNTAIN of paperwork on a regular basis to keep it due to a combination of H.R. 1 (the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act") being implemented, the GOP allowing the IRA subsidies to expire at the end of this year, and the Trump Administration implementing CMS's recent "Integrity Rule" starting this fall.
That's around 12% of the total populations of these districts.
With the pending dire threat to several of these programs (primarily Medicaid & the ACA) from the House Republican Budget Proposal which recently passed, I'm going a step further and am generating pie charts which visualize just how much of every Congressional District's total population is at risk of losing healthcare coverage.
USE THE DROP-DOWN MENU ABOVE TO FIND YOUR STATE & DISTRICT.
With the pending dire threat to several of these programs (primarily Medicaid & the ACA) from the House Republican Budget Proposal which recently passed, I'm going a step further and am generating pie charts which visualize just how much of every Congressional District's total population is at risk of losing healthcare coverage.
USE THE DROP-DOWN MENU ABOVE TO FIND YOUR STATE & DISTRICT.
Back in March, the Health & Human Services (HHS) Dept. and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a so-called "Marketplace Integrity & Affordability Rule" which would include sweeping changes to how the ACA exchanges (both the federal one (HealthCare.Gov) and the 20-odd state-based ones (Covered California, MNsure, etc) operate, as well as who is or isn't eligible to enroll in ACA exchange coverage, restrictions on subsidy eligibility and so forth.
Many of these changes are simply repeals/reversals of improvements put into place during the Biden Administration; others are completely new ones being put into place by the Trump Regime under RFK Jr. & Dr. Oz.
However, until today, these were still technically only proposed changes. Now they're official. The final version isn't quite as bad as it could have been, and there's one or two items on the list which I'm not that upset about, but overall...yeah, it's pretty ugly.
