A senator of France, Claude Malhuret, gave a speech last week that is being heard around the world. The Atlantic has published a translation. I urge you to read it. “Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you” Malhuret said. Europe has to defend Ukraine alone.
My hapless U.S. Representative, Mike Lawler, was a guest speaker at a rally yesterday and did not have a good time.
The message was clear from some 3,000 people who rely on Medicaid, their caregivers and the agencies that support them: Protect Medicaid.
At the “Rally in the Valley,” held Friday, March 7, at Clover Stadium, people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid, their support workers and agencies that serve the disabilities community came together to advocate for the federal healthcare program that supports low-income and disabled people. …
… The focus of much of the crowd’s ire: a federal budget blueprint, backed by Republicans in Congress, that experts say would lead to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid.
And they let U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, an invited speaker who had voted for the plan, know exactly how they felt about it. …
… “I understand the concern about Medicaid,” Lawler said. Invoking record federal debt and spending, he said, the goal was to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”
Sporadic boos started building.
It got rowdier from there. Lawler is truly in a box now. Rockland County is just west of Westchester County, on the other side of the Hudson River. It is redder than most of New York; last year its voters chose Trump over Harris, 55 percent to 44 percent. Statewide, it was 56 percent to 43 percent in Harris’s favor. Lawler won in Rockland with 58 percent of the vote last year. So this should be a safe space for him. But I guess not.
We’re about a week away from government shutdown time. In the House, Speaker Johnson came out with a continuing resolution bill that would keep federal agencies funded through September. It does call for a reduction in nondefense spending, but the news stories aren’t saying if any programs in particular are called out for reduction. Democrats are vowing not to support it and are challenging the Republicans to pass it by themselves.
I guess you heard about Trump confusing “transgender” mice with “transgenic” mice. This amused me:
I love that cute mouse diva.
I heard that a large contingent of transgenic mice held a weekend cocktail party recently, and after a few martinis, the mice were yukking it up and talking about rumors they had heard that the tastiest scraps in America are to be found in the kitchens of Mar a Lago. I think they were talking about chartering mouse-buses, but I'm pretty sure that's just a rumor. After all these mice were three sheets to the wind!