House Democratic leaders are placing an early emphasis on healthcare as they discuss their immediate priorities upon the swearing-in of the new Congress on Jan. 3.
Early votes in the House next year are expected to focus on boosting Medicaid and restoring an enhanced tax subsidy that is designed to lower the cost of Affordable Care Act health plans for millions of enrollees.
Democrats are also promising swift action on legislation to stop the war with Iran and to reverse some of President Donald Trump’strade tariffs.
“We’re going to get out of the gate fast,” said New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader who is in line to become the next House speaker.
The legislative flurry carries enormous stakes for Democrats as they seek to translate their sweeping victories in the midterms — their numbers will exceed 250 in the 435-member House — into achievements that deliver on their promises to lower the cost of living.
Passing those bills should not be a problem with such a large Democratic House majority. Getting them signed into law most certainly could be.
A 60-vote threshold in the Senate looms for the legislation, as does a potential presidential veto. Trump on election night posted a photo on his social media site of a red hat with a simple message on it: “VETO”.
Following those early votes, Jeffries said five working groups are developing plans to put forward bills that would lower costs in areas such as housing, energy, groceries and caregiving.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said Democrats will at some point take up legislation dealing with artificial intelligence and data centers. He is part of a group of lawmakers working on a document that will lay out some of the priorities for Jeffries to consider.
“House Republicans last year made a conscious decision to let the AI industry run wild, and that was a bad decision politically and a bad decision on policy,” Lieu said. “Two things will change next term. We will hold public hearings on AI. We will pass legislation, reasonable guardrails on AI, and specifically data centers.”...
Once again, the highest duty of the Democrats in the Senate is to kill the filibuster rule, otherwise their agenda won't get out of Congress and onto the Malignant Fascist's desk. Put him in the position to veto popular legislation, then see if the remaining MAGAt Republican Senators will join with Democrats to override the vetoes. Democrats might find that enough Republicans have grown spines since their historic blowout losses to override the MF on issues that are in the public interest. Meanwhile, Democrats will be showing they're in Congress to work for the people.
This week, eight public health officials who advise an arm of the United Nations will consider whether the U.S. can still say it’s eliminated measles.
For Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the longtime vaccine skeptic who’s helmed America’s response to the thousands of cases that have erupted since last year, it will be a legacy-defining decision.
The Pan American Health Organization’s answer would seem obvious, with measles ripping through Pennsylvania, New York in a state of emergency and more than 7,000 infections reported nationwide since January 2025. But the officials will have to determine that a single chain of transmission has continued for at least a year to take away measles-elimination status.
If not, Kennedy will get more time as he attempts to show that his agency can curb the spread of measles, a disease that can only be contained when the vaccination rate is at least 95%, even as he seeks to downsize the childhood vaccine schedule, discourage school vaccination mandates and promote his discredited belief that vaccines cause far more injuries than the government has acknowledged.
The potential loss of measles elimination status comes as Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement is fighting to maintain its political relevancy, and its favored position inside the Trump administration, after sweeping Republican losses during the midterm elections. Losing the status could also weigh Kennedy himself down, whether he wants to keep working for Trump, as he says, or whether he decides to revisit the presidential ambitions he put aside two years ago to take the health secretary job.
“It is hard to believe the White House is not already weighing whether continued defense of Secretary Kennedy’s approach and the ongoing fallout from related policy changes makes sense for another two years,” said Jerome Adams, surgeon general during Trump’s first administration, who has called for Kennedy to be removed from his post due to his handling of public health. [snip]
America was once the world leader in containing measles, having won its elimination status in 2000 and secured it with a vaccination rate close to the 95% required to maintain herd immunity. But the world’s most contagious disease began spreading globally again after vaccination rates declined during the Covid pandemic.
Measles vaccination rates have continued to decline since Kennedy took over the health department. Coverage in kindergarteners is now only 92.4%... (our emphasis)
Bobby Brainworm's "Making America Healthy Again" -- one of the all-time sickest (yes) gems in the Pantheon of Irony.
As Republicans faced a nationwide drubbing in Tuesday's midterm elections, supporters streamed out of a Dallas ballroom where they'd hoped to toast a win for US Senate candidate Ken Paxton, a favorite of President Donald Trump.
In the hotel bar, Michael Little, a 59-year-old businessman and three-time Trump voter, stared at the president's image on a television screen. "People are pissed off at Trump. Trump has cost us," he said, capturing a sentiment rippling through the president's Make America Great Again movement after the Republican Party's worst electoral defeat in decades.
Across the coalition, some supporters who once viewed Trump as MAGA's greatest asset are beginning to question whether he's become its biggest liability.
The midterm losses amounted to more than a repudiation of Trump. They were a referendum on the political and cultural movement he built. A defining force in American politics that began as a campaign slogan during Trump's 2016 presidential run now faces a potentially existential reckoning after voters disillusioned with soaring fuel prices, the Iran war and Washington corruption delivered Democrats decisive congressional majorities.
Trump's first major response to the midterms came on Friday. Instead of changing course, he doubled down on the movement's core. He promoted Stephen Miller, the main architect of the administration's hardline immigration crackdown, to chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Wiles was seen as a stabilizing force inside an often chaotic White House.
The move was celebrated by some of MAGA's most ardent influencers, who saw it as a return to the anti-immigration agenda at the movement's roots. "Exactly the energy we need," right-wing influencer Benny Johnson posted on X to his 4.1 million followers. "Solid move. It's Miller Time."...
Too much "Miller Time" and the already gutted MAGAt Republican Party/ cult will drink itself to death (we hope). Doubling down on the policies of the past two years, especially the vile anti-immigrant enforcement actions ("thuggery") of DHS/ ICE, is a recipe for continuing electoral disaster. We're sure voters from California, Arizona,Texas, Florida, Kansas, and Iowa will be delighted to hear that the Malignant Fascist and PeeWee Goebbels got the electorate's message on November 3.
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