Heather Boushey

Agree!

The Rural Broadband Crisis: How Trump’s latest cuts are reigniting the digital divide Hi friends,

... the Trump administration froze these funds and last week moved to slash public broadcasting — disproportionately hurting rural areas already lacking high-speed internet. The digital divide is about to grow even wider.

Read more on my latest Substack: hboushey.substack.com/p/the-rural-...

Access to broadband is essential — for work, school, and basic services. It’s also key to a thriving economy and American-made infrastructure. The Biden administration knew this, which is why we invested $42.25 billion in broadband deployment.

BUT ...

Final CBO score of the "big beautiful bill" is out

Largest Medicaid cuts ever - in fact, at least 4 times the size of the previous largest; $894-$990 bn cut

Kicks 10 million off health insurance

Largest SNAP cuts ever, $197 bn cut

Still increases the deficit by $3.4 trillion from huge tax cuts

Louisiana hospitals warn Mike Johnson of 'devastation' from megabill

Every major health system in Louisiana is warning Speaker Mike Johnson and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation that the Senate GOP’s planned Medicaid cuts “would be historic in their devastation.”

Pro-equity = pro-growth (can someone please tell the Republicans?)

Staring at this chart as the Republicans work to pass their bill to gut America's clean energy investments and concede to a future of de-growth and being less competitive in the technologies that matter, which will lead to fewer good jobs here in the USA. Big Ugly Bill.

How messed up do you have to be to say that stripping health coverage from up to 16 million people, removing food from kids, and raising taxes on some low-income people is “immaterial”?

Where do I sign up?

These are lies

A screenshot of a tweet that reads “GOP negotiators looking at expanding the enhanced FMAP rate to at least three more states in addition to Alaska and Hawaii in order to pass muster with parliamentarian. Enhanced FMAP would be based on state population density and include North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Big effort being made to woo Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski.”

Republicans are about to decimate Medicaid across the country and their top two Senate leaders are trying to get their states exempted from the cuts at the 11th hour.

chart shows that under the bill, people making under $30,000 pay more in taxes, and millionaires pay substantially less.

The Joint Committee on Taxation is up late and busts out this striking distributional analysis of the Senate bill on taxes:

This @washingtonpost.com visual sums it up: tax cuts (that go disproportionately to the richest) paid for in large part by cutting health care and food for millions of Americans, and adding to the national debt.

Opinion | How to Wreck the Nation’s Health, by the Numbers The administration's cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services are going to do irreparable harm to the nation’s health.

“The administration cut over $4.6 billion in grants related to pandemic response, both for Covid and future pandemics. It laid off experts on imminent health threats, such as widespread transmission of bird flu to humans, leaving the country dangerously unprepared for the next emergency.”

blackout bill seems bad, is bad

How the Senate GOP’s New Tax on Renewables Could ‘Kill’ the Industry As bad as previous drafts of the reconciliation bill have been, this one is worse.

Republicans are now suddenly planning to TAX renewable energy, transforming the repeal of the IRA from a challenge to a full-blown crisis for American solar and wind.

I spent the last 24 hours putting this story together to explain why.

Please share! This is really important!!!

@heatmap.news

Republicans are blowing it all up for tax cuts that give more than twice as much to the top 0.1% than to the bottom half of America combined.

They aren’t breaking Senate rules to like provide health care or child care or education, but for tax cuts that disproportionately go to the rich.

And this was before the shenanigans this weekend.

Rich get more and more, millions will lose health care, food, and access to good, clean energy jobs.

Big Bad Bill.

Read the bill.

And explain what it means:

😠 12 million people lose health care
😠 22% SNAP cut (nutrition program)
😠 $63,000 tax break for the top 1%
😠 Millions of lost clean energy jobs

Working class people will lose jobs, health care, food and the rich get richer and richer

Shameful

Did you know the 4 out of every 10 births are financed by Medicaid?

Did you know that rises to almost 5 in 10 in nonmetro -- i.e., more rural -- areas?

Yet, we have to kick them off Medicaid because millionaires and billionaires need another tax break.

How shameful.

www.kff.org/medicaid/sta...

Let this sink in ... 12 million people will lose their health insurance so that rich people can get yet another big tax break.

12 million lives will be directly harmed by Trump and the Republican's Big Bad Bill.

12 milliion.

The Senate Republican bill would cut SNAP by $186 billion - 22% by the final year. This would be by far the largest SNAP cut in history and would rip food assistance away from millions of households, including families with kids and veterans.

"The biggest jobs killing bill in the history of the country"

That is how the North American Building Trades Unions describe the Republican budget bill.

So where are the normally aggressive leaders of the Abundance Movement like @tednordhaus.bsky.social and @thebti.bsky.social?

#energysky

Senate Republicans are calling to cut Medicaid and CHIP by over $1 trillion, growing to an 18% cut by 2034.

This would be at least four times the size of the largest Medicaid cut in history.

Opinion | Our State Cannot Survive This Bill

Rural families will be so very much harmed by the Big Bad Bill.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/o...

China breaks more records with surge in solar and wind power Between January and May, China added 198 GW of solar and 46 GW of wind, enough to generate as much electricity as Indonesia or Turkey

"China installed 93 GW of solar capacity last month – almost 100 solar panels every second..."

Labour’s industrial policy can succeed where Biden failed The UK government faces few of the obstacles that stymied the former US president’s agenda

It’s been exciting to watch the UK Labour government take on a fulsom strategy to foster economic competitiveness and create good jobs across the country. Many lessons from what we did in the United States—and a number of advantages that will help them succeed where we could not.
on.ft.com/4eeQzaA

"We are devastated and heartbroken at the loss of our parents, Melissa and Mark. They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can't believe they are gone. Their love for us was boundless. We miss them so much. "We want everyone to know that we are both safe and with loved ones. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received, and we appreciate your respect for our family's privacy as we grieve. "Our family would like to thank law enforcement for their swift action that saved others and for the coordination across communities that led to the arrest of the man who murdered our parents. We especially would like to thank the officers who were first on the scene to our parents' home and their heroic attempts to rescue our mom and dad. "Our parents touched so many lives, and they leave behind an incredible legacy of dedication to their community that will live on in us, their friends, their colleagues and co-workers, and every single person who knew and loved them. "If you would like to honor the memory of Mark and Melissa, please consider the following: • Plant a tree. • Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail. • Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do. • Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it. • Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone. • Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something. • Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace. "Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear. Our parents lived their lives with immense dedication to their fellow humans. This tragedy must become a moment for us to come together. Hold your loved ones a little closer. Love your neighbors. Treat each other with kindness and respect. The best way to honor our parents' memory is to do something, whether big or small, to make our community just a little better for someone else."

Please read and share this statement from Sophie and Colin Hortman, children of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark.

(via WCCO reporter Caroline Cummings on X)

E.P.A. Plans to Reconsider a Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos

Fun times: E.P.A. Plans to Reconsider a Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/u...

It's always interesting to compare the numbers to the Tea Party protests and the respective coverage of them.