1) Medicaid cuts worse now 2) Freedom caucus wants deeper cuts 3) Tax cuts for wealthy in tact 4) Cruz makes broadband funding contingent on NOT regulating AI 5) SALT Republicans to get rolled 6) Bill is like a rotting fish 7) Mike Lee making second run at public lands selloff

It is not in the national security interests of the United States to militarily attack Iran. The best way to ensure regional stability and protect American lives is to reach a negotiated agreement. It is on President Trump to avert a regional catastrophe

good morning. these are real images

Tangible, direct action from Sen. Schatz. We love to see it. @schatz.bsky.social

SCOOP: Sen. Brian Schatz is expanding his holds on Trump's nominees to include an additional 50 names — along with a batch of bipartisan foreign affairs bills.

Trump went to a LIV golf tournament instead of attending the dignified transfer of four U.S. Army soldiers who died in Lithuania. If you're wondering why this is so disgusting and insulting, I wrote about my time in the Army doing dignified transfers here: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

My statement on voting no against arms transfers to the Netanyahu government.

Worried about a recession? This sheet-pan water pie will make you feel like it's the 1930s again.

Embracing “the president who raised the price of beer” is almost as incredible as the GOP killing free markets. www.reuters.com/business/tru...

NEW: SENATE votes to END Trump's emergency tariffs on Canada, 51-48. Four Republicans joined Democrats: MCCONNELL RAND PAUL MURKOWSKI COLLINS The vote was not subject to a filibuster. House leaders are expected to block a vote. Resolution does NOT have a veto-proof majority BUT resistance grows

Ds in the minority but this week: *Won a rare vote to defeat a rule in bipartisan opposition to Speaker Johnson’s plan to nuke effort to allow new parents to vote by proxy. *Won vote to overturn Trump’s emergency tariffs on Canada. *Booker controlled Senate floor ~25 hours *Won Wisconsin court race

House Rs just passed the budget resolution, the first step in their process to enact a bill that'd kick millions off Medicaid & cut SNAP down to just $1.60 per person per meal on avg while cutting taxes for the top 0.1% by $278k - all while increasing the debt 🧵on what's to come and WHERE TO FIGHT

So House Republicans voted on a budget tonight that would cut ~$800B+ from Medicaid. Among other things, but it’s important to understand how much that will hurt every single one of us. (Spoiler: they know all of this - but they hate you.)

This vote was to start the process of the cuts. It WILL come back for a final vote. There are some chances to slow or potentially stop it. Need constant pressure on GOP Focus on GOP swing seats & key committees. Energy & Commerce is where the Medicaid fight will go down. Ways&Means for tax fight.

Check this out act.indivisible.org/signup/all_i...

This tool is amazing and gives you the numbers to explain the human impact — at the district level. democrats-budget.house.gov/legislation/...

R’s have the votes in the House to cut Medicaid. That could/should change. Voting for the “framework” might be easier than voting to actually enact Medicaid cuts, but R’s won tonight. We will fight this in Senate but it will come down to people outside of the capitol being sufficiently pissed off.

NEW SHIFT KEY Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) has emerged as an early leader of the anti-Trump 2.0 opposition. He’s also a longtime observer of climate politics. He joins us to talk about how Dems plan to fight back and what climate advocates and clean energy firms need to do for the next four years:

Valor Danielle Sassoon, Acting U.S. attorney for SDNY - refuses to drop Adams charges and resigns John Keller, Acting head of DOJ Public Integrity Section - refuses and resigns Kevin Driscoll, Acting head of DOJ Criminal Division - refuses and resigns www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

There is literally HIV being transmitted from mom to baby because of the illegal shutdown of US AID and now Trump’s State Department wants to spend 400 million dollars on Tesla cyber trucks. This is not about efficiency. It’s a smash and grab.

Being in a think tank and online bubble causes people to overestimate the popularity of their ideas. You win, and you think it’s because of your ideas, not in spite of them. For instance, it is widely unpopular to illegally cut medical research.

When TB treatment is interrupted, patients are far more likely to develop drug-resistant TB, which is a catastrophe both individually (the disease becomes harder to cure) and societally (we're allowing the bacteria millions of new opportunities to develop further resistance). Many people will die.

Just received this photo from a friend of a warehouse in Kinshasa. These are tuberculosis medications--ALREADY PAID FOR--that aren't being distributed due to the Trump Administration's stop work order. TB treatment is being interrupted in SO many patients around the world. What does that mean? (1/2)

The Congressional Research Service is telling Congress that Trump cannot shut down US AID. Will they - and more specifically Republicans - listen, and act?https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12500

This is morally indefensible and strategically bankrupt. It’s just letting people die on purpose and it makes us weaker in every way.

Mind-boggling wreckage. Among the lifesaving programs now disrupted by Elon’s attack on @USAID: phase 1 trials for a possible HIV vaccine.

"Be angry, but don't give up." From Rachel's interview tonight with Senator Brian Schatz @schatz.bsky.social Part 1 (testing how it looks to post a multi-part video here)

Donald Trump and Elon Musk have cut off funding for half of the health centers that serve 400,000 Virginians, forcing some to close, which could mean up to 200,000 Virginians are suddenly without healthcare www.vpm.org/news/2025-02...

“Breaking the law” is so much more accurate and way quicker to say!

New via NYT — The CIA sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force. One former agency officer called the reporting of names a “counterintelligence disaster.”

Please tune in!

Democratic senators will hold the Senate floor all night long in opposition to the nomination of Russ Vought, an organizer of Project 2025, to head the OMB.

Every single Senate Democrat will vote against Russell Vought, the Trump nominee for OMB and chief architect of the ultra-right Project 2025. We are holding the floor of the United States Senate overnight to expose how Project 2025 is the Trump White House agenda.

There’s an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda. There’s an outbreak of Marburg’s disease in Tanzania. Thousand of American diplomats leaving their posts abruptly. We just look so weak and a bit nuts. Foreign policy is hard, but this is just a very big early blunder.

We are going to win. But not immediately.

NEWS Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz says he’s putting a blanket hold on all of President Trump’s State Department nominees until USAID is back up and running.

I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world. Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO

Blaming diversity for a plane crash is just depraved as hell but it’s obvious to me that this was an intentional distraction from the massive unlawful screw up with the federal funds freeze.

Normalizing spelling out what people actually mean when they cite DEI rather than letting them hide behind the safe cover of a euphemism that's been sapped of meaning

We passed a law. They don’t get to force people to petition the king for mercy. We are still a democracy and this will be found illegal.

NEW: My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night's federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.

Multiple states locked out of Medicaid portal. This is a Trump shutdown, except this time it’s unlawful.

BREAKING: The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/h...

Schatz: The drumbeat below all of this has to be that the policy of the Trump Administration is to rip regular people off. They’re transferring wealth from regular working people, the elderly, students, the disabled and shoving it to the wealthiest individuals that have ever walked this planet.

The story of this first week is corruption. Billionaires seated on the inaugural stage in front of the cabinet, crypto pump and dump, and the illegal firing of IGs. The media is acting like this is too chaotic and bewildering to interpret, but they are just afraid of sounding shrill. It’s corrupt.

Guest on Megyn Kelly this week: “So, that's the thing is the funniest joke we ever pulled on the Democrats was convincing them that Project 2025 wasn't real…it's over, we won, yes, we're going to do Project 2025. And the other thing is, it's good.”

This matters. Not because I think Trump is capable of mercy or empathy towards these vulnerable groups. But because it is a public act of defiance. Contrast that with all these other powerful people in this country signaling nothing but appeasement and obedience.