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GOP Plan Would Kick 10.3 Million People Off Medicaid - The Wednesday AM Quickie 5/14/25

By Whitney Curry Wimbish —

If Customs and Border Protection agents detain you, like they did progressive streamer Hasan Piker recently, remember that you don’t have to engage. As of this writing, you still have the right to a lawyer, you don’t have to answer questions, and you can simply STFU. Corey’s got you covered for the rest of the week. - Whitney

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THE BIG NEWS

GOP Lied: “Big Beautiful Bill” Would Kick 10.3 Million People Off Medicaid 

Remember when Trump and his GOP acolytes said over and over that they wouldn’t cut Medicaid? They lied. Their megabill would kick 10.3 million people off Medicaid and leave 7.6 million people without any medical insurance, Politico reported. 

Republicans released those estimates just a few minutes before the House Energy and Commerce Committee met yesterday to mark up the legislation that would enact Trump’s agenda – funding handouts to the wealthiest and militarizing the border by gutting the services Americans rely on to live. The energy committee is looking for at least $880 billion to cut, which is impossible to do without cutting Medicaid. The bill would force new work requirements on “able-bodied” adults and limit how much they can get in Medicaid matching funds, among other things. Republicans have slavishly called the legislation “the one, big, beautiful bill” because Trump is their lord, and they are trying to ram it through at breakneck speed to get it to the Senate by Memorial Day.

Disability rights activists and others packed the committee meeting to protest the bill – so many that they spilled into the hallway outside. “No cuts to Medicaid,” they chanted repeatedly despite threats of arrest from the chairman, Kentucky Rep. Brett Guthrie. Ranking member Frank Pallone Jr., Democratic Rep. of New Jersey, asked Capitol Police not to arrest anyone because many were disabled and using wheelchairs. “I think hopefully everyone understands that these demonstrations, these people feel very strongly because they know they’re losing their health care and the cruelty that comes from the Republican proposal,” Pallone said.

Cops arrested 26 people anyway. One person yelled, “You will kill me,” as cops hauled them away.

Trump Pens ‘Record’ Arms Deal With ‘Hot’ Saudi Arabia During Lavish Tour of Middle East


Trump signed a $142 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia yesterday after the bone-saw-wielding government showered him with the luxury and fanfare he covets, according to the BBC, Reuters, and The Washington Post. Six Saudi F-15s escorted Air Force One to the ground, then a pack of Arabian horses walking in formation escorted Trump’s armored limousine to a band and an honor guard. He met top Saudi officials in a gilded hall with plush purple chairs; a custom-built McDonald’s truck was parked outside the “media oasis.” Even the tech barons who came were spruced up: Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman both wore a suit and tie. The guest list (retinue?) also included LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, the CEOs of Amazon, BlackRock, and the Blackstone Group, and a pack of other high-ranking executives from Coca-Cola, Boeing, Citigroup, Google, Northrop Grumman, Uber, and elsewhere.

The US will sell Saudi Arabia “state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen US defense firms” under the arms deal, which the White House claimed is “the largest defense sales agreement in history.” It came at the start of Trump’s four-day tour of the Middle East, during which he also lifted sanctions on Syria “to give them a chance at greatness” and gave a meandering speech at an investment forum praising Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Trump addressed him directly from the stage: “We are rockin’, the United States is the hottest country – with the exception of your country, I have to say, right?”

“I’m not going to take that on. No, Mohammed, I’m not gonna take that on,” he babbled. “Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing if I made that full statement. I will not do it. You’re hotter! At least as long as I’m up here, you’re hotter.”

Judge Takes Rikers Away From NYC Mayor Adams


A federal judge has given control of the dilapidated and deadly Rikers Island prison complex to a remediation manager, who will report directly to her, CBS reported. The order takes the prison away from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a corrupt incompetent who has failed to do anything about its conditions. The complex is full of dangers, including filthy toilets and other ruined personal hygiene facilities, but Adams insists he can’t do anything about that because the last mayor passed a law calling for Rikers to close by 2027. Five people died in it during the first three months of this year alone. Now it’s up to federal officials to fix.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • Rolling Blackouts Ahead for Pacific Northwest The combination of extreme weather and energy trends has forecasters predicting ongoing rolling blackouts and power outages in Oregon and Washington state within the next decade. via ProPublica.
  • Gunmen Assassinate Morena Party Mayor Candidates in Mexico Gunmen have killed two members of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena party who were running for mayor in the June 1 election. via the AP.
  • US Set to Lose $12.5 Billion As Foreign Tourists Go Elsewhere The Grand Canyon is nice and all but why risk fascist abuse and ICE detention? via The NYT and Reuters. 
  • Deep Dish Pope Trading Card Dunks on LeBron A run of Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV trading cards has set a new record for non-sports figures and is outperforming LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama. via The Guardian. 

SOME NUMBER

1 or 2

That’s how many fully certified air traffic controllers were on duty for the beleaguered Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday, workers said – though the Federal Aviation Administration said the number was more like three. Either way, that’s a lot fewer than the 14 that are supposed to be there.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

5/14: It’s Hump Day! Today’s guest is Ezra Klein, who will talk about his book Abundance. 

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

Trump Accepts $400 Million "Gift” From Qatar

Not feeling particularly wooed, hbu.

HHS Pushes Trans Conversion Nonsense | Dr. Kellan Baker

Conversion therapy is dangerous and discredited.

PARTING WORDS

“I hope that the judge rules Wednesday that I can be released, so I can return to my lab. There is a data set that I’m halfway finished analyzing. I want to go home and finish it.”

-- Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist who had been studying aging at Harvard Medical School before ICE detained her in February. Petrova asked her colleagues to share images for the first time ever from their proprietary Normalized Raman Imaging microscope in the hope that they will show people why she wants to return to her research. The NoRI microscope is the only one of its kind in the world and can measure the chemical makeup of cells at a level never before achieved. Petrova had been using it to look for ways to treat Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other diseases – research she was unable to conduct in Russia in part because of her participation in protests against the war in Ukraine. “My colleagues tell me that since my detention, the work with NoRI has ground to a halt,” she said. “Without me there to help, the lab has been unable to analyze the image data that the microscope generates.”

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