Episode #50 Deep Dive – Michigan’s Plan to Stop Corporate Money in Politics
A deep dive into this week's episode of Paging America
››› Republicans are considering cutting health care to pay for the Iran War
AXIOS broke the news this week that some Republicans think there’s enough waste, fraud, and abuse left in the health care system to pay for Trump’s war in Iran:
Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement.
“There’s other items we’re looking at right now, especially in the areas of fraud and waste and abuse that we’re working through with our members,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told Axios.
House Budget Committee chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) is reviving an idea that was considered last year to fund Affordable Care Act payments known as cost-sharing reductions.
The Congressional Budget Office previously found the move would lower overall benchmark ACA premiums by 11% but result in 300,000 more uninsured people.
It would cut the subsidy amount that some enrollees receive, thereby increasing out-of-pocket premium costs, while saving the government over $30 billion.
New polling from Navigator shows that this would be political suicide for Republicans. Over half of Americans (59%) believe the government is spending too much money on foreign conflicts and wars while a similar number (58%) believe we spend too little on health care.
Recall that Republicans said they were paying for last summer’s big beautiful millionaire tax giveaway by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse so, apparently, they believe they missed a bunch the first time around.
Trump, on the other hand, thinks the federal government should not pay for daycare, Medicare, or Medicaid.
Watch HERE.
Transcript:
"We can't take care of day care. You got to let a state take care of day care. And they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up. But we, It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis, you can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing. Military protection."
››› Health care is once again voters’ top issue
New polling by Gallup shows health care is the top issue for voters for the first time since 2020.
Americans are more concerned about the availability and cost of health care than any other domestic issue, with it reclaiming the top spot for the first time since 2020, according to a new Gallup poll.
The poll, released [last week] found that 61 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed said they worry a “great deal” about accessing and affording health care, while 23 percent expressed a “fair amount” of concern.
That is compared to 51 percent of respondents who said they were concerned a “great deal” about the economy and 50 percent who said the same about inflation — two issues that dominated public anxiety over the past several years, according to the survey.
››› The use of abortion pills in states with abortion bans is UP, and so are the attacks on abortion pills
A new study by Guttmacher shows that, while the number of people in states with abortion bans who traveled to another state to get an abortion fell in 2025, the number who used telehealth (i.e., were prescribed abortion pills) is UP:
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that US Senate Republicans are launching probe of abortion pill makers and escalating pressure on the FDA:
U.S. Senate Republicans launched an investigation into abortion pill manufacturers on Wednesday and called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to crack down on online sales of the drug mifepristone, the latest escalation in a years‑long political battle over access to medication abortion. [...]
Senators seek detailed compliance records from all three FDA‑approved manufacturers: Danco Laboratories, GenBioPro and Evita Solutions, including production sites, prescriber certifications, pharmacy audits, adverse event reports, sales data and reasons for any prescriber or pharmacy decertifications. [...]
Danco Laboratories declined to comment. GenBioPro said it looked forward to educating lawmakers about medication abortion.
The Senators are also going after companies that sell abortion pills online, as Jessica Valenti and Kylie Cheung from Abortion, Every Day report:
Senate Republicans are pressuring the FDA to censor online speech about abortion pills—directing the agency to target telemedicine abortion organizations, seize their domains, and “permanently shut down” their websites. The move marks a massive escalation in the attacks on pro-choice speech we’ve been documenting here for months.
››› Trump’s Medicaid chickens are coming home to roost
New analysis by Public Citizen shows that the fallout from Trump’s tax giveaway bill is starting to hit.
More than 400 hospitals across the United States are at high risk of closing or cutting services because of the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” according to an analysis from the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen.
The Medicaid cuts come in phases, with more significant changes, including work requirements, in 2027 and limits on how states raise funds in 2028. Overall, the law is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by roughly $1 trillion over the next decade.
“We’re seeing hospitals that are already under severe financial strain having to make decisions about how to stay financially solvent,” said Eileen O’Grady, a researcher in Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and the report’s author. “That has pretty clear implications for people who live in that community. It also has ripple effects on other hospitals in those communities.”
It’s not just rural hospitals that are at risk. In fact, 60% of them are in urban areas.
Millions of Americans are poised to lose their health insurance thanks to the Medicaid work requirements provisions in the bill. A new study shows that between 4.9 and 10.1 million people will lose Medicaid coverage.
››› RFK Jr. is hitting the road and the airwaves for the midterms
MAHA voters are not especially happy with Kennedy and the Trump administration at the moment.
POLITICO reports that they aren’t all that sure which party represents their views best. This may be because, as the article points out, “[T]here are still widespread misconceptions about what MAHA is and what it does — even among people who self-identify with the movement.” What’s abundantly clear is that they aren’t happy with the Republican’s anti-regulatory approach to things:
“We’re not even sure that we even have a path forward in this administration when it comes to pesticides, because it’s very clear that they are entirely owned by Bayer and the chemical companies,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA influencer who goes by the moniker Glyphosate Girl online and has publicly backed Kennedy.
In response, RFK Jr. is being sent out to win back the MAHA vote.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ramping up midterm travel to revive his Make America Healthy Again agenda, armed with a carefully crafted list of popular food and fitness policies to sell — and divisive issues like vaccines to avoid. [...]
Kennedy will appear alongside Republican House and Senate lawmakers in states with some of the most competitive House and Senate races this fall — as well as many of the 2028 presidential swing states. Kennedy is expected to visit Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, California, Virginia, Ohio, Montana and Texas. [...]
Kennedy is not expected to focus on his agency’s attempts to decrease the number of vaccines recommended for children, the person said…On vaccines, “the public is not there yet” and Kennedy and his team are aware that it’s “not an effective political strategy,” [an] administration official said.
New polling suggests avoiding vaccines might be a good move, with MAHA adherents putting vaccines down the list of their “core principles” relative to food safety, food quality, pesticides, and other items.
In addition to his MAHA Midterm Tour, Kennedy is going to be hosting his own podcast, according to the AP:
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is launching a new podcast that he says will begin “a new era of radical transparency in government,” according to a teaser video first obtained by The Associated Press.
The show, titled “The Secretary Kennedy Podcast,” will launch next week and feature Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader who has reshaped the country’s health policy, in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials told the AP ahead of the launch. In the teaser video, in a slick HHS-branded studio with ominous music playing in the background, Kennedy bills it as a new way to expose corruption and lies that have made Americans sick.
“We’re going to name the names of the forces that obstruct the paths to public health,” Kennedy says in the nearly 90-second clip. [...]
“This is part of our larger strategy to bring the Make America Healthy Again message to as wide an audience as we can,” said Liam Nahill, HHS digital director.
It will be the first to be hosted by a sitting cabinet secretary.
››› RFK Jr.’s vaccine committee is being reformed and not in a good way
The charter for CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) expired last week and the one being proposed will allow RFK Jr. wide latitude on who will be on it going forward.
The OG charter said ACIP members “shall be selected from authorities who are knowledgeable in the fields of immunization practices and public health, have expertise in the use of vaccines and other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive medicine, have expertise with clinical or laboratory vaccine research, or have expertise in assessment of vaccine efficacy and safety.”
The proposed new charter, published in the Federal Register on Monday, says only that “aspects that are considered at the time of candidate screening and review” will now involve “geographical balance” and a “balance of specialty areas (e.g., biostatistics, toxicology, immunology, epidemiology, pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, nursing, consumer issues, state and local health department perspective, academic perspective, public health perspective, etc.)”
Publishing a charter is not the same as filing it. The charter will likely be filed next week given the requirement of a seven-day notice prior to filing.
Links for a deeper dive on Episode #50
Navigator: March 31 Budget Priorities polling
Trump on not paying for daycare, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for war
The Hill: Health care polling as top issue for first time since 2020: Gallup
Reuters: US Senate Republicans launch probe of abortion pill makers, escalate pressure on FDA
ABORTION, EVERY DAY: The GOP’s Plan to Shut Down Abortion Pill Websites
NBC News: Medicaid cuts threaten hundreds of hospitals, new report finds
Fierce Health Care: RWJF: Between 5M and 10M people could lose Medicaid coverage in 2028 under work requirements
POLITICO: Poll: The battle for MAHA that could sway the midterms
POLITICO: RFK Jr. launches midterm travel push to shore up MAHA support
POLITICO: Poll: Here’s what MAHA actually believes
AP: RFK Jr is launching a podcast to expose ‘lies’ that have made Americans sick
The current ACIP charter is HERE
The proposed ACIP charter is HERE
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