These are the final days to call your Republican senator(s) and Republican representative to demand they oppose $70 billion in ICE funding. We’ve kept this funding blocked since January, but Republicans are now trying to rush it through and hoping everyone is too distracted by other news to notice. We must be as loud as possible and show the GOP that we won’t be fooled into complacency when lives are on the line.
Make calls for the No War Wednesdays Phonebank on Wednesday, May 20 (2:30pm ET/11:30am PT) to reach voters in key states and urge them to demand their Members of Congress block any more funding for Trump’s unjust, unauthorized war on Iran. We are weeks past the 60-day deadline for congressional authorization, and Congress must do its duty and hold the Trump regime accountable.
Phonebank for Randy Villegas, Indivisible’s endorsed candidate for Congress in CA-22 on Thursday, May 21 (8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT). Randy’s primary is just over two weeks away, on June 2, and AIPAC is spending heavily against him, while the Dem establishment has put its thumb on the scale to support his status-quo opponent. Villegas is the kind of fighter we need in Congress, and he needs our support to get there. Electoral phonebank events paid for by Indivisible Action. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
“We will not sit back and watch while Gov. Kemp takes orders from a felon-in-chief to turn Dr. King’s dream into a nightmare,” said the head of Common Cause Georgia.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) as he delivers remarks at the Republican Governors Association Meeting at The National Building Museum on February 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 13, 2026.It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Republican state leaders are forging ahead with President Donald Trump’s campaign to rig congressional districts for the GOP, with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signing a proclamation for a special legislative session and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster expected to make a similar announcement soon.
While GOP policymakers facing pressure from Trump have pursued mid-decade redistricting in several states ahead of the November midterm elections—in which Democrats aim to reclaim majorities in both chambers of Congress—Kemp’s proclamation explicitly states that any changes in Georgia would be for 2028, which is the next presidential cycle.
Kemp’s proclamation cites the US Supreme Court’s decision last month that a Louisiana map predating Trump’s redistricting push was “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” which gutted the remnants of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965.
In a statement condemning the proclamation, Common Cause Georgia director Rosario Palacios pointed to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a key figure in the movement that led to the VRA as well as the Civil Rights Act the previous year.
“We will not sit back and watch while Gov. Kemp takes orders from a felon-in-chief to turn Dr. King’s dream into a nightmare. Too many civil rights leaders have done work in our state for us [to] take this sitting down,” Palacios declared. “Common Cause is mobilizing thousands of people to stop state lawmakers from passing any new maps before 2030 that destroy Black voters’ power for political gain. Voters should not have to rely on lawsuits to protect their right to fair representation. Congress must end this abuse once and for all so every voter can cast a ballot in free and fair elections, no matter their political party.”
US Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who is up for reelection in 2028, similarly ripped the Georgia redistricting effort on social media Wednesday: “There is an extreme movement in this country that will stop at nothing to hold on to power, even if it means stripping representation away from millions. I will fight this with everything I have.”
Republicans in various states have moved to “shamelessly capitalize” on the April ruling from the high court’s right-wing supermajority. On Monday, as the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Alabama GOP to rescind the creation of its second Black-majority district, Memphis voters sued over a new map targeting Tennessee‘s only majority-Black congressional district.
On Tuesday, as the Missouri Supreme Court declined to strike down a new congressional map that state voters are working to challenge with a referendum, five Republican South Carolina senators joined Democrats in blocking a GOP effort to advance Trump’s gerrymandering campaign in their state.
However, The Post and Courier’s Nick Reynolds reported Wednesday that South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (R-25) believes the governor “will call legislators back into a special session amid the redistricting fight.”
Also reporting on the anticipated move Wednesday, Politico’s Andrew Howard and Alec Hernandez noted that “McMaster’s plan—confirmed by four people familiar with the decision, who were granted anonymity to share private details—is a reversal of his position earlier this month and follows pressure” from the president and his allies.
A redistricting push in South Carolina is expected to target the seat held by Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn—who last month warned that the Supreme Court ruling on Louisiana’s map and the VRA “threatens to send our country deeper into the thicket of never-ending redistricting fights, with repeated aggressive map redraws, protracted legal battles, and relentless partisan tugs-of-war, all of which are destined to result in more regressive court decisions.”
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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L), accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025, in flight. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L), accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025, in flight. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 15, 2026.It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday accused US President Donald Trump of “orchestrating a $1,700,000,000 fraud on the American taxpayer to line the pockets of his MAGA political allies” amid new reporting on the terms Trump is seeking in talks to settle his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
ABC News reported late Thursday that Trump is expected to drop his lawsuit in the coming days “in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration.” The money would come from the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund, which pays out court judgments and settlements against the federal government.
The president is also expected to receive a public apology from the IRS for the leak of his tax returns during his first White House term.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said in a statement that the reported settlement terms represent “another installment” in Trump’s “ongoing effort to turn the federal government into a personal cash machine for his unpopular extremist movement.”
“This is a massive and unprecedented presidential plunder of the American people,” said Raskin. “Worse still, this is only the beginning—a declaration that the prior payouts were just a down payment, and that he now intends to earmark billions more in taxpayer dollars for his political allies, sycophants, and private militia of unemployed insurrectionists.”
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“The president has no authority to conjure up billion-dollar compensation schemes or raid the Judgment Fund, which exists to settle valid lawsuits. Trump is systematically converting neutral government mechanisms into a presidential slush fund to build his army of political dependents,” Raskin continued. “Congress must act immediately to reassert the power of the purse and stop this brazen looting of taxpayer funds before this ‘pilot program’ for corruption becomes the permanent operating system of our government.”
According to ABC, which cited unnamed sources who emphasized that the settlement’s terms should not be considered final until officially announced, the deal is “expected to prohibit Trump from directly receiving payments related to those three legal claims; however, entities associated with Trump are not explicitly barred from filing additional claims.”
“The arrangement would be an unprecedented use of taxpayer dollars with little oversight,” ABC noted. “Under the terms of the potential settlement agreement, President Trump would have the authority to remove members of the commission running the fund without cause, and the commission would be under no obligation to disclose its procedures or decision-making process for awarding more than a billion dollars.”
ABC’s story came on the heels of reports earlier this week revealing internal Justice Department discussions on settling Trump’s lawsuit, which he filed in late January. Last month, a federal judge questioned the constitutionality of Trump’s suit, noting that “he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.”
“Real story: Judge was about to throw out the case because Trump controls both parties,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) wrote late Thursday. “Before it’s dismissed, Trump tells both parties to reach a ‘settlement.’ Settlement shields Trump from any future audit and creates a secret slush fund that can dole out money to anyone with no transparency.”
“Mind-boggling corruption,” Goldman added.
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New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers an address to the crowd at his 100 Days Rally at the Knockdown Center in New York, NY, USA on April 12, 2026.
(Photo by Jason Alpert-Wisnia / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)
“It’s not just that government can help, it’s that government must help and our government will help.”
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday delivered a rebuttal to former Republican President Ronald Reagan’s infamous quote about “the nine most terrifying words in the English language.”
During an event announcing the location of a second city-run grocery store, Mamdani recalled Reagan claiming in 1986 that the scariest words in the English language were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
“It’s a good quote, but I disagree,” Mamdani said. “I think nine more terrifying words are actually, ‘I worked all day and can’t feed my family.’ We are going to use the power of government to lower prices and make it easier for New Yorkers to put food on the table.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani mocks Ronald Reagan’s infamous quote.
“I can think of nine words more terrifying than ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help…’”
The mayor added that “when government understands its purpose as serving the very working people that it has left behind time and again, it can make a difference in the most pressing struggles facing our city today.”
“It’s not just that government can help,” Mamdani emphasized, “it’s that government must help and our government will help.”
In an announcement, Mamdani revealed that the city is planning to open a 20,000-square-foot grocery store in the Peninusla development in the Bronx by the end of next year. This marks the second announced location for a city-run grocery store, following an earlier announcement for a planned store in East Harlem that is set to open by 2029.
“Making sure every New Yorker can buy fresh, affordable groceries in their own neighborhood is a key part of our affordability agenda,” Mamdani said. “We are proud to begin this work in the South Bronx and remain committed to opening a store in every borough before the end of our first term.”
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Journalist Thomas Smith got invited into the secretive glass-fronted tower in Mission Bay, and came away with a new perspective on the AI giant
A modern glass office building with a sky bridge and landscaped seating area, home to artificial intelligence company OpenAI, in San Francisco, May 27, 2025.Smith Collection/Gado
By Thomas Smith May 17, 2026 (SFGate.com)
Normally, when I approach the incognito San Francisco headquarters of OpenAI, a benignly terrifying security guard in a rugby shirt stares me down.
Last week, though, I got to waltz right past him.
Well, almost. Apparently I waltzed a bit prematurely. As I first entered the lobby, he professionally but firmly walked me back outside and showed me how to properly scan a QR code that would grant me access to the beating heart of the buzziest, most controversial company in tech.
After that, the waltzing could continue unimpeded, because I had been formally invited inside OpenAI’s secretive mothership. And what I saw there told me a lot about the company’s future.
Kimpton’s baby
I was invited to OpenAI’s headquarters because of my role as a tech journalist, to attend an off-the-record educational seminar.
Stepping off the MUNI T Line and arriving at OpenAI’s building, I was greeted, as I always am, by nothing. The AI giant’s offices are entirely unlabeled. There’s nary a sign or logo anywhere to tell the casual visitor that they’ve stumbled upon the locus of all AI power in the universe. Next door, Uber’s headquarters scream “UBER” from every glass-fronted, glimmering surface. OpenAI — subletting from Uber — keeps its building silent.
That ends as soon as you step inside.
After signing in with front desk staff (who have the friendly demeanor of people who know they’re being protected by a rugby-shirted man with biceps like tractor tires) I was escorted to a lobby to wait for our session to begin.
OpenAI’s lobby is loud — aesthetically, if not aurally. The space looks like a Kimpton hotel and a Victorian cabinet of curiosities had a baby.
Every object — a 1950s metal robot figurine, a copy of Roger Fouts’ “Next of Kin,” a vintage camera — had clearly been placed there with intention, to communicate a message.
A copy of “On the Origin of Time,” which details Stephen Hawking’s theories about the universe, lay open next to comfy reading chairs, as if to suggest that OpenAI’s engineers often casually thumb through such books. For reasons that are opaque to me, a vase of white flowers and also a disembodied deer antler sat beside it.
A lone gold pocket watch, sitting nakedly in the middle of a vast wooden table, felt like a test. Grabbing it as a memento seems like it’d be easy, until you remember that it’s sitting in the house of the company building much of America’s AI surveillance apparatus.
After a brief wait, a staff member walked me and several colleagues back to a fairly unremarkable seminar room, somewhat surprising given all the quirky detritus I’d just passed by.
Also surprisingly, though, OpenAI left us relatively free to wander before the presentation started (albeit with a directive not to photograph anything). So I left the room.
Inside OpenAI’s lobby, I found a concert grand piano. It’s a player piano, and there’s not even a stool for a human musician to sit on. This feels ominously on-brand.
Deeper in the building, I found a booth filled with themed books and pamphlets that urge the visitor to “Feel the AGI immersion.” It was staffed by a gigantic, papier-mache frog.
I took a pamphlet. It was covered in vague word soup about human flourishing. I realized ChatGPT almost certainly wrote it.
In the bathrooms, I found trays of toothbrushes and anti-redness eye drops, presumably to fix yourself up after a long night spent iterating on foundation models.
I circled back to the seminar room. A digital sign outside read, “We’re making AGI–and friends!”
Amid this onslaught, the company has lately felt walled-off. OpenAI’s building, again, is entirely incognito. Reaching an actual human at the company, even as a member of the media, feels almost impossible. Cryptic messages on X from Sam Altman are often the only hint that OpenAI is about to do something big.
That wasn’t always the case. When I served as an independent OpenAI beta tester in 2021, the company had a chummy, academic lab feel. You could send a Slack DM to OpenAI’s VP of product in the middle of the night and get an immediate response.
After ChatGPT took over the world, that vibe changed. OpenAI stepped back and locked down.
New models dropped at random times, and both tech journalists and the company’s own customers scrambled to understand what had landed in their laps.
On my visit, though, I saw indications that OpenAI is working to shift this narrative. That fact that I — a journalist who once accused the company of lobotomizing ChatGPT — was allowed in the door in the first place is one indicator of a change.
And while there’s plenty of bizarre kitsch inside OpenAI’s headquarters, the walls are also covered in signs that talk about the company’s origins and future, connecting its work to the artificial intelligence pioneers who came before it (including, encouragingly, early female scientists like Grace Hopper) and an imagined future where AGI becomes a utopian “infrastructure stretched across continents.”
Facebook famously had an on-site sign shop, too. But its blocky, letterpress signs always felt like tech-themed Soviet propaganda posters, sporting simple, vaguely Orwellian slogans like, “Do it faster” and, “Our work is never over.”
OpenAI’s signs are more deliberately crafted and narrative, with paragraphs of explanatory text, historical photos, charts and illustrations. They look like museum exhibits.
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The company seems to be realizing — perhaps belatedly — that if it doesn’t actively tell its story, other people will. And other people’s version won’t necessarily be flattering.
OpenAI probably isn’t ready to send my rugby-shirted friend home and throw open its doors — or its models — to the world. But the company no longer seems content to sit, walled-off, in its glass-fronted Mission Bay tower either.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) addresses voting rights supporters at the All Roads Lead to the South rally in Montgomery, Alabama on May 16, 2026.
(Photo by @saedaaya/X)
Labor rights and voting rights groups were among those who gathered in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama for the All Roads Lead to the South Day of Action.
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates…
In a show of resistance to the US Supreme Court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act and Republicans’ efforts to redraw congressional districts across southern states in a bid to retain power despite their party’s unpopular agenda, labor and voting rights groups were among those that arrived in Montgomery, Alabama Saturday for “Day One” of a mass mobilization against GOP lawmakers who they said are intent on “resurrecting Jim Crow.”
While groups including the Movement for Black Lives and National Jobs With Justice boarded buses in Atlanta Saturday morning to join more than 250 organizations at a rally at the Alabama State Capitol, other organizers began the “All Roads Lead to the South” National Day of Action with a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama—the same site of the historic 1965 voting rights march that became known as Bloody Sunday.”We started here because we wanted to stand on sacred ground and consecrate ourselves,” said organizer LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter. “You cannot fight hate with hate, you have to stand in the spirit of love, and so look around—this is what love looks like.”
The march and rally were organized in response to a ramp-up of efforts by the Republican Party and right-wing courts, including the far-right majority on the US Supreme Court, to redraw electoral maps in states including Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee.
The mass mobilization was organized after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais last month, effectively eviscerating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which has held that voters of color have the right to legally challenge racially discriminatory congressional maps.
The Supreme Court this week allowed Alabama to revert back to an electoral map with just one majority-Black district out of seven, despite that fact that 26% of Alabama residents are Black.
Tennessee Republicans also adopted a new electoral map that splits up the state’s only majority-Black district, and the Missouri Supreme Court approved a congressional map that targets the state’s 5th District, represented by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
Arriving in Montgomery, Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) said voters across the South need “a united front… to take on this new Confederacy… We know what the intent of these governors and state lawmakers are, to dismantle every gain made during the civil rights movement and dismantle the crown jewel of the civil rights movement, which was the Voting Rights Act.”
Rep. @brotherjones_ in Montgomery: “We’re here united to take on this new confederacy, 60 years after the Selma March… because we know their intent is to dismantle everything gained during the civil rights movement.” pic.twitter.com/op87I4g8hT
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 16, 2026
“Our parents and grandparents marched, organized, bled, and won,” said organizers ahead of the rally. “The Voting Rights Act was theirs. The fight to keep it is ours. Right now, state by state, that law is being dismantled. We know that we cannot fight the same battles the same way. New times demand new tactics—economic pressure, political organizing, community action, culture, and faith. But we know what we know: Organizing works. And we have unfinished business.”
At the rally, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) emphasized the need for solidarity from across the US, with supporters of voting rights mobilizing in states near and far from the South—the current center of the GOP’s attacks.
“They think they can draw us out of power. They do not know the sleeping giant they just awakened,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “When Black Americans have the right to vote and that vote is protected, our schools get funded. When voting rights are protected, healthcare gets expanded. When voting rights are protected, our country moves forward. And Montgomery, that’s what they’re actually afraid of.”
AOC: “It is time for the North to pull up to the South and let them know exactly what they have uncorked with this injustice. They think they can draw us out of power. They do not know the sleeping giant they just awakened. What they thought was the final blow is actually just… pic.twitter.com/kQvixR2Olv
Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs With Justice, said labor groups joined the mass mobilization because “the bridges we have to cross are not only in Selma.”
“Jim Crow didn’t just come for the ballot. It came for anyone who tried to organize and have a voice,” said Smiley. “Efforts to rollback equality and democracy are happening in the occupied cities, shop floors, and now the halls of the Capitol across the country.”
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) called for the rally to mark the beginning of a “Freedom Summer,” with rallies at “every State House” in the country to pressure state legislators to end the GOP gerrymandering efforts, which President Donald Trump has explicitly called for.
“Let’s declare a Freedom Summer and go to every courthouse this summer, to tell those legislators, ‘We will not go back,’” said Sewell.
Dozens of satellite events were also taking place across the US on Saturday.
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Attendees hold signs as they listen to speakers during a rally calling for an end to corporate money on January 21, 2015 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“The far-right Supreme Court hijacked the Constitution to let corporations spend in our elections. But we are not powerless. We can fight back,” said US Rep. Greg Casar.
The state of Hawaii has passed a law that poses a direct challenge to the infamous 2010 Citizens UnitedSupreme Court ruling, which opened the door to unlimited corporate spending in US elections.
Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green on Thursday signed into law a bill that takes aim at the court’s ruling that corporations are effectively people with full free speech rights who can face no limits on what they can contribute to political organizations.
As explained by More Perfect Union, the law, which is set to take effect next July, classifies corporations as “artificial persons” who do not have a constitutional right to make political donations.
“The bill could limit the influence of super PACs,” noted More Perfect Union, “and be a model to challenge the influence of money in politics.”
Democratic Hawaii state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, a supporter of the law, said on Thursday he was proud that Hawaii has become “the first state in the nation” to take direct action challenging Citizens United.
“As elected leaders, we do not serve artificial entities,” Keohokalole said. “We serve the people.”
US Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, hailed the law as “big news” that should inspire opponents of limitless corporate political spending across the US.
“The far-right Supreme Court hijacked the Constitution to let corporations spend in our elections,” said Casar. “But we are not powerless. We can fight back.”
The new law passed despite opposition from Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, who argued that defending it in court could be difficult and expensive.
The law’s passage earned praise from campaign finance watchdogs who have long called for overturning Citizens United and reestablishing guardrails for corporate cash in US democracy.
Michael Beckel, who directs the Money in Politics project for the advocacy group Issue One, said the Hawaii law is a “model for the country” that other states should rush to emulate.
“This measure… is among the most innovative and impactful ideas to curb corporate and dark money spending in campaigns since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United ruling in 2010,” Beckel said. “Those looking to bring more transparency and accountability to elections should embrace this powerful proposal and follow Hawaii’s lead.”
End Citizens United, the nonprofit campaign finance reform organization dedicated to overturning the 2010 Supreme Court ruling, also pushed other states to look at Hawaii’s law as a roadmap for their own legislation.
“Hawaii has provided a blueprint for how to prevent super PACs from spending dark money by passing state law,” the group said in a social media post. “Let this win be a testament to the ability states have to put power back in the hands of everyday people by neutralizing the effects of the Citizens United ruling.”
Tom Moore, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, praised the Hawaii law in an interview with The Associated Press, calling it “a brave and bold step to get corporate and dark money out of America’s politics” that “will send a powerful message that will be heard loud and clear across the Pacific and across the mainland.”
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US Vice President JD Vance speaks alongside Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz during a press conference on anti-fraud initiatives at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 13, 2026.
(Photo by Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images)
“Withholding reimbursements only further hurts patients, strains providers, and drives up costs,” said one Democratic congresswoman. “We will fight this with everything we’ve got.”
“Political retribution, plain and simple,” was how US Sen. Alex Padilla described an announcement by Vice President JD Vance late Wednesday regarding the White House’s decision to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursement payments to California.
Vance and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, claimed the state’s Medicaid records have generated “red flags” and demanded officials clarify $630 million in billing, $500 million that’s been spent on home health services, and $200 million in what Oz called “questionable expenditures,” which he claimed had been used to provide coverage for undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible for Medicaid.
The announcement came a month after Vance’s federal anti-fraud task force suspended the licenses of nearly 450 hospice care facilities and 23 home health agencies in the Los Angeles area, accusing them of fraud.
Vance also warned that all 50 states could soon see federal funding for their Medicaid Fraud Control Units frozen if they fail to “aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud.”
“We can turn off other resources within their state Medicaid programs as well,” said the vice president.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has frequently sparred with the Trump administration, said Vance and Oz were “attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes,” which are far more expensive to run than home healthcare agencies.
Newsom said the growth of the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program has saved taxpayers “$107,000 per person” by reducing reliance on nursing homes.
“MAGA hates in-home support programs—which help people stay out of costly institutional settings like nursing homes and get the care they deserve, typically from loved ones,” said Newsom.
Newsom also said the Trump administration had informed state officials that the deadline to review California’s Medicaid records “before deciding whether to defer funding” would be later in the month.
Democratic members of Congress warned that their constituents rely heavily on Medicaid, with seven out of 10 of the congressional districts with the highest Medicaid enrollment located in California.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) said that 56% of her constituents rely on “this lifesaving program,” and many have already been harmed by the Republican Party’s slashing of Medicaid funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
“Withholding reimbursements only further hurts patients, strains providers, and drives up costs,” said Kamlager-Dove. “We will fight this with everything we’ve got.”
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) said more than 120,000 people in his district depend on the federal healthcare program for low-income households and people with disabilities.
“This administration needs to stop playing politics with people’s health and lives,” said Panetta. “When people commit fraud, they should be punished accordingly. However, this administration continues to punish California for political purposes, including penalizing innocent people by taking their healthcare away.”
State Attorney General Rob Bonta noted that California has “not hesitated to challenge unlawful actions by the Trump administration,” and suggested the state could file a legal challenge against the withholding of Medicaid funds.
He also accused the administration of targeting the heavily Democratic state “for political reasons.”
The anti-fraud task force led by Vance has so far exclusively focused on rooting out alleged fraud in federal programs in blue states. The White Housesuspended $259 million in federal payments to Minnesota earlier this year after a scandal regarding the state’s social services system.
“The Trump administration is attacking California over claims that they can’t back up,” said Padilla. “Let’s be real, this isn’t about fraud—it’s about punishing a state that didn’t vote for” President Donald Trump.
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Greetings Friends! We want to let you know about a very exciting online event this Saturday, May 23rd, from 1 to 3 pm EST, featuring Professor Wolff and Yanis Varoufakis. This event is presented as part of The Left Education Project in collaboration with Democracy at Work. The goal of... Continue reading →
When you volunteer for Saikat, it’s on us to give you a great experience and a genuine chance to make a difference. We don’t want to waste a second of your time. That’s why we’re always optimizing. And I’m excited to report that this Saturday we talked with 300% more... Continue reading →
Trump Regime Takedown: Every Saturday Saturday, March 7, 2026 12:00 PM 2:00 PM Tesla San Francisco999 Van Ness AvenueSan Francisco, CA, 94109United States (map) Google Calendar ICS Keep democracy alive every Saturday by showing up, taking a stand, and sticking together for the long haul. Standing together is better than standing alone. Let’s get together... Continue reading →
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Milk Club Trans Caucus Meeting Date: Tuesday, May 26 Time: 5-7 PM Location and Zoom Link: Meeting info available to members of the Milk Club Trans Caucus. Please reach out to trans@milkclub.org if you would like to join the Milk Club Trans Caucus.
Friend, Let’s be honest about what’s happening. The maps are rigged. The Supreme Court is bought. And the 14th Amendment, the very promise that every person in this country is entitled to equal protection under the law, is being shredded in broad daylight by a ruling class that has no... Continue reading →
