Everyone here should be following U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr. (D. PA) on Twitter because he’s been using it asa perfect weapon to resist Trump:
The report is called The Blatant Sabotage Of Your Health Care. Click here to read the whole report.
Here are more Tweet from Casey:
And Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D. PA) is also helping Casey fight back:
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says he’s joining his counterparts in at least a dozen states to sue the Trump administration over its decision to stop paying cost-sharing subsidies to insurers.
Shapiro on Friday said premiums for the more than 400,000 Pennsylvanians who buy individual insurance plans will skyrocket without the cost-sharing subsidies.
He says Trump is in clear violation of his legal responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Also, Trump was in Harrisburg last week to promote his bull shit tax plan where he gave his chosen Senate candidate, Rep. Lou Barletta (R. PA), a little shout out:
They weren’t “boo”-ing. They were “Lou”ing — and the president of the United States joined in.
The “Lou” is Lou Barletta, whose name made it to a national television audience Wednesday night when fellow Republican Donald Trump squeezed in a short stump speech for the congressman from Hazleton during an appearance with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“We need more Republican senators to be honest with you,” Trump said to Hannity, eliciting the drawn-out “Lou” chant from the crowd at the National Guard hangar at Harrisburg International Airport, where the president had just touted his federal tax reform plan. “And you have a good one running — Lou.”
Barletta, R-11, who is aiming to unseat Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, attended Wednesday night’s event and had earlier joined Trump on Air Force One.
“Lou Barletta, great guy. He’s running,” Trump told Hannity. “He was an incredible congressman, and I think ... I think you’re going to have an incredible surge for Lou Barletta. I think he is going to do a fantastic job.”
Trump also mentioned Barletta during his speech to the gathered crowd, though he initially said Barletta is running for governor before correcting himself.
Barletta, who shares similar views with Trump on key subjects like immigration, is also behind Trump on his tax reform plan, which among other things would establish four tax brackets — 0 percent, 12 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent — simplify tax-filing to one page for most Americans and cut business taxes that Trump says are more burdensome than in all other developed countries.
And that may have given Barlett’s fundraising a little boost:
Congressman Lou Barletta (R-Luzerne) announced his Senate campaign raised $635,000 in the third quarter, and brought his cash on hand up to nearly $1 million.
“I’m excited by the support our campaign has received in such a short period of time. We are off to a strong start thanks to so many people across Pennsylvania who want a Senator who will actually fight for them in Washington,” Barletta said in a release.
Barletta’s campaign pushed that the campaign had received 1,300 donations in the first 30 days of the campaign.
The fundraising numbers come after Barletta got a shout out from President Trump during an event in Harrisburg on Wednesday.
But Casey has been vigorously tearing apart Trump’s tax plan:
Through the intermittent travel announcements at 30th Street Station Wednesday that forced U.S. Sen. Bob Casey to pause mid-sentence, his message rang loud and clear: The GOP tax plan is bad for the middle class.
“Eighty percent of the Trump/GOP tax framework goes to the top 1 percent. How does that make sense? How in God’s name can they say that this proposal has anything to do with giving the middle class a break?” said Casey, D-Pa., from a podium at the eastern end of Philly’s largest transit hub.
Most damaging, Casey said, would be the removal of personal exemptions that despite doubling the standard deduction could mean households are still paying more.
“A family of four would gain $11,300 in standard deduction, and simultaneously lose $16,200 in personal exemptions,” Casey wrote in an open letter to President Trump.
Eliminating the personal exemption and itemized deductions, while reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to three — Casey said the net effect is to the disadvantage to many middle class families.
Quoting numbers from the Tax Policy Center, Casey claimed the proposal would grant the top 1 percent a tax cut of $146,470. Simultaneously, programs like Community Development Block Grants, the Low-Income Housing Energy Assistance Program, CHIP, WIC, as well as Medicare and Medicaid could see cuts.
“Medicare would be cut by over $470 billion over 10 years, and Medicaid would be cut by $1 trillion. Yes — that’s with a ‘t,’” Casey said. “Guess why? So they can give a trillion and a half to the super rich, the biggest corporations and anyone in our society that has great power.
“They still believe in trickle down even though it’s never worked.”
And calling for action on this:
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said this afternoon that the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, which requires the government to meet a higher bar before taking certain enforcement actions, should be repealed immediately.
U.S. Rep. Tom Marino (R-10) was the chief advocate of the act. The Washington Post reported Sunday that Marino and other members of Congress, along with the nation's major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to an industry-friendly law that undermined efforts to restrict the flow of pain pills that have led to tens of thousands of deaths.
“This legislation should be repealed immediately and DEA’s authority to hold drug distributors to tough standards should be restored," Sen. Casey said today. "Special interests in Washington conspired to draft legislative language that appeared innocuous and technical yet was anything but.”
And resisting Trump is better for fundraising than getting a shout out:
U.S. Senator Bob Casey’s campaign announced it raised $2.2 million during the third quarter, and ended the quarter with $7 million cash on hand.
“Thanks to the incredible grassroots enthusiasm from across the Commonwealth, Senator Casey maintained his record-breaking fundraising pace for another quarter,” Casey’s Campaign Manager M.E. Smith said in a release.
According to the release, 88% of the donations were $100 or less. The campaign also points that the campaign has more cash on hand than it had during any of Casey’s previous election. In a race that is expected to likely be one of the most expensive in history, the ability of the campaigns to fundraise will be more important.
Let’s keep up the momentum here. Click here to donate and get involved with Casey’s re-election campaign.