The new year brings a new Congress, which was sworn in Tuesday and is already putting the interests of big corporations and special interests ahead of working families.
Worried? You have reason to be. This Congress has the potential to be the most anti-worker Congress in history, and it’s going to take all of us standing together to stop it.
First on the agenda: Repealing the Affordable Care Act. Congressional leaders are working on a plan to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, which granted insurance to more than 20 million people. Repealing the law in its entirety would also mean no more protections for people with pre-existing conditions, no free preventative care, and no keeping children on their parents’ health plans until they turn 26, among many other benefits.
What’s worse is that those same leaders don’t have a plan to replace the ACA, meaning people dropped from health insurance would be left with no coverage at all.
The Washington Post had a piece about how it may be difficult for congressional leaders to axe the ACA as swiftly as they and President-Elect Donald Trump have promised, but make no mistake – they are eager to do so.
An ACA repeal would be especially devastating in the states that accepted federal funds to expand Medicaid rolls, saving millions in health care costs in their own budgets. Now governors in those states, both Democrats and Republicans, are lining up to oppose an Obamacare repeal.
But it’s not just the Affordable Care Act this Congress has its eye on. The entire social safety net, including the retirement security of most Americans, could be at risk. Everything from Medicaid and Medicare to food stamps, housing subsidies, and Social Security itself are at risk under Trump and this new Congress.
The only hope? Collective action. Only by standing together and taking action can we pressure Congress into stopping an agenda that puts special interests first and working families last.