Chop Wood, Carry Water 5/6

Delays are our friend.

May 06, 2025

Hi, all, and happy Tuesday!

I have to make this quick, as I’ve got another full day ahead of me here in D.C., but I did want to pass on some good news: It seems that the House Republicans are a bit jammed up on their reconciliation bill. Johnson has now basically admitted they won’t get it done by Memorial Day, and it’s clear they’re having a hard time agreeing on cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Our calls are clearly working—it’s never been more important to keep them up.

I’ve been told repeatedly by those in the know that the longer we can drag out this process the better it is for our hopes of killing the GOP bill. So delays are good news for our side! Our job? To double down on what we’ve been doing, and encourage friends and family to raise their voices, too. I’ve provided new scripts for you, and also, courtesy of

Rogan's List

, a whole list of other ways you can help us win this fight.

So please, make the calls and keep spreading the word about the heist Republicans are trying to pull off. Remember, we’re on the winning side of this argument—pretty much no American thinks we should be cutting vital services for low-income citizens in order to give tax cuts to Elon Musk. Folks just need to be educated about what’s going on and then encouraged to make a call. You can do that!

How do I know? Because YOU are an American hero. You can do anything.

Let’s get to work.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.

The Wall St. Journal is now reporting that Pete Hegseth used Signal more extensively for official Pentagon business than previously disclosed. There have been at least a dozen different chats discussing sensitive information. He apparently set up many of them himself, sending texts from an unsecured line in his Pentagon office and from his personal phone. This is amateur hour and it’s going to get someone killed. Hegseth needs to resign or be fired, now.

[If GOP add:]

Also, please ask the Senator to vote no on Ed Martin. I know Trump is pushing hard for him but the Senator needs to win re-election and I will not vote for any lawmaker who supports this awful nominee. I also want him/her to oppose Frank Bisignano. If he’s confirmed and then guts Social Security I will hold Republicans personally responsible. Thanks.

[If Dem add:]

Also, Democrats need to filibuster the so-called GENIUS Act. It is clear that the Trump family is using Trump’s power to profit from crypto trading. This bill will make it easier for them to keep doing so. Unless it is completely revised to stop Trump’s corrupt self-dealing Democrats must vote no. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

I understand that Mehmet Oz just said that he supports cutting federal Medicaid funding for the millions of people who gained access to the program through the Affordable Care Act. I know that some Republicans are also considering such a cut and I want to say that I find that repugnant. Twenty million people could lose their health insurance. No way. Americans are sick of worrying about healthcare access. We want the government to give us more, not less. No cuts to Medicaid. No work requirements, either. Leave it alone. Period. Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

The amazing

Rogan's List

has compiled an excellent list of ways to organize against Republicans’ Medicaid and SNAP cuts. Please consider doing one or more!

We can:

Write letters to the editor, share on social media and talk to our friends and neighbors directly about how the GOP plans will hit us. We can use talking points and details for the specific impacts in our area:
Join efforts to reach out to folks in key districts! Multiple organizations are phonebanking voters represented by potential swing lawmakers to get them to turn up the heat. We can make calls:
- TUESDAYS AND SATURDAYS from 2:00-4:00PM and 11:00AM-1:00PM ET with Bluevote.org, sign up here
- THURSDAY from 6:00-8:00PM ET with MoveOn, sign up here
- THURSDAY (and future Thursdays) from 7:00-11:15PM ET with Grassroots Democrats HQ— sign up here
- THURSDAY (and future Thursdays) from 6:00-9:00PM ET with People’s Action focused on deep canvassing, sign up here
- NEXT Thursday from 11:00AM-1:00PM Eastern with Indivisible, sign up here

Get Smart! 📚

No Kings Then/No Kings Now: Join Volunteer Blue, Heather Cox Richardson, Rep. Jamie Raskin and Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell to learn about strategies and pragmatic actions we can take to stop the destruction of our democracy.

Friday, May 9th 4-5:30 pm ET

RSVP HERE

[This is a rescheduled event—it was originally meant to happen two weeks ago but Zoom crashed.]

Messaging! Messaging! Messaging! 📣

Subscriber Marilyn K. sent me the following:

I thought you might enjoy seeing what a local citizen posted and paid for in our weekly newspaper here in Key West.

What a great idea! Maybe some of you would like to emulate it in your local papers!

Give 💰!

Sister District has announced their first wave of endorsed candidates for Virginia’s elections in November! These progressive incumbents and challengers will be critical to protecting Virginia’s Democratic Majority in the State Legislature.

The folks at SD are SO GOOD at picking races strategically. I trust their work implicitly and you can, too.

Support the entire candidate slate HERE.

Polls Polls Polls!

(Do you like reading polls? I find them fascinating. Let me know in the comments if this is a section you’d like me to keep including from time to time.)

A wide range of polling shows intense and growing backlash against every element of the MAGA agenda and the comprehensive sum of the Trump regime’s first 100 days. In their new memo, the folks at the Research Collaborative give an overview of that research, including key findings on the economy, immigration, authoritarianism, Musk and DOGE, potential impeachment, attacks on civil society, and defiance of the courts.

Check out the full memo here!

Key Takeaways

Trump’s overall approval has dropped significantly overall and across party lines.
- Pew shows his approval declining from net -4 in late January to -19 in early April.
- YouGov found Trump has dropped from +2 in late March to -13 in late April. This swing includes a 9-point net drop with Democrats, a 20-point drop with independents, and a 14-point drop with Republicans.
Trump is now underwater on the two issues widely seen as leading to his election: the economy and immigration. A late April poll found he now has a net approval rating of -12 on his handling of the economy — the lowest recorded across his two terms.
Majorities of voters disapprove of a wide range of Trump’s recent actions, including his tariffs, his lawless approach to the abduction and deportation of immigrants, DOGE-led government cuts, attacks on universities, defiance of the courts, and more.
6% of self-identified Trump voters say they now regret their vote, compared to 2% at this time during his first term.
Most describe Trump’s term so far as chaotic and scary.

Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻

[To: all 3 reps] [H/T

Alan Unell Ph.D.

] [Text SIGN PMCNHD to 50409, or to @Resistbot on Apple Messages, Messenger, Instagram, or Telegram]

I’m writing as a constituent to say that I oppose President Trump’s abuse of emergency powers to skirt around the law.

He did this so he could send prisoners to an El Salvadorean prison. He did it to increase unnecessary oil drilling. Now he has declared that a 60 foot strip of land around our three southern states at the Mexican border are a military installation and anyone who happens to be there can now be arrested for trespassing or worse.

We have a Posse Comitatus Act to prevent the military from policing civilians. Trump is violating it by turning the U.S. military into a force to be used against U.S. citizens, and he’s using his emergency powers to justify it. It has to stop.

Congress needs to immediately enact legislation like Rep. Andy Biggs’s H.R. 125 of the 118th Congress, the Limiting Emergency Powers Act of 2025. This legislation would cancel any presidentially declared emergency in 30 days unless Congress approves it. This is not a perfect solution but it is a start. Rein this president in! Thanks.

OK, you did it again! You’re helping to save democracy! You’re amazing.

Talk soon.

Jess

Chop Wood, Carry Water