Calling about these budgets...
Let's burn up the phone lines.
Let’s talk about the Federal budget:
The House and the Senate are now in the process of reconciliation, or trying to combine one bill from each chamber into one big mess for the American people and one big giveaway for the ultrawealthy.
WE NEED TO STOP THEM FROM GUTTING MEDICAID, SNAP AND THE ACA.
CALL Tillis and Budd every day to oppose any budget that includes Medicaid cuts. The bill is advancing and Trump wants to sign it by Memorial Day. Here’s background info if you want it.
Thom Tillis: D.C. (202) 224-6342 Raleigh (919) 856-4630 Charlotte (704) 509-9087
Ted Budd: D.C. 202-224-3154 Raleigh 984-349-5061 Wilmington 910-218-7600
Script:
This is (name) and I am a constituent from (zip). I want to ask the Senator to vote AGAINST any budget which threatens Medicaid, SNAP and the ACA to give tax cuts to billionaires. Does the Senator really want to take health insurance from kids with disabilities, who depend on Medicaid for their services, and from elders who live in assisted care facilities? Does the Senator want kids who depend on SNAP and free school lunches to go hungry, in the United States of America? Just so a billionaire can buy another yacht or rocket ship? That is shameful.
The Senator should work for the people in this state, not a bunch of wealthy selfish people who don’t care about anyone else.
Thank you.
Or, use 5calls.org or the script in the graphic below. Feel free to add in numbers for your Congressional district, if you like. See below for examples from Durham’s NC-04.
Consider these numbers from the Dems on the House Budget Committee, who have a fabulous website detailing the impact of budget cuts in every Congressional district. If you go to the site, you can get these numbers for every single district in the country.
For example, in Durham, NC-04:
Under the Republican budget plan, the 61,000 people who receive coverage under the Affordable Care Act in NC-04 would see their average premium go up by $630 per year — a 67% increase.
Many families would face even steeper consequences. A 60-year-old couple with a household income of $85,000 in NC-04 would see their health insurance costs increase by $15,622 per year — a 216% increase in premiums.
In NC-04, the 155,376 people on Medicaid (also known in North Carolina as Division of Health Benefits (DHB)) are at risk of losing their health care under Republican budget plans.
This includes 77,951 children under the age of 19 and 9,000 seniors over 65 in NC-04.
Extreme Republican budget plans threaten the 68,000 people in NC-04 who count on SNAP to put food on the table.
Across North Carolina, the Republican budget threatens 408,887 children who rely on free school lunches.
Also, in NC, we have a trigger law for Medicaid. If we lose 10% or more of federal funding, we lose all Medicaid expansion. Those 650,000 North Carolinians who just gained Medicaid (a decade after they could have) would lose their newly acquired health insurance.
You can also call any of the Members of the House on relevant committees to voice your concerns or opposition regarding legislation and budget cuts! There is a google doc here with details and instructions.
Let’s Talk About the State Budget:
While there are many terrible items in this budget, one issue you can call your state rep and senators about is the SHIIP program (Senior Health insurance Information Program).
SHIIP is a program run by the North Carolina Department of Insurance to provide free, unbiased information about Medicare insurance. SHIIP counseling is available in all 100 NC counties.
In Durham County, this is provided at Senior PharmAssist, a local nonprofit that assists older adultsMedicare decision making is incredibly complicated and if you don’t make good decisions, it can cost you thousands of extra dollars for your health care or your medications. If you don’t sign up correctly, you can owe life-long penalties. Using primarily volunteers, in 2024, 1823 people were helped, saving them a total of $2,528,768! How could this not be worth funding for our state which has an increasingly older population?
The North Carolina Senate’s recent budget (SB 257) proposes a 100% cut in state appropriated funding for SHIIP. This would have a devastating impact on the ability to assist the state’s 2.2 million Medicare beneficiaries. This potential cut comes at a time when the number of people eligible for Medicare is growing and the Medicare program is becoming increasingly complex.
Please help by calling or writing to your NC legislators and let them know that this is a really bad decision. You can find your legislators and contact them through this website.
Basic Script, feel free to add more:” I am a consituent from (zip code) and would like the member to put funding for SHIIP, the Senior Health Insurance Informatin Program, back into the budget. This is staffed by mostly volunteers and saves millions of dollars for older North Carolinians each year. If the member cares about the people of North Carolina, s/he would fund this in the budget.”
We know that Democrats and thus our Durham members of the NCGA have limited power; we would also recommend calling the office of House Leader Destin Hall 919-733-3451 and Senate Leader Phil Berger (919) 733-5708
****If you want to know more about the NCGA and whats going on there, consider joining Democracy Out Loud’s Legislative Response Team to track and study NC General Assembly legislation. Email Mark at democracyoutloud@gmail.com.
CONTINUE CALLING U.S. SENATORS DAILY ABOUT THOSE KIDNAPPED AND SENT OUT OF THE COUNTRY WITHOUT DUE PROCESS:
Script: This is (name) and I am a constituent from (city, zip). Kilmar Abrego Garcia, several US Citizen children (including a 4 year old with metastatic cancer) and others have been kidnapped and sent out of the US without due process. These people were wrongly abducted; the laws of our country were not and are not being followed. Everyone in our country deserves due process. What is the Senator going to do about this? He must speak up against these unlawful acts.”
Because…do you really believe anything anyone in this regime says?
Please find other issues on 5calls.org
MAY 1 Reminder!
You can find out about all the May 1 protests at this link. In North Carolina, there will be one in Raleigh (3:30 pm, 300 N. Salisbury St), Durham (2 pm, 211 W. Parrish St), Chapel Hill (4 pm in front of the Courthouse), Morrisville, Hillsborough, and Lewisburg.
Other Events:
Protest to boycott Avelo Airlines, which has contracted with ICE for deportations: Mondays 7-9 am sign up here
Bull City Indivisible is having Moms Demand Action as its guest this Sunday May 4. Sign up here
Doorknocking to hold Tillis accountable every weekend sign up here
NCDP holding “how to knock doors and use minivan” virtual trainings Thursdays sign up here
Other bridge protests and Tesla protest info here
AND…Ta Dah!!! FINALLY!!!
SAVE THE DATE MAY 30…buy your tickets to support Justice Earls now!
The kickoff event for Justice Anita Earls re-election campaign looks like a FUN PARTY! There are still sponsorships and tickets available here.
Remember, the path to defeating MAGA and gerrymandering runs through the NC Supreme Court and we must elect Justice Earls. We are all giving and giving and giving our funds. When asked to give again, consider, “How much of my money would I give if I knew it would absolutely save our democracy, our country and the future for my children and grandchildren?”
The most important thing we can do is work to get the Supreme Court race certified for Justice Riggs and then to work to re-elect Justice Anita Earls in 2026. Then, we will have to elect 2 Democrats to the court in 2028 and only then will we have a chance to have fair maps in NC and rid our state of extreme gerrymandering after the 2030 census. There will be much attention paid to the Senate race; arguably in NC our Supreme Court race is of equal or greater importance.
For those of you relatively new to NC, we used to be the most progressive state in the South. NC voted for Obama in 2008. Then, in the off-year 2010 election, ALEC and Project Redmap swept state legislatures and began the process of voter suppression and unpopular policies through extreme gerrymandering. Justice Cheri Beasley lost her bid for re-election to the NC Supreme Court (by 401 votes) in 2020. In 2022, we lost more seats and flipped from 4-3 Democratic control to 5-2 MAGA control. The new court reversed previous district lines that reflected the state’s almost even split between parties; Democrats lost 3 congressional districts.
