Brian Schatz

Brian Schatz

@schatz.bsky.social

United States Senator for Hawaii. Climate hawk. Chief Deputy Whip.

223.6K followers586 following507 posts

1) Medicaid cuts worse now 2) Freedom caucus wants deeper cuts 3) Tax cuts for wealthy in tact 4) Cruz makes broadband funding contingent on NOT regulating AI 5) SALT Republicans to get rolled 6) Bill is like a rotting fish 7) Mike Lee making second run at public lands selloff

It is not in the national security interests of the United States to militarily attack Iran. The best way to ensure regional stability and protect American lives is to reach a negotiated agreement. It is on President Trump to avert a regional catastrophe

Brian Schatz reposted

Trump went to a LIV golf tournament instead of attending the dignified transfer of four U.S. Army soldiers who died in Lithuania. If you're wondering why this is so disgusting and insulting, I wrote about my time in the Army doing dignified transfers here: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social

"Rather than attend the dignified transfer of the bodies of four U.S. Army soldiers who died on a training mission in Lithuania, Trump flew to Florida to watch a Saudi-funded LIV golf tournament at his own course." www.thedailybeast.com/trump-picks-...

Brian Schatz reposted

NEW: SENATE votes to END Trump's emergency tariffs on Canada, 51-48. Four Republicans joined Democrats: MCCONNELL RAND PAUL MURKOWSKI COLLINS The vote was not subject to a filibuster. House leaders are expected to block a vote. Resolution does NOT have a veto-proof majority BUT resistance grows

Brian Schatz reposted

Ds in the minority but this week: *Won a rare vote to defeat a rule in bipartisan opposition to Speaker Johnson’s plan to nuke effort to allow new parents to vote by proxy. *Won vote to overturn Trump’s emergency tariffs on Canada. *Booker controlled Senate floor ~25 hours *Won Wisconsin court race

Brian Schatz reposted

House Rs just passed the budget resolution, the first step in their process to enact a bill that'd kick millions off Medicaid & cut SNAP down to just $1.60 per person per meal on avg while cutting taxes for the top 0.1% by $278k - all while increasing the debt 🧵on what's to come and WHERE TO FIGHT

Brian Schatz reposted

So House Republicans voted on a budget tonight that would cut ~$800B+ from Medicaid. Among other things, but it’s important to understand how much that will hurt every single one of us. (Spoiler: they know all of this - but they hate you.)

Brian Schatz reposted

This vote was to start the process of the cuts. It WILL come back for a final vote. There are some chances to slow or potentially stop it. Need constant pressure on GOP Focus on GOP swing seats & key committees. Energy & Commerce is where the Medicaid fight will go down. Ways&Means for tax fight.

Christine@buddhaclauser.bsky.social

@aoc.bsky.social Please explain what just happened. Is there no way to stop this w the reconciliation to be used by GOP to get around the filibuster? Are we sunk?

R’s have the votes in the House to cut Medicaid. That could/should change. Voting for the “framework” might be easier than voting to actually enact Medicaid cuts, but R’s won tonight. We will fight this in Senate but it will come down to people outside of the capitol being sufficiently pissed off.

Brian Schatz reposted

Valor Danielle Sassoon, Acting U.S. attorney for SDNY - refuses to drop Adams charges and resigns John Keller, Acting head of DOJ Public Integrity Section - refuses and resigns Kevin Driscoll, Acting head of DOJ Criminal Division - refuses and resigns www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

nbcnews.comTop federal prosecutor in N.Y. resigns after refusing to drop Adams chargesTwo top prosecutors in Washington also resigned over the DOJ order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

There is literally HIV being transmitted from mom to baby because of the illegal shutdown of US AID and now Trump’s State Department wants to spend 400 million dollars on Tesla cyber trucks. This is not about efficiency. It’s a smash and grab.

Being in a think tank and online bubble causes people to overestimate the popularity of their ideas. You win, and you think it’s because of your ideas, not in spite of them. For instance, it is widely unpopular to illegally cut medical research.

Brian Schatz reposted

Replying to @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social

When TB treatment is interrupted, patients are far more likely to develop drug-resistant TB, which is a catastrophe both individually (the disease becomes harder to cure) and societally (we're allowing the bacteria millions of new opportunities to develop further resistance). Many people will die.

Brian Schatz reposted

Just received this photo from a friend of a warehouse in Kinshasa. These are tuberculosis medications--ALREADY PAID FOR--that aren't being distributed due to the Trump Administration's stop work order. TB treatment is being interrupted in SO many patients around the world. What does that mean? (1/2)

Brian Schatz reposted

The Congressional Research Service is telling Congress that Trump cannot shut down US AID. Will they - and more specifically Republicans - listen, and act?https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12500

This is morally indefensible and strategically bankrupt. It’s just letting people die on purpose and it makes us weaker in every way.

Jeremy Konyndyk@jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social

Mind-boggling wreckage. Among the lifesaving programs now disrupted by Elon’s attack on @USAID: phase 1 trials for a possible HIV vaccine.

Brian Schatz reposted

Mind-boggling wreckage. Among the lifesaving programs now disrupted by Elon’s attack on @USAID: phase 1 trials for a possible HIV vaccine.

Kai Kupferschmidt@kakape.bsky.social

“USAID-backed studies have been shuttered, data streams have dried up, researchers and technical staff have been fired or put on leave, a system to predict food crises has been muzzled, and a USAID-supported global health journal has stopped reviewing manuscripts.” From our @science.org news team 🧪

“Breaking the law” is so much more accurate and way quicker to say!

The New York Times@nytimes.com

President Trump has opened the throttle on blowing through apparent legal limits, often with no clear public explanation for how their actions could be consistent with the rule of law. Here are some examples of the administration’s defiance of statutes. nyti.ms/4aKnKRP

Brian Schatz reposted

New via NYT — The CIA sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force. One former agency officer called the reporting of names a “counterintelligence disaster.”

Brian Schatz reposted

Democratic senators will hold the Senate floor all night long in opposition to the nomination of Russ Vought, an organizer of Project 2025, to head the OMB.

Brian Schatz reposted

Every single Senate Democrat will vote against Russell Vought, the Trump nominee for OMB and chief architect of the ultra-right Project 2025. We are holding the floor of the United States Senate overnight to expose how Project 2025 is the Trump White House agenda.

There’s an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda. There’s an outbreak of Marburg’s disease in Tanzania. Thousand of American diplomats leaving their posts abruptly. We just look so weak and a bit nuts. Foreign policy is hard, but this is just a very big early blunder.

Brian Schatz reposted

I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world. Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO

Blaming diversity for a plane crash is just depraved as hell but it’s obvious to me that this was an intentional distraction from the massive unlawful screw up with the federal funds freeze.

Brian Schatz reposted

Normalizing spelling out what people actually mean when they cite DEI rather than letting them hide behind the safe cover of a euphemism that's been sapped of meaning

We passed a law. They don’t get to force people to petition the king for mercy. We are still a democracy and this will be found illegal.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Asked how organizations that rely on federal funding should make payroll, Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says they should call Russ Vought and make a case

Brian Schatz reposted

NEW: My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night's federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.

Brian Schatz reposted

BREAKING: The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/h...

nytimes.comTrump Administration Halts H.I.V. Drug Distribution in Poor Countries (Gift Article)PEPFAR’s computer systems also are being taken offline, a sign that the program may not return, as Republican critics had hoped.

Brian Schatz reposted

Schatz: The drumbeat below all of this has to be that the policy of the Trump Administration is to rip regular people off. They’re transferring wealth from regular working people, the elderly, students, the disabled and shoving it to the wealthiest individuals that have ever walked this planet.