Just One Thing
I know this is a bit premature, but preparation is always a good thing. And if I was a candidate for Congress in next year’s Mid-Terms, this is what my opening statement would be when taking the stage against my MAGOP opponent –
"There is only one issue of importance on the ballot. And so that is all I will be talking about tonight. And it’s the Trump budget bill that was almost-unanimously passed by my opponent’s party. It’s not just that the bill shreds many of the safeguards of democracy, but it shreds protections for all Americans, whatever your party, and puts lives at risk.
"It takes away health care from 12 million Americans. It cuts funding for hospitals that rely on payments for Medicaid – and has already forced some rural hospitals to close. That affects all Americans – even if you have healthcare. If there’s no hospital for you to go to, you’re out of luck. It gives ICE 75 billion dollars in extra funding, more money than any law enforcement agency has in the entire federal government, all just to increase the arrests and deportations of immigrants, which we have already seen devastatingly misused against, not the “worst of the worst” like Trump and his party promised, but mothers, children, fathers, gardeners, farmworkers, and far too often even American citizens, many of whom didn't commit a crime – and have never committed a crime -- but just have the wrong-colored skin in the eyes of Donald Trump and my opponent’s party, and yet are held in detention centers, not charged with any crime, and then deported to foreign lands they have no connection to. They get 75 billion dollars more to do this.
"It’s a bill that cuts funding to the National Weather Service and FEMA, with devastating consequences as we’ve already seen. And more natural disasters to come. It cuts funding for SNAP food protection for low-income families. It has massive cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program. And massive cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration for oversight of all our health. And all this and so much more, a great deal more that is horrific in the bill which we’ll get to tonight, truly horrible cuts, all supposedly to cut the deficit – and yet the Trump budget bill gives such huge cuts to billionaires and the top 1% of the most wealthy Americans that the budget actually increases our national debt $5 trillion over the next 10 years!
"So, that is all I will talk about tonight. There are other issues in the country, and they are important – but none are as important as the devastation of the Trump budget bill that rips apart what we all consider good and valuable and foundational about our country. I’m sure my opponent will try his best to explain why all these cuts to you and tax breaks to the top 1% are a good thing. And I dearly hope he tries, because I am ready to tell you – with specifics, with details, and with reality -- why these cuts are crushing, and why he and his party’s actions are strip-mining the country. And by the way, some of these disastrous cuts are for things you might not feel the effect or even know yet, because they were intentionally hidden in the budget bill to occur next year – after you voted this November. But they’re in the bill. And I’ll talk about them, as my opponent tries to pretend they don’t exist.
"And this is all I will talk about tonight. My opponent may try to tell you that this is what you voted for – but putting aside that more than half the country didn’t vote from Trump and that he only won by 1.5 percent – I am certain almost none of you voted to deport mothers and children, or to cut disaster relief, or to cut weather forecasting, or to cut healthcare for the needy or voted for so much in the budget bill that is abhorrent to you. My opponent may try to talk about other issues to distract you, he will likely try to get me to talk about other issues to distract me. But I won’t be distracted. Because this budget bill is so terrible to all your lives, and in so many ways, that it is the only thing that is most important for you to know all about and for my opponent and me to discuss.
"I’m telling you this now. Whatever questions are brought up, whatever attacks are made, whatever distractions are offered, I will only talk tonight about the Big Disastrous, anti-American Budget Bill, put forth by Trump, and with the approval, support and enabled by my opponent and my opponent’s party. Because that, in the end, more than anything, is what most affects your lives tonight and in the future."
And this is all that Democrats should talk about.
Importantly, too, there are ways to do that and still get other issues in, like by comparing cuts in the budget to Medicaid to other cuts that Trump and MAGOPs have made to Health and Human Services, such as cuts in medical departments that deal with infectious diseases, which they did right before there's been there's been the biggest measles outbreak in 33 years already, now in 39 states. And when discussing cuts in the State Department and the Department of Justice, that can be tied to firing attorneys who convicted Jan. 6 rioters, and shutting down the State Department's anti-trafficking office and firing the attorney involved with prosecuting Jeffrey Epstein, which of course leads to Trump and his pal Jeffr…oh, you know.
Because it’s all connected, it’s all of a part. It's all the same.
But at the heart of it all, it all should begin with talking about one thing and one thing only – and having the discipline to not get distracted. But be relentless. Because the American public overwhelmingly hates the Trump budget bill and the details in it that that know about – and even the details in it that they don’t know are in it. So, candidates should keep their eyes on the prize. Pound away at it. And make the MAGOP opponent spin like a whirling dervish with no place to hide.
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