Profile avatar
danabacon.bsky.social
Advocacy/policy pro, Swedophile, geek, gamer, etc. - my views are solely my own. He/him.
41 posts 199 followers 463 following
Prolific Poster
Conversation Starter

One of the many harmful healthcare policies passed under the cover of darkness despite immense levels of caution and outcry from across America. Now to push the Senate to say no to it.

So yes, as currently written the House GOP budget will require half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare. That’s T as in trillion and “care” as in Medicare on top of the cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare. So how did this happen? As near as I can tell House Republicans and the …

Definitely no bueno.

DURBIN: How can we give hope to people across the country who are suffering from so many diseases when our government is cutting back on that research? RFK Jr: I do not know about any cuts to ALS research D: I just read them to you! R: I didn't know about them until you told me about them

From an implementation standpoint, this sounds like a disaster that will exacerbate coverage losses (and a huge boon for the vendors who need to work more hastily to get the systems to support work requirements)

Just read this sentence. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/o...

What a thoughtful piece. Objectivity isn't easy or consistent, but not trying to achieve it is worse. Thanks @jimmycoan.bsky.social

1 out of 5 Minnesotans are covered by Medicaid, but some may not even realize it because it’s not called Medicaid here: the state program is “Medical Assistance.” Kind of like the “Obamacare” / ACA distinction.

As Congressional Republicans push for Medicaid work requirements, here’s how it’s going in Georgia: Deloitte Consulting is taking in tens of millions in tax dollars to manage the country’s only Medicaid work requirement program — and sell it to the public. Only 3% of those eligible have enrolled.

OK, this is wild. In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them. It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*. What the HELL? 1/

True story: When I was a contractor at a NASA facility I kept M&Ms on my desk. A civil servant I worked with ate a few one day. The next day I came in to find a pound bag on my desk. He wanted to "reimburse" me because he didn't want the few he ate to be seen as a gift. Anyway

HAPPENING NOW: Bail hearing for Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts PhD student who remains in detention in Louisiana after she was taken from her home in Massachusetts by masked immigration authorities. The hearing is before a Vermont judge. Ozturk is appearing virtually from Louisiana.

NEW: Whistleblower records show that the NIH axed research grants – even after a federal judge blocked the cuts with an injunction. www.propublica.org/article/trum... 🧵

With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond. Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Rubio publicly criticizing an ally for cracking down on right-wing extremism. And Germany hitting back. We are in a new world

This is definitely worth a read... This is what conscience and courage look like... www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1513/... 1/n

👇👇

JUST IN: A Milwaukee judge has been arrested this morning allegedly because she “tried to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest after he appeared in her courtroom last week.” There’s not a lot of info on this yet so stay tuned for more as it is released. www.jsonline.com/story/news/b...

"Medicaid was created to be there for people when the unexpected happens .... If the proposed Medicaid cuts advance, it would be devastating to blood cancer patients and tens of millions of people across the country." www.lls.org/blog/medicai...

Check out how the anchors of CBS Evening News ended their broadcast tonight:

Your friendly reminder that it is literally a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, Vice President, or any employee of the White House to directly or indirectly ask the IRS to open an investigation into any specific taxpayer.

Some of my best undergrad classes at the University of Minnesota were constitutional law history. If we learned nothing else in Paul Murphy's classes, it's that moments like these demand bravery in support of the rule of law. The law is meant to protect us all and make us a better nation.

A warning from a conservative judge appointed by Ronald Reagan:

This is so fucked up. ICE agents in Massachusetts smashed the window of a car to grab a Guatemalan guy who was with his wife. They were waiting for their lawyer to arrive because he has a pending asylum case. Story via @wcvb5.bsky.social: www.wcvb.com/article/ice-...

there's so many layers of fraud and abuse in this story that "someone might have been trying to log into the NLRB's systems with a valid Doge username and password from russia" doesn't even make it into the first 5,000 words

Just got word from my college roommate - who is the state archivist for the state of South Dakota - that due to the DOGE shutdowns of IMLS, they can no longer fund InterLibrary Loan in SD. This means exchange between libraries, ability to get books delivered across the system, is gone as of 4/30.

Marco Rubio just announced 10 more people were sent to be imprisoned in CECOT. They were flown there from Gitmo to be imprisoned potentially for life based not on any crime for which they were convicted, but on unproven allegations of gang membership with no due process. This is not lawful.

According to a source, when Musk privately messages associates and confidants about reports from federal staffers about how their lives have been wrecked, the Tesla CEO is known to react with laugh-crying emojis. Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Commentary: Unless Congress acts now, premium costs will skyrocket for families across Minnesota, including my own. On average, a Minnesotan family of four would pay $4,000 more for their premiums, and 16,000 Minnesotans will lose their insurance entirely. minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/09/f...

Rural Hospitals in Crisis: Why Medicaid Matters More Than Ever www.fah.org/podcasts/rur...

Eight people in South Sudan, including five children, died on a three-hour walk to seek medical treatment for cholera after US aid cuts forced local health services to close, the UK-based charity Save the Children said reut.rs/3E9kB27

A week ago, the Trump administration laid off thousands of people at HHS and its agencies. The cuts were so deep, and touched so much, we're still learning about the impacts. Here are a couple stories that have stood out to me. 1) @levfacher.bsky.social on the gutting of a pain-research office.

“My MA plan still operates where I live but stopped including any hospitals within an hour’s drive in their network” isn’t a qualifying life event that lets people switch to Traditional Medicare and buy Medigap policies without underwriting. Maybe it should be.

I have been so excited since I found out this would be announced today! RIP any ability for me to concentrate: www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2...

Trump has cut the NIH budget by more than half in defiance of Congressionally mandated appropriations for the agency. No comparison historically, not even the Great Recession. This is clearly not legal and Congress needs to address it.

Opinion | In my new post at the Pentagon, I will lead the charge to end DEI and bring back the meritocracy. by Pete Hegseth’s Brother

In 25 years of covering national security, I’ve never seen a story like this: Senior Trump officials discussed planning for the U.S. attack on Yemen in a Signal group--and inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...