Progressive Maryland has been busy on Capitol Hill to defend Medicare and Medicaid from the deep cuts proposed by the Trump administration in their draft budget, which would end health care for 14 million Americans.
They joined an overnight vigil in Washington, D.C. on May 9, and again on May 21 at 1 a.m., as Congressional Republicans convened the House Budget Committee at 1 a.m. in a bid to drive the bill through to a vote under cover of darkness.
“We’re out here at one in the morning, because they’re trying to hide cutting Medicaid from the people who need it,” said Mike Walsh of Progressive Maryland, who spoke on the steps of the Capitol. “Millions of people depend on it every day for their medicine. It is so sad to see that they’re doing this so late and hiding behind the darkness. What is it going to mean to them? Nothing. But it means everything to us, and that’s why we’re out here so late.”
On May 7, Progressive Maryland’s executive director, Larry Stafford, joined U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Capitol Hill – this time in daylight – to reintroduce their signature legislation to create Medicare for All as a step towards universal, cost-effective health care for all Americans.
“”We say loudly and clearly,” said Sen. Sanders at the event, “The function of a rational health care system is not to make billions for the insurance companies and the drug companies, it is to provide quality health care to every man, woman, and child as a human right.”