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DSCC TAKEAWAYS-TRUMP BUDGET, LIKE REPUBLICANS’ RECORDS, CUTS EARNED BENEFITS-GOP SENATORS SILENT AS PRESIDENT RAIDS BILLIONS FROM MILITARY PROJECTS

TRUMP BUDGET—LIKE REPUBLICANS’ RECORDS—CUTS MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY.  A new White House budget proposal includes significant cuts to key benefits including Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health insurance, Social Security’s disability benefits, nutrition assistance, and more. After voting for a corporate tax giveaway that threatens to add $2 trillion to the deficit over the next decades, vulnerable Republicans are doing everything in their power — even if it means refusing to hold a Senate hearing — to avoid talking about this “damaging” proposal. 

  • MarketWatch: Trump’s proposed $4.8 trillion budget will seek cuts to Medicare, Medicaid
  • HuffPost: Trump’s Budget Proposal Is A Political Gift To Vulnerable Democrats
  • POLITICO: Trump hits Medicaid, food stamps in push to slash domestic spending
  • Washington Post: “The budget would cut Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and also wring savings from Medicare despite Trump’s repeated promises to safeguard Medicare and Social Security”

ERNST CALLED THESE PROGRAMS “OUT-OF-CONTROL” SPENDING. Senator Joni Ermst was caught on tape – again – targeting funds for Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid as “out-of-control” even after her vote for the deficit-busting corporate tax giveaway. She also admitted “all” her Republican colleagues agree with her. Listen here.

GOP SENATORS SILENT AS PRESIDENT RAIDS BILLIONS FROM MILITARY PROJECTS, NATIONAL GUARD (AGAIN). Vulnerable Republican incumbents have yet to speak out after the Trump administration announced yesterday that it will be raiding nearly $4 billion in defense funding, from funds “intended to build fighter jets, ships, vehicles and National Guard equipment.” After the past diversion of military funding, Senators Thom Tillis, Cory Gardner, Martha McSally, Joni Ernst, David Perdue, John Cornyn, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell all voted to uphold the president’s national emergency declaration to divert military project funding, including millions from projects in many of their own states.

  • POLITICO: Pentagon to shift $3.8B for fighter planes, ships toward border wall
    • The Trump administration plans to sap money intended to build fighter jets, ships, vehicles and National Guard equipment in order to fund barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon told Congress on Thursday, a move that has agitated Democrats and even drawn condemnation from a top House Republican.
    • The surprise reprogramming of another $3.8 billion, transmitted to Congress and provided to POLITICO, means the Pentagon will have forked over nearly $10 billion since last year to help pay for President Donald Trump’s border wall.
    • But this shift in funding marks a new phase for the administration, which until now had used money set for military construction and counterdrug operations, not combat equipment.

SENATOR COLLINS’ “INDEFENSIBLE” EXCUSE CONTINUES TO BACKFIRE. We’ve all heard it by now: Senator Collins “indefensible” excuse for acquitting Trump. Now, even as Trump has said and shown he hasn’t learned any lessons and is more emboldened to do whatever he wants, Senator Collins is refusing to explain what she meant. Watch: 

NASTY” GOP BATTLE HEATS UP IN GEORGIA, THREATENING BOTH SENATE SEATS.  Republican efforts to hold onto the Georgia Senate seat had another series of setbacks this week. First,  a front-page story on Temporary Senator Kelly Loeffler’s “super-swampy” ethical conflicts, then a series of brutal reports detailing the  “raging intraparty fight” that is turning the state into one of Republicans’ “biggest vulnerabilities” in 2020. Now, as fears grow that an ugly special election could “undercut his ability to secure an outright win” too. 

  • Georgia Recorder: Rep. Doug Collins shrugs off GOP attacks, expects to be senator in 2021
  • CNN: Georgia race devolves into nasty GOP fight amid fears it could cost Senate majority
  • National Review: Mike Huckabee Endorses Rep. Doug Collins as Intra-Republican Battle for Georgia Senate Seat Heats Up

JOHN JAMES’ DISAPPEARING ACT. After months of ducking questions from Michigan reporters, there’s only one question on Michigan’s mind: “Where in the hell is John James?” Tuesday marked the 250th day (and counting) that James has not spoken with a local Michigan TV station. People are noticing James’ absence from the Michigan airwaves, and his presence at “out-of-state fundraisers with President Trump and Mitch McConnell.

  • Detroit Metro News: U.S. Senate candidate John James has ducked media questions for months

MJ HEGAR LAUNCHES FIRST AD IN TEXAS. MJ Hegar launched her first TV ad, highlighting her experience of a combat helicopter pilot who will stand up for Texas values, including ending family separation, taking aggressive action to address climate change, and fighting for quality affordable health care. Watch it here:

IN THE STATES

AL – Birmingham Times: Sen. Doug Jones On How He Plans to Win Alabama Again

  • “Growing up in Alabama, I learned right from wrong,” Jones said on Twitter. “What the president did was more than wrong. Someone has to stand up & say so. I will fulfill my oath & vote in favor of both articles of impeachment.”

CO – Colorado Public Radio: Trump Campaign To Co-Host Fundraiser With Cory Gardner Ahead Of Colorado Springs Rally

CO – Colorado Politics: Carpenters union endorses Democrat John Hickenlooper in Colorado’s US Senate race

  • Calling the former two-term governor a champion for working families, the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters on Wednesday endorsed Democrat John Hickenlooper in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race. The union, which operates in six western states, represents 1,800 carpenters and others involved in construction trades in Colorado.

CO – Denver Post: National abortion rights group NARAL backs Hickenlooper for U.S. Senate

  • The national abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America is endorsing former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in the U.S. Senate candidate race, weighing in on a contested Democratic primary that many state groups are staying out of. … The race is critical to regaining a U.S. Senate majority that backs reproductive and abortion rights, the statement said. Hickenlooper has touted his efforts to reduce teen pregnancy through a state contraceptive initiative, and NARAL cited that work in its endorsement.

KY – DSCC Endorses Amy Mcgrath In Kentucky Senate Race.

  • The DSCC endorsed Amy McGrath in Kentucky for the U.S. Senate. “Amy McGrath is a courageous leader who has spent her career taking risks and inspiring others to service,” said DSCC Chairwoman Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. “In the Senate, she’ll be a champion for all Kentuckians, working to expand access to high-quality, affordable health care and education, and to invest in good paying jobs in communities across Kentucky.”

MI – Detroit News: DeVos family pumps $800,000 into super PAC targeting Peters

  • Six members of the DeVos family gave a total of $800,000 to Better Future MI Fund, a super political action committee, on Dec. 9. Under federal election law, super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money trying to persuade voters as long as they act independently of the candidates’ campaigns.

NC – Charlotte Observer: Our endorsement for the U.S. Senate Democratic primary in North Carolina

  • Cunningham offers a wider appeal, a diverse coalition of supporters and the most well-funded Democratic campaign, and he does so without compromising Democratic Party values. His candidacy provides the best opportunity for voters who want to unseat the Republican incumbent. We recommend him for the U.S. Senate Democratic primary.

NC – Charlotte Observer: Democratic Senate candidates denounce ‘meddling’ by group they say is tied to GOP

  • Two Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Tuesday blasted a super PAC that appears linked to the GOP that’s spending $2.4 million on behalf of one of their Democratic primary opponents. “This is an unprecedented meddling in the Democratic primary,” Cal Cunningham told a Charlotte audience. “This is a GOP group . . . coordinating with (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell… I have a message for Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis: We are coming for you.”

TX – Texas Tribune: MJ Hegar says her military experience makes her the fighter Democrats need to take on John Cornyn

  • Hegar, who served 12 years in the Air Force, held the crowd captive as she responded, invoking the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the hollowing out of the State Department by the Trump administration and the erosion of congressional war powers. “I feel like the debate has become about whether or not the action should’ve taken place, and I think those of us with military leadership experience know that the result of the action is not the only thing that you judge it by,” she said.

TX – Austin American-Statesman: Endorsement: Hegar in Dem primary for U.S. Senate

  • Democrats must field a candidate who can energize the party if they are to defeat Cornyn in November. … Hegar has demonstrated a natural ability to get people’s attention. Her made-for-Hollywood heroic back story doesn’t hurt. The self-proclaimed “ass-kicking, motorcycle-riding, Texas Democrat” served three tours in Afghanistan, earning a Purple Heart after the Taliban shot down her helicopter in 2009, wounding her during a rescue mission of three American soldiers.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Lauren Passalacqua

@laurenvpass

Stewart Boss

@stew_boss

Helen Kalla

@helen_kalla

Izzi Levy

@chevytothe_levy

Regina Anderson

@reginasopinion

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