Donald Trump and Dr. Oz want to let Artificial Intelligence (AI) choose which procedures Medicare will cover for individual patients -- with AI companies being paid based on how much money they save by denying people’s coverage. This cruel ploy comes as Medicare faces an urgent funding crisis thanks to Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill. None of this “cost-saving” would be necessary if Trump and the GOP weren't driving up healthcare costs and starving our healthcare system of funds. Email Congress NOW: Demand that they stop AI-powered healthcare denials and use the upcoming funding deadline to restore healthcare.

Three years after Putin’s Russia launched its all-out assault, the Ukrainians are still standing. A salute.

The 5 Calls Newsletter breaks down what your representatives are voting on and what you can do to influence them. From your friends at 5 Calls

Home page of Sam Friend, an other / not classifiable group from New Orleans. Original music, influenced by New Orleans jazz, blues and rock.

The privatized version of Medicare doesn’t just provide worse care than traditional Medicare—it also rips off American taxpayers with fraudulent claims. And Trump wants to double down on it.

I urge you to oppose H.R. 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act because it includes the text of H.R. 6408. H.R. 6408 authorizes broad and easily abused new powers for the executive branch. It grants the Secretary of the Treasury virtually unfettered discretion to designate a U.S. nonprofit as a “terrorist supporting organization” and to strip it of its tax-exempt status if the Secretary finds that the nonprofit has provided material support to a terrorist group, even if the “support” is not intentional or connected to actual violence. If this bill were to become law, the Secretary of Treasury could strip a US nonprofit of its tax-exempt status without providing the nonprofit a meaningful opportunity to defend itself before a neutral decisionmaker. The legislation further does not require disclosure of all the reasons for such a decision or the evidence relied upon to support it. Nor would the government be required to provide any evidence in its possession that might undermine its decision, leaving an accused nonprofit entirely in the dark about what conduct the government believes qualifies as material support. The potential for abuse under H.R. 6408 is immense as the executive branch would be handed a tool it could use to curb free speech, censor nonprofit media outlets, target political opponents, and punish disfavored groups across the political spectrum. Moreover, the addition of this authority to the tax code would allow the IRS to explicitly target and harass domestic nonprofits using its investigative authority. It is also not hard to imagine a future administration using this power in far broader circumstances that have nothing to do with the hostilities in Gaza.6 And as more recent congressional oversight efforts make clear, these efforts are part of concerted attack on civil society that is targeted at more than just groups involved in the campus protests regarding Gaza. The executive branch could use this authority to target its political opponents and use the fear of crippling legal fees, the stigma of the designation, and donors fleeing controversy to stifle dissent and chill speech and advocacy. The lack of guardrails creates the potential for future administrations to weaponize these powers against groups on both ends of the ideological spectrum. Even if they may never be designated as “terrorist-supporting,” let alone charged with a crime, nonprofits will curtail their activities as a precaution in order to avoid stigmatizing and financially devastating punishments. That is why we strongly urge you to oppose the inclusion of H.R. 6408 in H.R. 9495.