Listen: The Trump/Musk Reign of Error, Plus Hands Off Medicaid and More!
Listen to more dispatches from April 5th’s nationwide “Hands Off” protests.
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of “We Decide: America at the Crossroads with Jenna Flanagan we’re looking at the Trump/ Musk Junta Reign of Error; the latest on Mahmoud Khalil’s fight for freedom; the Non-Violent Medicaid army on the March; and more radio dispatches from April 5.
While the Trump/Musk junta’s full-court press to eliminate collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of unionized federal civil service continues, local county and state governments are scrambling to deal with the fiscal fallout from the potential loss of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants and programs like Medicaid.
On Friday, in another twist and turn of the Trump tariff roller coaster, President Trump moved to limit the impact of the tariffs on multinationals like Apple by exempting electronics like iPhones and computers from the levies. News of the Trump tech tariff side deal sparked a global stock market rally.
The erratic Trump trade gyrations that have already cost investors trillions in the stock market also upended the government bond market which saw a sell-off on Friday as polling showed voter confidence in Trump's handling of the economy slipping considerably.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continued to dismantle and defund Medicaid by withdrawing funding for state health programs that help Medicaid beneficiaries to remain in their home while they are medically cared for. These essential programs include things like home health aide housekeeping and buildingout broadband capacity that make telemedicine possible in rural areas.
This latest draconian move comes after the Republican controlled Congress passed a budget that calls for an $880 billion cut to Medicaid, that over 70 million Americans rely upon.
We also examine the life or death fight over Medicaid in with Kelly Smith and John Wessel McCoy with the Non-Violent Medicaid Army.
But first we start off this episode of “We Decide: America at the Crossroads with Jenna Flanagan” with our expert panel that includes Washington-based investigative journalist Dave Levinthal, Professor Stephen Pimpare, a professor of Public Policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School, and Professor Gloria Brown Marshall, a professor of Constitutional Law of John Jay College, at CUNY.
We also get an update from Daila Shamas—an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights on the alarming case of Columbia University graduate student and Gaza peace activist Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil was taken from his university apartment and shipped to a private prison in Louisiana where the Trump administration plans to deport him.
Finally, the April 5th “Hands Off” protests saw a tremendous turnout. We have further radio dispatches from Pacifica affiliates WMNF, Tampa, Florida; WGOT, Gainesville, Florida; WORT, Madison, Wisconsin and KEPW, Eugene PeaceWorks Community Radio.
Listen to the entire show below: