80% of House Republicans support plan to cut Social Security, ban abortion, and restrict IVF

Elsewhere, the Florida Supreme Court upheld Ron DeSantis’ 6-week abortion ban but also approved an abortion amendment for the November ballot

I’ve been here at COURIER for five years and there’s this phenomenon that you come to observe when you cover American politics for that long: Republicans embracing policies that are so cartoonishly cruel that voters simply do not believe they’re real. 

I don’t blame the voters, to be clear. It does defy belief that a huge number of Republicans want to ban abortion nationwide, restrict IVF access, cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, and take a wrecking ball to the Affordable Care Act and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

If I wasn’t covering it day in and day out, I’m not sure I’d believe it either. But that is exactly what the overwhelming majority of House Republicans support.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), which includes 176 House Republicans (80% of the caucus), released a new budget proposal late last month that would do every single thing mentioned above. The RSC document echoes many of the proposals included in Project 2025, an expansive blueprint drawn up by far-right organizations and Trump’s allies that would transform America into a far-right state.

These documents are both publicly available. In an ideal world, every American would read them to understand what a Republican-controlled government would look like in 2025. But we don’t live in an ideal world, so it’s incumbent on those of us who work in media and politics to make sure that the public is aware of these plans and knows they’re real and would materially harm most families across the United States. 

The future of our country may depend on it. 

More from COURIER’s other newsrooms:

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Top Trump staffer, Ayotte advisor says campaign will deploy “soldiers” to polls

From Granite Post: National press secretary for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign Karoline Leavitt said that the Trump campaign would send “soldiers” to polling places to ensure “there are no irregularities and fraud like we saw in the last election cycle.”

ARIZONA

State Rep. Lorena Austin, the first non-binary AZ rep, speaks out against GOP pronoun bill

From The Copper Courier: The bill would require parents to be notified no more than five days after their child starts using a pronoun different from their biological sex or a name that is not their legal first, middle, or commonly used nickname.

FLORIDA

Florida Supreme Court upholds DeSantis’ 6-week abortion ban, approves abortion amendment for November ballot

From Floricua: The decision clears the amendment’s path to appearing on the November ballot, when Florida voters will decide if abortion rights will be enshrined in the state’s Constitution.

PENNSYLVANIA

Pennsylvanians rally outside Supreme Court as justices debate restrictions on reproductive rights

From The Keystone: Over 100 Philadelphia area residents traveled to Washington DC last week and joined reproductive rights advocates outside the US Supreme Court as the Court decides whether or not to further restrict abortion access.

MICHIGAN

Whitmer signs bills to support IVF patients, legalize paid surrogacy

From The ‘Gander: The Michigan Family Protection Act will create new legal protections for parents who choose to use fertility treatments, surrogacy, or any other form of assisted reproduction—including in-vitro fertilization treatment.

WISCONSIN

Hovde’s 2012 comments resurface about farmers, Social Security, and obesity

From Up North News: “You’re largely driving around a tractor,” Hovde said of farmers in an interview, while also advocating for pushing back the retirement age and making overweight people pay more for health insurance.

VIRGINIA

Youngkin vetoes assault weapons ban and other gun safety bills, signs two others

From Dogwood: Youngkin also vetoed 30 bills in March, including a measure that would have restricted access to assault weapons by imposing waiting periods to receive a gun after purchasing one.

NEVADA

Lombardo tries to pin housing woes on Biden after vetoing bills and naming ex-housing lobbyist as chief of staff

From The Nevadan: The Nevada Housing Justice Alliance accused the governor of passing off responsibility for the housing crisis to Biden while “foregoing in-state options that threaten to anger his largest donor, billionaire Robert Bigelow.”

NORTH CAROLINA

Biden and Harris tout healthcare expansion in Raleigh visit

From Cardinal & Pine: This visit comes just days after the 14th anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and as Donald Trump is on the campaign trail expressing support for repealing the law.

IOWA

The closure of an Iowa plant caught Fox News’ attention for all the wrong reasons

From Iowa Starting Line: Fox News host Jesse Watters was irate when he mistakenly thought that the Perry Tyson plant closure would lead to mostly white Americans losing their jobs to immigrants – which is incorrect on several counts.

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