March 4, 2025 - 28 Days to Wisconsin
Our own State of the Union, Social Security payments may be missed, full list of ways to help win Wisconsin, and more!
Sorry for the near-record email! A ton going on this morning…
STATE OF THE UNION: MAD AS HELL
Trump has spent the first weeks of his term making an absolute mockery of Congress – breaking the law and sidelining them to dismantle services Americans count on, terrorize marginalized folks and cut the knees out from under our economy. Now tonight he’ll address them in an unofficial State of the Union like everything is normal. We are not going to play along. The people are going to give their own report on the state of the union with a day of action across the nation. Let’s join in by:
Marching with the 50501 movement in protests across the nation, finding one near us here
Rallying with the American Federation of Teachers to #ProtectOurKids - all the more important with reports Trump will issue an executive order claiming to shut down the Department of Education in the next few days
Find an event here
Contact our members of Congress to oppose Trump’s war on public schools here, supplementing this sample language with this information for our state
Share graphics and video on social media from this toolkit
Submit a video to AFT on how losing funding for teachers, special education or student aid would affect us here
Attending a Light for Our Democracy community gathering in a public space near us here
Joining MoveOn’s livechat and prebuttal of the speech here, the official Democratic response to Trump’s address by Senator Elissa Slotkin here or the Working Families Party response by Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA) here
SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS COULD BE INTERRUPTED WITHIN WEEKS
Donald Trump repeatedly promised neither he nor Musk would not touch Social Security. He lied. Trump and Musk are taking a sledgehammer to the Social Security Administration. They’re already firing 7,000 SSA employees and leaks from within the agency suggest they are ultimately planning to cut the workforce by 50% and shutter many of the 1,233 field offices around the country. These cuts will almost certainly lead to the delay, disruption and denial of benefits. As a senior SSA official told NPR: “Local field offices will close, hold times will increase, and people will be sicker, hungry, or die when checks don't arrive or a disability hearing is delayed just one month too late." The burden, Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan explain, will fall most heavily on those with moderately severe disabilities, lower education and lower income. Former Social Security commissioner Martin O’Malley is now warning these staff firings could lead to an interruption of people getting their benefits within the next 30-90 days. This is a five-alarm fire, and Congress needs to treat it like an emergency. Let’s:
Contact our members of Congress and let them know we’re angry and we want to know what they’re going to do about these cuts – before they hurt someone we love. We can use this script and language, or send this Resistbot message by texting SIGN PZRNBN to 50409.
Reach out to local media and ask them to cover the consequences of our local SSA offices shutting down – especially if we’re near one of the 45 Social Security office locations where Musk and DOGE claim to be terminating their leases.
WE PAY MORE FOR TRUMP’S TARIFFS
Just after midnight, Trump imposed his long-threatened 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, along with adding another 10% to tariffs on goods from China. If he does not fold again, this will be a major escalation in his trade wars. To make matters worse he is also now threatening 25% tariffs on the entire European Union and all agricultural goods. (It seems like Trump is lashing out at everyone against Vladimir Putin.)
This is an import tax, and we’re going to be the ones to pay for it with higher prices on almost everything we buy – from clothes to shoes to fridges to water heaters to laptops to cellphones to oil to cars to homes. We’ll pay more at the pump and more at the grocery store.
Let’s take today to remind our members of Congress they can stop Trump’s tariffs if they want… and if they choose not to, we will hold them accountable. We can use this language from Resistbot or send the letter directly by texting SIGN PBSFBM to 50409, and find call scripts here.
PUTIN’S DREAM COME TRUE: TRUMP CUTS OFF UKRAINE
We warned in yesterday’s List about reports Trump was considering an immediate cut-off of aid to Ukraine, and last night he pulled the trigger. This is a horrendous betrayal of our heroic allies as they fight for their lives and their freedom, and is Vladimir Putin’s wildest dream come true. Again, we need to make it perfectly clear that even if the President is switching sides in this war, the American people are not. Let’s contact our members of Congress to condemn this gift to Putin and demand they put on pressure to get the aid flowing again – we can use scripts and language here. Finally, let’s consider a personal contribution to the Ukrainian war effort by donating to Come Back Alive.
PREDATORY BANK FEES: YAY OR NAY?
The Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau struck numerous blows for regular Americans against corporate power. One of their final acts was a new rule limiting bank overdraft fees to $5, which would save us $5 billion a year. This infuriated the billionaires and the big banks, and they’ve gotten the Republican politicians they’ve purchased to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution (H.J. 59/S.J. 18) to eliminate it. Let’s let our members of Congress know we expect them to stand with us, not big banks, and vote against this effort. We can use this script from 5Calls. (We can also take this moment to urge them to take action to get the CFPB back up and running.)
IN 28 DAYS, WE MAKE WISCONSIN BLUE AGAIN
The Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 1st is a big deal. Our hard-won majority is on the line with the retirement of a left-leaning justice, and in the next few years the judges will rule on multiple issues with profound implications for the people of the state – abortion laws, collective bargaining bans, fair districts. And the consequences of it go beyond state borders in this crucial swing state, which is why Elon Musk is spending millions to buy this race for the hard-right candidate, former attorney general Brad Schimel. Democrats are backing Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, who has represented Planned Parenthood and stood up in court for voting and workers’ rights. We have just 28 working days left until this election – let’s get to it! Here are ways we can help - and find a sharable link with this information here:
LETTER WRITING/POSTCARDING
PHONEBANKING
TUESDAYS with Wisconsin Democrats here and focused on volunteer recruitment here, Gen Z-only phone bank here
WEDNESDAYS with Wisconsin Democrats here and focused on volunteer recruitment here, with the Wisconsin Working Families Party here or with Grassroots Democrats HQ here
THURSDAYS with Wisconsin Democrats here, with Grassroots Democrats HQ here, or with Indivisible Northampton–Swing Left Western Mass here
FRIDAYS with Wisconsin Democrats here or with Grassroots Democrats HQ here
SATURDAYS with Wisconsin Democrats here
SUNDAYS with Wisconsin Democrats here, with Field Team 6 here, or with Grassroots Democrats HQ here
MONDAYS with Wisconsin Democrats here or with Swing Blue Alliance here
TEXTBANKING
KNOCK DOORS
SPREAD THE WORD ON SOCIAL MEDIA
With this toolkit from our allies at DemCast USA here
With these sample posts from Indivisible here
DONATE
I’m so glad to see you’re back Susan!