Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage
Credit: CC BY-SA

The incoming Trump administration understandably frightens liberals, but right-wing successes at a state level would have moved forward regardless of who won the election. Only four states currently have a Democratic governor and a Democratic state legislature. What’s more, bipartisan support for policies of austerity and neoliberalism have led to vast social spending cuts across the country regardless of political affiliation.

Here are five proposed budget cuts that should have progressives up in arms.

1. Maine’s Tea Party Governor Wants to Kick Thousand of People Off Medicaid and Block a Tax Increase for the State’s Richest Citizens: Maine’s Question 2 vote was hailed by many as one of election day’s only progressive victories. Maine voters approved a ballot initiative that would tax Maine residents making more than $200,000 an extra 3% a year and put the money toward the state’s education budget.

The question was vigorously opposed by Paul LePage, Maine’s infamous right-wing governor, and his new budget looks to retroactively defeat the measure despite the fact it was approved […]

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A microbiologist working with tubes of bacteria samples in an antimicrobial resistance and characterization lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Credit: David Goldman/Associated Press

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a disturbing report about the death of an elderly woman in Washoe County, Nev. What killed her wasn’t heart disease, cancer or pneumonia. What killed her were bacteria that were resistant to every antibiotic doctors could throw at them.

This anonymous woman is only the latest casualty in a war against antibiotic-resistant bacteria — a war that we are losing. Although most bacteria die when they encounter an antibiotic, a few hardy bugs survive. Through repeated exposure, those tough bacteria proliferate, spreading resistance genes through the bacterial population. That’s the […]

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Interior Secretary nominee Ryan Zinke.
Credit: Gage Skidmore/flickr

If confirmed, Zinke, a second-term congressman from Montana and former Navy SEAL, would oversee all the nation’s national parks and more than 500 million acres of federal public lands, mostly in the West. He would be responsible for all the coal mining, fracking and oil drilling on public lands and waters off of all U.S. coastlines, and for permitting all new offshore wind power development.

Trump vowed during his campaign to breathe new life into America’s coal industry, which he said has been hit too hard by environmental and climate regulations. In reality, coal is in decline mainly because of cheap natural gas, which electric power companies are beginning to use more than coal to generate electricity.

“The war on coal, I believe, is real,” Zinke said. “All-of-the-above is the correct (energy) policy. Coal is a great part of that energy mix. I’m also a great believer that we should invest in research and development on coal — because we know we have the asset — […]

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As President Donald Trump sat signing paperwork with congressional leaders Friday afternoon, his administration sprang into a strangely specific action: They made it harder for Americans to afford their own homes. And the change specifically will impact lending to the poor.

Just 11 days after the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had announced a cut in fee rates for mortgages, Trump’s team revoked the price cut. The small but significant reduction in mortgage insurance premiums had been set to go into effect January 27, but is now “suspended indefinitely,” per an administration letter.

Analysts heralded the fee cut, a policy championed by Democrats, as a significant savings—around $500 per year on a typical loan. It would affect millions of homeowners whose loans are insured through the Federal Housing Administration. It also would have helped prospective home buyers with lower credit scores borrow by bringing the federal version of mortgage insurance down to a more competitive price with private […]

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Credit: Whitehouse.gov

Moments after President Donald Trump took the oath of office and became the 45th President of the United States, both the climate change and LGBT portions on the White House web page appears to have been removed.

Those trying to visit the URL President Barack Obama used to showcase his administration’s stance and updates on climate change has been taken down. Those trying to visit “https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-record/climate” receive only an error message.

When a search is conducted for the term “climate change” on the White House web page, one article is found: The biography of Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The words “climate” and “change” are separated by four paragraphs of text.

Internet archives showed the difference in the URL between Jan. 9 and Jan. 20.

The LGBT page was also removed from the Trump administration White House page, as was a page dedicated to veterans also does not appear on the Trump administration’s page.

The climate change, veterans and LGBT pages are still available under an archived URL.

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