Day 84.

There’s a meditation exercise that I do called Blue Sky. In the exercise you imagine your feelings as clouds obscuring a blue sky. Even if you can’t see the sky, it’s always there. It’s a very steadying exercise, and one I’ve turned to often.

Today it snowed, so I couldn’t see the sky. The snow brings its own kind of peace. But when I went out for my lunchtime walk, I thought about the sky I couldn’t see.

It’s important to remember this now. Right now we can’t see the sky, but it is always there. And the current situation is impermanent. Sooner or later the clouds will go.

The other thing that’s keeping me going today is focus on the fact that we’re making headway. (Just because I know the sky will be blue again someday doesn’t mean I’m just going to sit on my duff and wait for it.) Democrats delayed votes in committees on Sessions, Mnuchin, and Price today. Minority Leader (and my Senator) Chuck Schumer has announced he will be voting “no” on eight of Trump’s nominees. The President is not traveling to Wisconsin, which he barely won, because he is afraid of protests.

He is afraid of us. And he should be. We’re like the blue sky. We’ll always be there.

Remind your reps tomorrow that you’ll always be there, calling them about what matters.

Day 83.

Please read up on the Saturday Night Massacre.

It’s not exactly what’s happening now, but it’s close. (Yates was not directly investigating the President. Also Nixon was quite a bit further along in his presidency by this point.)

So the American Carnage continues. Between this and the 100 members of the State Department who have signed onto an opposition cable, it’s clear that there’s a lot of, well, opposition.

The tally? 16 Republican members of the House and 8 Republican Senators currently oppose the immigration-related Executive Orders that were issued this weekend. Follow along here. Don’t let up on the calls. The minority party in the Senate is uniquely situated to slow down the workings of government. McConnell did this for years. This is important enough.

Day 79.

Here’s something I know a little about. Congressional budget reconciliation. Wait, don’t go!

This is important. This speaks to what’s going on right now. It’s been a scary couple of days, and it’s important to know what is and isn’t happening. The information below will help you stay clear going forward. I’ll do my best to explain clearly. If I’ve failed, let me know and ask me questions!

Reconciliation is a part of how Congress decides to spend money. The House has 435 voting members, and a simple majority rules. The Senate is more complex. Under the general rules of the Senate, most matters require 60 votes to end open debate by way of a Cloture motion.* Without an end to open debate, Senators can go on forever. It’s called a filibuster. Since you need 60 votes to end it, you’re going to need a bipartisan coalition to do so.

However, some items concerning spending, revenue, or debt limit bills, or any combination of those requires a simple majority. Since there are 100 Senators (and 1 Vice President who presides over the Senate, and acts as a tie-breaker), a majority is 50 for Republicans right now (there are 51 of them). What qualifies for the simple majority rule? Any of these items without a negative budget impact, or with a negative budget effect of 10 years or less.** That’s why the Bush tax cuts were only in effect for 10 years – they were passed under the reconciliation process.

Applying this to the Affordable Care Act, this infographic makes more sense. Everything that requires 50 votes is a budget matter: medicaid expansion; the employer and individual mandates (which are taxes); premium subsidies; and new taxes to pay for any changes. Without these elements, though, the remaining portions of the act become less stable, because everything that pays for them is a budget matter, especially the ban on denial for pre-existing conditions; limits on age rating; and the ban on setting rates based on health status.

That was A LOT. And it only really related to healthcare. But there’s one more point I want to make. We saw a lot of executive orders for a lot of things these past couple of days. Know this. In the vast majority of cases, anything in these orders that required spending will need approval from both the House and the Senate. That includes a wall, and three times the border officers. Tariffs on Mexican trade.

We don’t know what we don’t know, but we know what we know.

How strange is it that I just felt a bit nostalgic for Donald Rumsfield?

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*Not addressing nominations, which are simple majority approved, with the exception of Supreme Court nominations. Stay tuned!

**Another exception here for the Social Security Act.

Day 77.

I want to be sure we don’t lose the plot here. What we should focus on and what we should let pass.

This is a guide to how to fight a populist, from Venezuela. It took the country years to figure this out.

See number 2, “Show no contempt”? Let’s talk about this for a while.

Today in hearings for the nomination for head of the OMB, Senator Jeff Merkley got sucked in. He said he was pushing in service of facts, but it smelled like contempt.

Don’t get sucked in. Stick to the issues. I’m going to do my best to do that here. I was lucky enough to learn today about the budget reconciliation process in the Senate. If you want to understand the bills we’re going to see about healthcare, and about tax reform, and about how they will work and whether they will pass with or without bipartisan support, you need to understand this.

I’m devoting tomorrow’s post to this issue. I’ll then explain how that applies to ACA.

I know there’s a lot getting thrown at us right now. And it’s easier to commiserate about how crazy someone is than to face the fact that some of the policy being made right now is something that scares you. But you have to face that and push through your fear. The only way this will succeed is if we stick to the issues.

Day 76.

Today I emailed all the newspapers in Jason Chaffetz’ district to ask them to cover the fact that he’s not investigating the President. 65% of Utahans want him to investigate, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune. I used this document.

I also really, really enjoyed this.

Day 75.

I didn’t want yesterday to end. I stayed up talking with a friend and then looking at pictures from around the world until three in the morning. We were part of the beginning of something.

I danced and I rested today. Tomorrow I want to make yesterday keep going.

I just got a whole bunch of actions items. From the Women’s March and from Wall of Us.

If you haven’t seen this last one though, check it out. Swing Left. If you live in a blue town, you need to start here.