Introduction

Presidential rescissions requests are normally an unremarkable bureaucratic procedure where the president requests that Congress-appropriated funds be unappropriated for later spending. This one promises—insists, really—that people must die to meet the whims of Donald Trump. And they most definitely will.

I attended a virtual town hall with various foreign policy organizations and public news organizations on Monday evening. Each of them detailed the many ways that the rescissions bill, which destroys USAID and eliminates public broadcast funding for PBS and NPR, will be catastrophic for people everywhere.

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Robert Weissman, president of public interest group Public Citizen and the call's organizer, came out swinging, calling the bill a "murderous package" that "will kill people." Weissman introduced each speaker, thanking them for their time and storied careers, and reminded us throughout the call that an important part of protecting our society is protecting these brave public servants and the work they do.

Impact on world health

Asia Russell, an AIDS worker for more than 30 years, Zoomed in from South Africa to confirm our worst fears: USAID funding being stolen has already caused thousands of preventable deaths, as well as thousands of babies being born with HIV that could have been prevented had their mothers had access to treatment. Belinda Nkoana, from South Sudan, had been receiving twice-yearly HIV treatment from a USAID-funded program: now, she said, she wasn't sure whether the program would still exist in six months, and she feared for her life.

Rep. Jim McGovern, ranking Democratic member on the House Rules Committee, joined us to express his gratitude that so many people were in attendance—and his frustration that this was even happening. "I'm pissed that we even have to have this kind of call," he said, shaking his head. "PEPFAR is the gold standard for what the United States government can accomplish." He reminded us all that PEPFAR has, among many other things, saved 26 million lives and allowed 8 million babies to be born HIV-free. (You can track the estimated current deaths from the informal PEPFAR stoppage here.)

"Regrets" from GOP Members

McGovern also provided insight into what's been happening inside the House since it passed "this stupid rescissions package": apparently, various Republicans (all of whom voted for the bill) had been coming up to him and telling him that they regretted their vote to send it to the Senate. He said of his response that he had told them he wasn't a priest: "I don't want to hear your confessions, I want your vote."

He added that it came down to a simple question: "When all is said and done, we have to ask ourselves: honest to God, what do we want to do here?" He also asked us attendees to call our Senators to ask them to vote no on the bill, saying, "I want them to be more fearful of you, their constituents, than this president", and concluded with the simple truth that "this is about saving lives."

Impact on refugees

Jeremy Kondynyk, president of Refugees International, echoed this, rightly calling USAID and related programs "the best of what America does in the world". He reminded us that all of what is happening is "flagrantly illegal" and that "there are health clinics being shut down in every crisis around the world" as a direct result of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Marco Rubio's cruelty.

Abby Maxwell, speaking from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reiterated that more people were dying because of the cuts, and called them a "moral failure": she told the story of a woman she met, Francine, who had to resort to survival sex because her village was destroyed and there were no USAID funds to help rebuild it. "People deserve better," she said, her voice shaking from the injustice, "and the richest country in the world should and will be better than this."

The importance of an informed public

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel for advocacy group Free Press and the associated Free Press Action, reminded us that "we cannot have a democracy without an educated and informed citizenry". Powerful capitulators to fascism—like the billionaires that now own the Washington Post and New York Times—are ensuring that "our society is riddled with lies."

Executive director of public television and radio station KVCR Connie Leyva, formerly a California state senator, explained the most immediate damages people think of when they hear "public broadcasting cuts", such as children's shows like the Wild Kratts, were both important ways for them to learn and also not close to everything at risk. She detailed the community outreach her station did, like funding meals and trips to see Santa for kids, that will be taken away with these cuts.

James Kass of KALW, an NPR member station in San Francisco, added that this was "a fight for independent media that is...not acquiescing to this administration's power grab." His perspective on why these cuts were included? "They want to disrupt an independent network that's not afraid to hold power to account."

Helen Chickering, the morning edition host of Blue Ridge Public Radio in North Carolina, has been working there for decades, starting as the only reporter there and able to bring on just four more. She informed us that they're the only radio station in fourteen rural counties with a news team; pointing to her Zoom background, a signboard reading "88.1 FOR UPDATES", she explained that the station was the only place people could get news about Hurricane Helene and the recovery efforts, which are still in their "infancy". Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding being cut, she explained, would make sure they lost some reporters and the ability to cover some counties, and there was still "a lot more we need to report."

Nora, popping back on, thanked the participants, reminding us that foreign aid and public media are "not luxuries. They are essential public goods." There might be messaging from Republicans in Congress that there is something wrong with them, but "the only thing that has gone wrong is our leaders."

Lasting Repercussions

Closing out the call was DaMareo Cooper, co-executive of Popular Democracy, who exhorted us all to get involved and stay there. Echoing Rep. McGovern, he asked, "Are we going to have a future together?" and told us, "[y]ou will decide if this thing passes...Make sure you let them know we won't be forgetting and [that] we won't let them forget."

Weissman returned to close out the call, thanking us for our time and listening to "this litany of horror", again encouraging us to call our Senators every day that week. "This is one," he concluded, "where we really can make a difference."

Reflections

Now, you might ask: what's the point? The bill passed, and the "litany of horror" will continue apace: the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Why should I bother fighting a losing battle?

It's a tempting line of thought, and I've fallen into that trap myself. No one thing any of us can do will be "enough" to fix everything. The suffering this administration chooses to inflict is, and continues to be, paralytic in its sheer scale. It's easy to want to just give up.

It's also precisely what they want. Republicans want us to believe that they're unstoppable, that there's no use fighting at all—that we should just accept every terrible thing they do because we're powerless. We know they're wrong.

We have to continue fighting, not in spite of the fact that the fights are everywhere but because of it: it's precisely because the Republicans seek to destroy everything we love that saving what we can is more important than ever. Our saving PEPFAR from cuts is a small, but meaningful, reminder that we do have power.

Where we go from here

So, here's the most difficult part: what's next?

As Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández said on the floor, "the public will remember who stood with Big Bird and who strangled him"— if we help them remember. Talk about this, and keep talking. Every unruly kid could have been watching PBS, every new war could have been stopped by USAID, and every flood could have been stopped by FEMA. The Republicans are making our country materially worse by the second, and it's crucial that people understand whose fault it is (theirs).

If any Republican is your Congressional "representative", remind them that every death this bill causes is squarely on their hands: if not, then tell yours you expect them to fight. There can be no compromises with monsters, and it's high time they learned.

Informing our communities, and working with them, is how we rebuild our country and make sure this never happens again. The best day to start was four years ago: the second best is today.