During a heated confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill last week, Georgia Congressman Tom Price - Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services - refused to say whether or not he would support cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "Can you assure this committee you will not cut one dollar from either Medicare or Medicaid should you be confirmed to this position?" Tom Price "Senator, I believe that the metric ought to be the care that the patients are receiving."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "I'll take that as a no."

Tom Price It's the wrong metric... we ought to be putting forth the resources."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "I'm not asking you whether or not you think you have a better metric. I'm asking you a question about dollars, yes or no?"

Tom Price "What we ought to do is put forward the resources in order to take care of the patient."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "... simple question."

Price's refusal to answer that very simple question from Elizabeth Warren comes as Republicans are discovering that their quest to dismantle the social safety net is wildly unpopular with the American people.

Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman learned this the hard way Saturday during a town hall meeting outside Denver.

The event was billed as a "one-on-one" meet-and-greet - but soon turned into a protest as hundreds of people angry at Coffman's Friday vote to repeal Obamacare filled a lobby and began singing protest songs like This is Your Land.

This display of democracy was apparently too much for Coffman - who fled the event early out a back door.

A similar scene occurred on Monday in Washington State - where Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers - one of the GOP's rising stars - was met with chants of "save our healthcare" during a MLK day speech in Spokane.

So - is this going to happen to every Republican?

Are we about to see a repeat of those 2010 Town Halls in reverse?

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10:30pm... Will Republicans Let Trump Bring Our Jobs Home? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Monday's Daily Stack 

Quote: "The problem is not religion or God. The actual problem is authoritarianism, mixed with the desire to angrily impose one's personal apparently idealistic beliefs on others." -- Abhijit Naskar.

 

Hour One: Trump's "Big Agenda" to "Save America"
- David Horowitz, David Horowitz Freedom Center    

Article: "Women's March Is The Biggest Protest In US History As An Estimated 2.9 Million March" by Jason Easley.

Article: "LOOK: President Trump redecorates Oval Office, opts for 'gold' curtains".

Quote: "We've got Social Security that's going to be destroyed if somebody like me doesn't bring money into the country. All these other people want to cut the hell out of it. I'm not going to cut it at all; I'm going to bring money in, and we're going to save it." - Donald Trump.

Quote: "Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid. And we can't do that." - Donald Trump.

Quote: "But we're not going to cut your Social Security and we're not cutting your Medicare." - Donald Trump.

Book: Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America by David Horowitz.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann (read online)

Article: "President Trump can levy tariffs without Congress" by Patrick Gillespie.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann

Book: The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama.

Quote: "No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" - Thomas L. Friedman.

Article: "Trump's New Deal for Black America".

Article: "Trump Team in Talks with U.K. on Post-Brexit Trade Deal" by Jennifer Jacobs and Margaret Talev.

Article: "Report: Trump Team Wants to Slash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Everything Else Except Defense" by Kevin Drum.

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia

Article: "Trump executive order pulls out of TPP trade deal" by BBC.

Article: "Sanders Statement on Trans-Pacific Partnership" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

 

Article: "Crew Sues Trump Over Emoluments" by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Article: "President Trump Sued Over 'Immediate and Serious' Constitutional Violations" by Lauren McCauley.

Article: "Conway: Trump White House offered 'alternative facts' on crowd size" by Eric Bradner.

Tweet: "Remember Remember The 6th Of November (2018)..." by Happy Agnostic.

Tweet: "History shows that protests alone are not enough. In 1932, 100,000 people in Berlin demonstrated against the Nazis." by Laura Schneider.

Article: "The American left will be reborn under President Trump" by Owen Jones.

Article: "Trump's first executive order suspends mortgage insurance rate decrease" by Jared Leone.

Article: "Trump's move could lock tens of thousands of Americans out of homeownership" by TMN.

Executive Order: "Executive Order Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal".

Site: Steele & Ungar.

Article: "18 Dead Amid Reported Tornadoes, Other Storms in the South" by Brendan Farrington, Jay Reeves.

Documentary: Before the Flood.

Video: Why Scott Pruitt is a Dangerous Nominee for head of the EPA.

Site: Free Don Siegelman 

Article: "Reality Check: Can there be a quick UK-USA trade deal?" by Jonty Bloom.

Article: "Sanders: 'Amusing' that Trump attacked establishment sitting right behind him" by Rebecca Savransky.

Article: "McCain: Trump's withdrawal from TPP a 'serious mistake'" by Jordain Carney.

Article: "Sanders Rejoices Over Death Of TPP, Says He Could Work With Trump On Trade" by Matt Vespa.

Article: "Could Scott Pruitt Have Fixed Oklahoma's Earthquake Epidemic?" by Robinson Meyer.

Article: "'Argo' helps Iran's dictatorship, harms democracy " by Abolhassan Bani-Sadr.

Article: "Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs" by Brown University.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Luke Vargas 

Article: "Pentagon denies coordinating with Russia in Syria; White House says it's open to it" by Loree Lewis.

Article: "Read President Trump's full, blistering inaugural speech, attacking Washington, promising 'America first'" by Rachel Cao.

Article: "Operation Inherent Resolve" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Syria conflict: Russia and Turkey 'in first joint air strikes on IS'" by BBC.

Article: "Turkey's downing of Russian warplane - what we know", 1 December 2015 by BBC.

Article: "Trump signs three executive orders: TPP withdraw, federal hiring freeze, NGO funding" by TMN.

Article: "Trudeau and Trump to meet 'soon' on trade and security" by Laura Stone, Daniel Leblanc.

Article: "Britain's Prime Minister May to visit Trump in Washington" by Angela Dewan and Jennifer Deaton.

Article: "Comparative advantage" by Wikipedia.

Site: Arctic News.

Article: "Phase transition" by Wikipedia.

Article: "For three years in a row, Earth breaks heat record" By Thomas Sumner.

Article: "Trump has replaced the White House climate change page with... a pledge to drill lots of oil" by Brad Plumer.

 

Article: "Michael Moore Rips President Trump-and a Newspaper-at the Women's March on Washington".

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

Site: Move to Amend

Site: Roots Action

Site: Progressive Democrats of America

Site: Campaign for America's Future

Article: "Judicial review" by Wikipedia.

Case: "Brown v. Board Of Education", 1954 (Segregation in public schools) (overturned Plessy v. Ferguson).

Case: "Roe v. Wade", 1973.

Article: "Judicial supremacy" by Conservapedia.

Case: "Marbury v. Madison", 1803 (judicial review)

Letter: "Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane", 6 Sept. 1819 "The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please."

Case: "Dred Scott v. Sandford", 1857

Article: "Constitution of the United States", article 3 section 2. "... the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make..."

Article: "Federalist 78: The Judiciary Department" by Alexander Hamilton. "the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them."

Book: "The Federalist Papers" by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.

Article: "Constitution of the United States", article 3 section 1.

Quote: "If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. there is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe." - Thomas Jefferson.

Book: "The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review" by Larry Kramer.

Book: The New Democrats and the Return to Power by Al From.

Book: Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank.

Article: "America is an oligarchy, not a democracy or republic, university study finds" by Cheryl K. Chumley.

Case: "Loving v. Virginia", 1967 (miscegenation).

Case: "Griswold v. Connecticut", 1965.

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

I'll be denating Dr. Larry Schlachter, Malpractice: A Neurosurgeon Reveals How Our Health Care System Puts Patients at Risk

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...