Wednesday: Protest of $35,000-Per-Plate Trump Fundraiser at Trump International Hotel
June 27, 2017
Wednesday: Protest of $35,000-Per-Plate Trump Fundraiser at Trump International Hotel
As Lawmakers Seek to Take Health Care Coverage From 22 Million Americans, Protesters Will Highlight the Effect of Big Donor Power on Access to Affordable Care
WHAT: Protest of a fundraiser President Donald Trump is holding at his Washington, D.C., hotel. Invitees are asked to pay $35,000-per-plate; for $100,000, donors can be on the host committee. The fundraiser comes as congressional lawmakers have pushed legislation – supported by Trump and large campaign donors, and opposed by the public – that would result in 22 million more Americans losing their health insurance than under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) while also giving donors at the fundraiser massive tax cuts. Protesters will demand a health care system that actually cares for all Americans and a political system that is truly of, by, and for the people.
WHEN: 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 28
WHO: People who will be harmed by Trumpcare and Medicaid cuts
WHERE: On the sidewalk in front of the Trump International Hotel, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
KEY FACTS: Guests at the fundraiser will spend more in one night ($35,000) than a family of four currently on Medicaid makes in an entire year ($32,700 or less). Generous diners could instead use the $35,000 to pay the increased insurance premiums facing two low-income 64-year-olds under the U.S. House of Representatives bill (the average premium increase is $16,100 in states maintaining ACA-level insurance quality).
The process for crafting the Senate bill reveals much about the real constituency for this legislation: big donors, outside groups and industry lobbyists. For weeks, the bill remained hidden from public view, but Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell briefed lobbyists on its progress and provisions. The small group of senators who secretly wrote the bill collected an average of $214,000 in campaign contributions from health insurance and pharmaceutical industries between November 2010 and November 2016 – nearly double the amount received by colleagues excluded from the process, according to a MapLight analysis. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more than $16 million between 2012 and 2016 supporting the campaigns of 10 of the GOP 13 senators who authored the Senate bill, according to Public Citizen.
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