Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, December 8, 2025

There’s just 23 days left in 2025, and 23 days until ACA subsidies expire unless Congress acts. Millions are bracing for painful premium spikes while Washington trades talking points instead of solutions.

New polling shows what many of us already feel: people are fed up with a system where private insurers raise premiums, hike out-of-pocket costs, and post record profits. Six in ten ACA enrollees already struggle to afford deductibles, and most couldn’t handle even a small increase. No wonder voters across parties are turning toward bold solutions — support for Medicare for All has climbed back to its strongest point since 2020.

Here in Maryland, our healthcare team is pushing forward. We’re organizing to protect affordable care, combat premium hikes, and build momentum for Medicare for All, one of our top priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

We’ll share our full 2026 agenda soon, but our organizing across healthcare, housing, education, environmental justice, and economic justice is already well underway.

Read on for ways to get involved, key campaign updates, upcoming events, and the state and national news you need this week.

In solidarity,

The Progressive Maryland Team

Here’s what’s in today’s memo:

Quick Actions
Campaign Updates
Local Chapter Updates
State & National News

Quick Actions to Take:

Email Your Senator on Redistricting

Maryland is one of the few states that can redraw its congressional map to help secure a fairer, more representative Congress. Meanwhile, Trump is aggressively pushing Republicans in red states to redraw maps to lock in MAGA control.

We can’t afford to sit back. Use our quick tool to tell your senator to support fair maps and take action now.

Task Forces & Issue Campaigns Updates:

Healthcare Task Force: Making Progress, Taking Action

Rep. April Delaney, MD CD 06, has signed on to the Medicare For All Act of 2025-2026, joining Representatives Raskin, Mfume and Ivey. Thank you Congresswoman Delaney! We now have 18 Senate sponsors including our own Sen. Van Hollen and 109 House sponsors! Medicare For All has reached record levels of public support across the board. We’ll continue to power up this effort and in the meantime work to ensure that millions of people don’t lose their health insurance coverage! Join us!

Call Speaker Johnson now! Demand that he bring the ACA subsidies to a full House vote--there are enough supportive Republicans in the House to pass a 2 year extension. 202-225-2777
He and Congressional Republicans also pushed through a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid and added unnecessary barriers to enrolling and staying enrolled. Learn more about the impact of the budget in this op-ed co-authored by one of PMD’s health care leaders, Don Mathis.
Take the survey - if you, your family, or your health care practice will be affected by the impending cuts and changes to Medicaid please answer our survey.

To join our campaign against the transfer of our taxpayer and healthcare dollars to billionaires and learn more about the upcoming state legislative session, contact Patty Thank you for all that you do!

Local Chapter Updates:

Gaithersburg Tenant Union

We’re pushing forward with energy and momentum. Last week, members elected new board chairs and a treasurer, discussed priorities for housing stability and rent stabilization, and shared feedback on the political landscape in the city. We also showed up at public comment to keep renter voices front and center, and we’ll continue speaking out about the extreme rent hikes hurting our community.

As we head into the new year, we’re focused on building traction, staying visible, and identifying the strongest ways to pressure the City Council to take action. This movement is growing, and we’re just getting started.

Stay tuned for upcoming meetings and actions!

News You Can Use: MD House getting new speaker; Congress struggles vainly with health care

Last time the Maryland General Assembly struggled to sort out ambitions and peacefully replace a House Speaker after the death of the beloved Mike Busch, House factions and geography boiled over and there was talk of recruiting GOP members to tip the balance in a supermajority Democratic body. Remembering that, early aspirants to replace departing House speaker Adrienne Jones tripped over each other stepping aside to clear the way for Prince George's/Anne Arundel Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk to take the vacant leadership seat.

Civility triumphs. What a contrast to the hopeless mess that is the GOP-majority Congress, where battles over the nitty-gritty (and the most trivial opinion roadblocks to a solution) puts the health care of millions of Americans still further at risk. As our People's Action specialist on D.C. doings Megan E outlines below, "the Trump administration's war on poor people" is relentless and the GOP majority in both houses of Congress is kneeling to the increasingly addled Prez. The latest GOP apostate, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, has illuminated the two-faced nature of the GOP members as they mock Trump in private but fearfully knuckle under in public.

Trump's latest pro-billionaire trick, just today, is to try to pre-empt the efforts of many states to protect their residents from the dangers of corporate artificial intelligence while leaving room for its advantages. While the feds have dawdled in the four years since Chat-GPT began informing/bamboozling its users, states have stepped in. The billionaires of Silicon Valley and their hedge-fund allies are balking, and Trump is listening. He calls them "brilliant" and it's likely they are. But brilliant at what, and at whose expense? It's News You Can Use, so read on below...

Progressive Maryland BlogSpace:

We value creating space for our members to express their thoughts on any issues related to our campaigns. Have an idea for a blog post? You can submit writing, film, graphic design, etc., to be published on our website to the blog moderator, Woody.

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