How Trump’s budget would cut the safety net for the poorest Americans

Trump’s vision for the budget adds to the deficit while cutting domestic programs such as food stamps that benefit people in need

Donald Trump’s budget proposal, unveiled on Monday, revived his calls for big cuts to domestic programs that benefit the poor and middle class, such as food stamps, as well as plans to entirely eliminate several arts and earth sciences funding.

The president, who is looking for large increases in military spending, is also proposing work requirements...

‘Trump hasn’t just done a good job, he’s done a great job’ – the view from Muncie, Indiana

Gary Younge spent a month in the ‘archetypal’ US town before last year’s election. The people swung for Trump, but how do they feel a year on?

Griffin Timmerman, six, is a runner. Given the opportunity, the small, lively boy, who has autism and prefers to play on his own, would just keep going. He once ran into the road; this is one of the reasons why his family moved out of Muncie, Indiana, to the country, giving him more space and free rein for his energy.

It is also why his ...

Doctors say new Medicaid rules ‘like asking people to work with an anchor on their back’

Administration’s policy allows states to impose work requirements for people on Medicaid, meaning sick or injured Americans ‘have to go to work, no matter what’

Dr Gary Leroy’s patients are “salt of the earth”: inner-city people working in Dayton, Ohio as dishwashers, car mechanics and patient care assistants.

Related: Medicaid: Trump opens door for states to take away coverage from out-of-work Americans

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Bit by bit, Trump is taking apart the New Deal’s glorious legacy | Heather Richardson

With huge tax cuts projected to create a $1.5tn deficit, cuts to social security and Medicare will surely follow

Since January, there have been frightening signs that America is becoming an oligarchy overseen by a dictator. From the first, Donald Trump has followed an authoritarian playbook, beginning with his rejection of objective reality. Forced early on to defend the assertion that the crowd at Trump’s inauguration was the biggest ever witnessed, presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Con...

House set to pass tax bill as Trump awaits first big legislative victory

Bill that would add more than $1tn to deficit, end key element of Obamacare, and open Alaska wildlife reserve to drilling would then head to Senate

House Republicans are poised to pass a major tax bill on Tuesday, which would set the stage for Donald Trump to achieve his first major legislative success in office.

The legislation, finalized in a conference report last week, would lower the top rate on families and individuals to 37% and the top rate on corporations to 21%.

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Fear over healthcare locks Americans in jobs – and throttles creativity | Jonathan R Goodman

What could and should make America great is the freedom to follow one’s dreams – not stay trapped in a cubicle, paralysed by fear

Millions of Americans are stuck in what some economists call “job-lock” or the inability to leave employment because of the risk of losing health insurance. A 2001 paper from Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies showed, for example, that self-employed people are 25% less likely to have health insurance than office workers.

Uncertainty surr...

Americans show support for Obamacare despite Trump’s repeal attempts

  • Increase in healthcare signups on first day of annual enrollment
  • Maine votes to expand federal Medicaid scheme for low-income Americans

Millions of Americans remain committed to Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation despite the Trump administration’s attempts to overturn it.

Related: Health experts say Trump's opioid response relies on magical thinking

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The Guardian view on elections in the US: cause for (cautious) celebration | Editorial

Sizable victories for the Democrats in a series of races offer cheer after a year of Donald Trump. But the party should not feel too reassured

It was the boost they needed. The jubilation of Democrats as they celebrated the results of Tuesday’s elections owed much to the despair of one year before, when they learned that Donald Trump was on his way to the White House, as well as to the extraordinary events since, which have amplified his unfitness for the presidency and the extent of Russia...

Number of US adults without health insurance up 3.5m this year, study finds

Rising premiums and political turmoil over Obamacare undermine the gains that drove the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low

The number of US adults without health insurance is up nearly 3.5 million this year, as rising premiums and political turmoil over Obamacare undermine coverage gains that drove the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low.

Related: 'He keeps zigging and zagging': the perils of doing a healthcare deal with Trump

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Bannon says Trump will ‘blow up’ Obamacare as subsidies cut stokes fires

  • Moderate Collins and Democrat Murphy decry cut to low-income help
  • Trump responds to healthcare critics with claim ‘millions’ will benefit

A day after Steve Bannon seemed to confirm Donald Trump’s intent to destroy the Affordable Care Act (ACA), saying the president was “gonna blow that thing up”, a Republican senator who helped dynamite two Republican replacement bills said Trump was hurting American citizens.

Related: Steve Bannon renews call for war on Rep...