Tag: susan collins
Susan Collins

SAVE Act Swindle: Susan Collins Raising Money Off Election Fraud Lies

Last year, Maine voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would’ve required photo ID at the polls. Now, Sen. Susan Collins is supporting a Trump-backed bill that would impose the restriction anyway.

Collins said in a fundraising email this month that she supports the SAVE Act, a bill that would require voters nationwide to present a photo ID before casting a ballot. It would also eliminate most forms of mail-in voting and require people to provide proof of citizenship when registering, such as a passport, birth certificate, or military ID.

“I announced that I will vote for the SAVE America Act because the law and the Constitution are clear: Citizens of other countries should not be voting in American elections,” the email said.

President Donald Trump used the same argument when he urged House Republicans to pass the legislation during a policy summit last month.

“Our elections are crooked as hell, and you can win—not only win elections over that and not only win future elections—but you’ll win every debate because the public is really angry about it,” the president said.

Despite Trump’s and Collins’ claims, a review by the Department of Homeland Security found that instances of noncitizen voting are close to nonexistent and have no impact on election outcomes. It is already illegal for noncitizens to register to vote or participate in most elections.

The SAVE Act passed the House with mostly Republican votes on Feb. 11. It is unlikely to reach the 60-vote threshold required in the Senate unless Republicans suspend the filibuster, which is reportedly being considered.

Collins would likely be the deciding vote if Senate Republicans tried to bypass the filibuster.

Voting rights advocates warn that the SAVE Act could jeopardize ballot access for more than 21 million Americans. Married women who have changed their names may be especially vulnerable because of mismatching details on their identifying documents.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, one of the Democrats challenging Collins in this year’s election, blasted Collins for backing the bill.

“The right to vote is the foundation of American democracy, and Maine is proud to have one of the highest voter participation rates in the nation,” Mills said on Feb. 14. “But Susan Collins is once again appeasing Republican leadership and caving to pressure by backing a dangerous Trump-backed voter suppression bill that will disenfranchise voters across Maine and America.”

Graham Platner, another Democrat challenging Collins, critiqued her as well.

“Under this terrible bill, if you get married and change your name—or if you can’t find your passport—you could be turned away from the polls,” Platner said in a video posted to Facebook.

Collins is the only Senate Republican seeking reelection in 2026 in a state that Trump didn’t win in 2024.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News

Closing The Kennedy Center Is Spiteful And Stupid -- And May Be Illegal Too

Closing The Kennedy Center Is Spiteful And Stupid -- And May Be Illegal Too

Donald Trump has been a PR-focused man since long before he was president, but his desecration of the Kennedy Center is one topic he hasn’t been able to wrap a positive spin around. And his unpopular moves might even be illegal.

Negative headlines have swirled around the “Trump-Kennedy Center” since the president began his hostile takeover of the performing arts facility. After Trump stacked the board with loyalists who quickly elected him as chair, ticket sales plummeted and performers bid it adieu.

Despite efforts to spin a more positive press perspective, Trump seemingly decided Sunday that his best course of action was to shutter the building altogether for two years and renovate. The closure is expected to start on July 4.

According to Kennedy Center interim president Richard Grenell, “It desperately needs this renovation and temporarily closing the Center just makes sense—it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive. … This will be a brief closure in retrospect—and I am confident this sets the stage for a stronger, revitalized National Cultural and Entertainment Complex.”

And while last year’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill allocated $257 million to renovate the center, the abruptness of the closure has startled at least one Republican.

“That came as the big surprise to me, because it was my understanding the renovations are already underway and going well, so I don't think that was anticipated when we provided the money,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told HuffPost.

But Trump and Grenell might have to be reminded that they can’t shut something down just because it’s getting bad PR.

In a letter obtained by MS NOW and published on Thursday, Democratic lawmakers say the closure is likely unlawful.

“This decision likely violates the essential purposes and intent of the federal law establishing this beloved national memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy and raises a multiplicity of serious legal and policy questions that need to be addressed before anything irreversible happens,” said the letter, which was signed by 70 Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

“In a radical departure from the Center’s proudly bipartisan history, you purged the Kennedy Center Board of its independent Trustees, amended the Board’s bylaws to vest all voting power in your appointed loyalists, and even, shockingly, added your own name like a delinquent graffiti artist to the only national memorial for the late beloved President John F. Kennedy,” the letter continued.

Trump has already torn down the East Wing of the White House, but according to a conversation with reporters Monday, he plans to keep the “structure.”

“I’m not ripping it down,” he said. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure. We’re using some of the marble, and some of the marble comes down. But when it’s open, it’ll be brand new and really beautiful.”

The thing is, it’s much easier to manage the public perception of a facility—and the mismanagement of its resources—with its doors closed.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Susan Collins

Susan Collins Says She Opposed GOP Budget -- Then Boasted That She Wrote It

In an unguarded moment, Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) appeared to take credit for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) that will kick 40,000 Mainers off Medicaid.

Collins has campaigned on being one of only three Senate Republicans to oppose the bill, even though she played a pivotal role in shepherding it into law.

She was explaining in an October 6 radio interview why she opposes a government funding bill backed by Democrats when she lumped herself with other Republicans who supported OBBB and touted a provision of it that she wrote.

“I do want to bring up one other irony, and that is that the Democrats are proposing in their version of the continuing resolution to repeal a $50 billion fund to help rural hospitals,” Collins said. “And this was something that is near and dear to my heart, because I came up with the concept and authored this fund, which was included in the bill that we passed earlier this year.”

In addition to the Freudian slip, this statement is misleading.

Democrats’ continuing resolution would end the government shutdown, reverse OBBB’s cuts to Medicaid, and extend expiring Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies—all of which Collins claims to support.

The hospital fund is designed to offset a portion of the revenue rural health care providers will lose because of Medicaid cuts. If those cuts are reversed, the need for the fund is eliminated.

Even though Collins opposed OBBB on the Senate floor, she previously voted to advance the bill out of the Appropriations Committee, clearing the way for its passage. Rolling Stone reported that Collins cast this vote immediately after her PAC received a $2 million donation from New York billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman.

A tracking poll from KFF finds that 64% of adults view OBBB unfavorably. About 85% of Mainers enrolled in Obamacare will see their health care premiums go up if the subsidies expire.

Collins is expected to seek a sixth term next year. A handful of Democrats have lined up to challenge her, including Maine Gov. Janet Mills, oysterman Graham Platner, and activist Jordan Wood.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News

Susan Collins

Busted! Collins Advanced Trump Budget Bill After $2M Donation

As she gears up for a tough midterm race against a progressive challenger in 2026, Sen. Susan Collins is struggling to shake her reputation as a sellout to corporate interests. A new report out Wednesday may make that even more difficult.

Collins (R-ME) was one of just three Republican senators not to vote for President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act in July, which slashes over $1 trillion from Medicaid to help pay for tax cuts for the rich and is expected to result in over 10 million people losing health insurance coverage.

But Collins did cast a crucial vote to advance the legislation to the Senate floor. An exclusive report from Tessa Stuart in Rolling Stone gives us damning insight into a possible reason why:

[Collins] cast that vote just one day after private equity billionaire Steve Schwarzman, the chair of the Blackstone Group and a man who will personally reap huge rewards from the bill, kicked in $2 million toward her reelection effort.On June 27, Schwarzman gave $2 million to Pine Tree Results PAC, a Super PAC backing Collins; on June 28, Collins cast a decisive vote allowing Trump's bill to advance to the floor. The vote was 51-49. Vice President JD Vance was present at the Capitol, on hand to break a tie, but was not needed after Collins voted in favor of the bill.
The bill went on to pass the Senate just a few days later, to Schwarzman's presumed delight, since the legislation both extended the pass-through business deduction—treasured by the owners of private equity firms—and made it permanent, allowing partnerships to deduct 20% of their pre-tax income.

Collins' office has strongly denied that Schwarzman's influence had anything to do with her vote to advance the bill. As press secretary Blake Kernen noted, a tie in the Senate would have been broken by Vance, so "the motion to proceed would have passed without her vote."

However, Stuart notes that this was not Collins' first conspicuous donation from Schwarzman or the private equity industry at large.

According to OpenSecrets, Collins' campaign committee and leadership PAC received over $715,000 from private equity and investment firms—more money than any other person elected to Congress during the 2020 election cycle. It included maximum individual contributions from both Schwarzman and his wife.

That number does not include an additional $2 million that Schwarzman donated to her reelection super PAC in 2020. As Stuart points out, this donation came after Collins dropped a proposed amendment to Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, opposed by private equity. That amendment would have "[made] childcare more affordable, by making changes to the private equity industry's beloved carried interest loophole," Stuart wrote.

While Collins denies that her votes are influenced by the piles of money gifted to her by private equity, one of her most formidable challengers in 2026, oyster farmer and Marine veteran Graham Platner, has often seized on her extensive industry ties to hold her up as the poster child for the "oligarchy" he is trying to unseat from power.

"I believe that input from working people is far more important than input from someone who simply has money," Platner thundered during a Labor Day speech in Portland alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). "I believe that we shouldn't be settling for crumbs while billionaires eat the cookie we baked. I don't think private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs to get by."

If Democrats are going to regain the Senate in 2026, Maine will be an essential state to win, something that looks increasingly possible as approval ratings for Collins have plummeted over the first half-year of Trump's second term.

Nearly 7,000 attended Platner's speech, during which he railed against the five-term senator Collins' long history of casting "symbolic" dissenting votes against her party, like opposing Trump's tax legislation, or voting to codify Roe v. Wade, to posture as a "moderate" without actually disrupting their agenda.

"Susan Collins' charade is wearing thin," Platner said Monday. "No one cares that you pretend to be remorseful as you sell out to lobbyists. No one cares while you sell out to corporations, and no one cares while you sell out to a president, who are all engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in American history."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

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