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'Do you think Donald Trump wants for dental care?' asks Donna Smith. (Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
Trump's Hair and My Teeth: Healthcare in the Age of Oligarchy
(Or Why You Should Never Trust a Person with Plush Carpeting)
Jul 24, 2015
A few who are reading this won't know what plush carpeting is, so the title of this piece may not make sense. I am not writing about Donald Trump's hair as the plush carpeting. One definition I found read like this, "Plush carpets offer a dense, luxuriously soft flooring option." When my husband, Larry, told me that his father offered up the statement about the carpets as sage advice about seeking services from health care providers or other professionals, I got it instantly. Larry's dad was simply stating the reality that providers who spend their resources on expensive interior design are signaling what matters most to them and to those they hope to serve - money, wealth, and those who will bring them more.
Over the course of my 60 years on the planet, there have been many times when a situation was uncomfortable because my status as a working class person was inconsistent with the place, the event or the group of people where and with whom I found myself. Most of the time, wealthy people are polite enough not to point out the obvious differences in our backgrounds and social status. But on a few painfully memorable occasions, comments are made that are instructive to those of us who want to believe we can change the world - or at least those parts of the world in which we all ought to be equal.
And what are those areas in which I believe we are all deserving of equal treatment? Access to appropriate levels of health care is right at the top of my list. Perhaps that's why when I hear terrible, class-related, harsh and judgmental comments made in a health care setting, it pounds home the awful reality of our profit-driven system that certainly values the health, bodies and lives of some over any needs of working class people to get needed care. It's a business, after all. It's a very big business.
Most working class patients - those with insurance and those without - have had cruel comments made and crueler decisions made about their care than we would care to admit. We have all heard so much over the course of our lives that we become accepting of the unacceptable. I ran into yet another situation this week during which comments were made that were so hurtful and off-putting that I screamed and cried with rage, and I felt like the road to real change will be littered with so many "Donald Trump think-alikes" that I will explode before I'll tolerate more.
This week, a provider evaluated me for some dental health concerns and offered a few options for going forward. The best option - the appropriate level of needed care - is so costly that the out-of-pocket expenses would exceed $15,000 after my insurance coverage is applied. Anyone who has priced dental care lately knows how expensive it can be. But ask any reliable health professional, and they will tell you that dental health is important to overall health. Ask any working class person, and they will likely tell you that unless a tooth or teeth are really painful or unless we have the insurance or cash to pay, we have to wait to access most dental services. It isn't that we're stupid. It really isn't.
So, as this health professional explained my options, he felt the need to repeat a few times that if this were his wife, there would be no question. The $15,000 option would be the choice. He also made it clear that if a person is going to wait to get care until that much care is needed, well, that means they were irresponsible. Really? Here's where a little working class education might help. If you make too much to qualify for dental services through any public programs and you purchase dental insurance that doesn't cover the enormous costs of even a "small" dental problem (just one tooth can top $3,000 if it needs root canal therapy, filling and a crown), you may have little choice but to wait until the pain and/or infection is so bad that you cannot ignore it any longer.
Imagine how it makes my husband feel to have one of the plush carpet guys say so smugly that his wife would get the $15,000 in dental care. Imagine how it makes him feel to know that option number two - pulling the three or four of my teeth that are in need of treatment and then making a bridge would still be at least $2,000 out-of-pocket. Then there is the third option: just pull the teeth. Not a great choice given what most people think about the status of people with missing teeth.
What did we decide? We did what working class people do. I asked politely if I could buy time with antibiotics to help the infected teeth and pain pills to keep me going. Then we left the office. I sobbed and yelled before we got to the outer door. It wasn't bad enough to know I'd be losing some of my teeth (I have actually invested as much as I could over the years in keeping my teeth), I also was so angry about being reminded that with the kind of care the wealthy take for granted, I never would have been in this position. I screamed at Larry, "I am not worth it," and I meant it. For those several minutes it took me to come back to my senses, I was once again - and this has happened way too many times in our health care system - measuring the value of my life against the amount of money needed to care for myself.
How many times during a lifetime do working class people have to justify their life choices or prove that they are hard workers or demonstrate that they are just as thoughtful, diligent and intelligent as anyone else? It's the hurdle that must be cleared in order to be accepted into the circles in which health care and other human needs are given without needing to be forgiven for not being rich.
During the coming week, I will join people all over the nation in celebrating Medicare's 50th anniversary. Join a celebration event for Medicare's 50th anniversary somewhere close to you. (Click Here for more info.) We're reminding everyone that Medicare is as American as apple pie, and as such that it needs to be protected, improved and expanded to cover every one of us. One of the things I support most about a Medicare for all for life system is that it will force even the "plush carpet guys" to see a few of us who fall into the carpet remnants category. If the providers driven by the bottom line (and that's an awful lot of providers) see money to be made from treating me and my kind in addition to those who are wealthy, they may stop thinking it's acceptable to treat working class people as inferior.
Under an improved and expanded Medicare for all for life system, dental care is treated like any other health care need. That's equality I think is appropriate. If the plush carpet set wants veneers and implants and whitening treatments and any other cosmetic dentistry, that's fine. But we working class people want and need equal basic dental services as part of a humane health system.
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Donna Smith
Donna Smith is the former executive director of Progressive Democrats of America and currently a Medicare for All campaign surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
A few who are reading this won't know what plush carpeting is, so the title of this piece may not make sense. I am not writing about Donald Trump's hair as the plush carpeting. One definition I found read like this, "Plush carpets offer a dense, luxuriously soft flooring option." When my husband, Larry, told me that his father offered up the statement about the carpets as sage advice about seeking services from health care providers or other professionals, I got it instantly. Larry's dad was simply stating the reality that providers who spend their resources on expensive interior design are signaling what matters most to them and to those they hope to serve - money, wealth, and those who will bring them more.
Over the course of my 60 years on the planet, there have been many times when a situation was uncomfortable because my status as a working class person was inconsistent with the place, the event or the group of people where and with whom I found myself. Most of the time, wealthy people are polite enough not to point out the obvious differences in our backgrounds and social status. But on a few painfully memorable occasions, comments are made that are instructive to those of us who want to believe we can change the world - or at least those parts of the world in which we all ought to be equal.
And what are those areas in which I believe we are all deserving of equal treatment? Access to appropriate levels of health care is right at the top of my list. Perhaps that's why when I hear terrible, class-related, harsh and judgmental comments made in a health care setting, it pounds home the awful reality of our profit-driven system that certainly values the health, bodies and lives of some over any needs of working class people to get needed care. It's a business, after all. It's a very big business.
Most working class patients - those with insurance and those without - have had cruel comments made and crueler decisions made about their care than we would care to admit. We have all heard so much over the course of our lives that we become accepting of the unacceptable. I ran into yet another situation this week during which comments were made that were so hurtful and off-putting that I screamed and cried with rage, and I felt like the road to real change will be littered with so many "Donald Trump think-alikes" that I will explode before I'll tolerate more.
This week, a provider evaluated me for some dental health concerns and offered a few options for going forward. The best option - the appropriate level of needed care - is so costly that the out-of-pocket expenses would exceed $15,000 after my insurance coverage is applied. Anyone who has priced dental care lately knows how expensive it can be. But ask any reliable health professional, and they will tell you that dental health is important to overall health. Ask any working class person, and they will likely tell you that unless a tooth or teeth are really painful or unless we have the insurance or cash to pay, we have to wait to access most dental services. It isn't that we're stupid. It really isn't.
So, as this health professional explained my options, he felt the need to repeat a few times that if this were his wife, there would be no question. The $15,000 option would be the choice. He also made it clear that if a person is going to wait to get care until that much care is needed, well, that means they were irresponsible. Really? Here's where a little working class education might help. If you make too much to qualify for dental services through any public programs and you purchase dental insurance that doesn't cover the enormous costs of even a "small" dental problem (just one tooth can top $3,000 if it needs root canal therapy, filling and a crown), you may have little choice but to wait until the pain and/or infection is so bad that you cannot ignore it any longer.
Imagine how it makes my husband feel to have one of the plush carpet guys say so smugly that his wife would get the $15,000 in dental care. Imagine how it makes him feel to know that option number two - pulling the three or four of my teeth that are in need of treatment and then making a bridge would still be at least $2,000 out-of-pocket. Then there is the third option: just pull the teeth. Not a great choice given what most people think about the status of people with missing teeth.
What did we decide? We did what working class people do. I asked politely if I could buy time with antibiotics to help the infected teeth and pain pills to keep me going. Then we left the office. I sobbed and yelled before we got to the outer door. It wasn't bad enough to know I'd be losing some of my teeth (I have actually invested as much as I could over the years in keeping my teeth), I also was so angry about being reminded that with the kind of care the wealthy take for granted, I never would have been in this position. I screamed at Larry, "I am not worth it," and I meant it. For those several minutes it took me to come back to my senses, I was once again - and this has happened way too many times in our health care system - measuring the value of my life against the amount of money needed to care for myself.
How many times during a lifetime do working class people have to justify their life choices or prove that they are hard workers or demonstrate that they are just as thoughtful, diligent and intelligent as anyone else? It's the hurdle that must be cleared in order to be accepted into the circles in which health care and other human needs are given without needing to be forgiven for not being rich.
During the coming week, I will join people all over the nation in celebrating Medicare's 50th anniversary. Join a celebration event for Medicare's 50th anniversary somewhere close to you. (Click Here for more info.) We're reminding everyone that Medicare is as American as apple pie, and as such that it needs to be protected, improved and expanded to cover every one of us. One of the things I support most about a Medicare for all for life system is that it will force even the "plush carpet guys" to see a few of us who fall into the carpet remnants category. If the providers driven by the bottom line (and that's an awful lot of providers) see money to be made from treating me and my kind in addition to those who are wealthy, they may stop thinking it's acceptable to treat working class people as inferior.
Under an improved and expanded Medicare for all for life system, dental care is treated like any other health care need. That's equality I think is appropriate. If the plush carpet set wants veneers and implants and whitening treatments and any other cosmetic dentistry, that's fine. But we working class people want and need equal basic dental services as part of a humane health system.
Donna Smith
Donna Smith is the former executive director of Progressive Democrats of America and currently a Medicare for All campaign surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
A few who are reading this won't know what plush carpeting is, so the title of this piece may not make sense. I am not writing about Donald Trump's hair as the plush carpeting. One definition I found read like this, "Plush carpets offer a dense, luxuriously soft flooring option." When my husband, Larry, told me that his father offered up the statement about the carpets as sage advice about seeking services from health care providers or other professionals, I got it instantly. Larry's dad was simply stating the reality that providers who spend their resources on expensive interior design are signaling what matters most to them and to those they hope to serve - money, wealth, and those who will bring them more.
Over the course of my 60 years on the planet, there have been many times when a situation was uncomfortable because my status as a working class person was inconsistent with the place, the event or the group of people where and with whom I found myself. Most of the time, wealthy people are polite enough not to point out the obvious differences in our backgrounds and social status. But on a few painfully memorable occasions, comments are made that are instructive to those of us who want to believe we can change the world - or at least those parts of the world in which we all ought to be equal.
And what are those areas in which I believe we are all deserving of equal treatment? Access to appropriate levels of health care is right at the top of my list. Perhaps that's why when I hear terrible, class-related, harsh and judgmental comments made in a health care setting, it pounds home the awful reality of our profit-driven system that certainly values the health, bodies and lives of some over any needs of working class people to get needed care. It's a business, after all. It's a very big business.
Most working class patients - those with insurance and those without - have had cruel comments made and crueler decisions made about their care than we would care to admit. We have all heard so much over the course of our lives that we become accepting of the unacceptable. I ran into yet another situation this week during which comments were made that were so hurtful and off-putting that I screamed and cried with rage, and I felt like the road to real change will be littered with so many "Donald Trump think-alikes" that I will explode before I'll tolerate more.
This week, a provider evaluated me for some dental health concerns and offered a few options for going forward. The best option - the appropriate level of needed care - is so costly that the out-of-pocket expenses would exceed $15,000 after my insurance coverage is applied. Anyone who has priced dental care lately knows how expensive it can be. But ask any reliable health professional, and they will tell you that dental health is important to overall health. Ask any working class person, and they will likely tell you that unless a tooth or teeth are really painful or unless we have the insurance or cash to pay, we have to wait to access most dental services. It isn't that we're stupid. It really isn't.
So, as this health professional explained my options, he felt the need to repeat a few times that if this were his wife, there would be no question. The $15,000 option would be the choice. He also made it clear that if a person is going to wait to get care until that much care is needed, well, that means they were irresponsible. Really? Here's where a little working class education might help. If you make too much to qualify for dental services through any public programs and you purchase dental insurance that doesn't cover the enormous costs of even a "small" dental problem (just one tooth can top $3,000 if it needs root canal therapy, filling and a crown), you may have little choice but to wait until the pain and/or infection is so bad that you cannot ignore it any longer.
Imagine how it makes my husband feel to have one of the plush carpet guys say so smugly that his wife would get the $15,000 in dental care. Imagine how it makes him feel to know that option number two - pulling the three or four of my teeth that are in need of treatment and then making a bridge would still be at least $2,000 out-of-pocket. Then there is the third option: just pull the teeth. Not a great choice given what most people think about the status of people with missing teeth.
What did we decide? We did what working class people do. I asked politely if I could buy time with antibiotics to help the infected teeth and pain pills to keep me going. Then we left the office. I sobbed and yelled before we got to the outer door. It wasn't bad enough to know I'd be losing some of my teeth (I have actually invested as much as I could over the years in keeping my teeth), I also was so angry about being reminded that with the kind of care the wealthy take for granted, I never would have been in this position. I screamed at Larry, "I am not worth it," and I meant it. For those several minutes it took me to come back to my senses, I was once again - and this has happened way too many times in our health care system - measuring the value of my life against the amount of money needed to care for myself.
How many times during a lifetime do working class people have to justify their life choices or prove that they are hard workers or demonstrate that they are just as thoughtful, diligent and intelligent as anyone else? It's the hurdle that must be cleared in order to be accepted into the circles in which health care and other human needs are given without needing to be forgiven for not being rich.
During the coming week, I will join people all over the nation in celebrating Medicare's 50th anniversary. Join a celebration event for Medicare's 50th anniversary somewhere close to you. (Click Here for more info.) We're reminding everyone that Medicare is as American as apple pie, and as such that it needs to be protected, improved and expanded to cover every one of us. One of the things I support most about a Medicare for all for life system is that it will force even the "plush carpet guys" to see a few of us who fall into the carpet remnants category. If the providers driven by the bottom line (and that's an awful lot of providers) see money to be made from treating me and my kind in addition to those who are wealthy, they may stop thinking it's acceptable to treat working class people as inferior.
Under an improved and expanded Medicare for all for life system, dental care is treated like any other health care need. That's equality I think is appropriate. If the plush carpet set wants veneers and implants and whitening treatments and any other cosmetic dentistry, that's fine. But we working class people want and need equal basic dental services as part of a humane health system.
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LATEST NEWS
Senate GOP Fuels Privatization Fears by Confirming 'Quack Grifter' Dr. Oz
The new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator joins "a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health," said one critic.
Apr 03, 2025
Echoing a party-line vote by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee last week, the chamber's Republicans on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, former televison host Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Since Trump nominated Oz—who previously ran as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania—a wide range of critics have argued that the celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon "is profoundly unqualified to lead any part of our healthcare system, let alone an agency as important as CMS," in the words of Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
After Thursday's 53-45 vote to confirm Oz, Weissman declared that "Republicans in the Senate continued to just be a rubber stamp for a dangerous agenda that threatens to turn back the clock on healthcare in America."
Weissman warned that "in addition to having significant conflicts of interest, Oz is now poised to help enact the Trump administration's dangerous agenda, which seeks to strip crucial healthcare services through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act from hundreds of millions of Americans and to use that money to give tax breaks to billionaires."
"As he showed in his confirmation hearing, Oz will also seek to further privatize Medicare, increasing the risk that seniors will receive inferior care and further threatening the long-term health of the Medicare program. We already know that privatized Medicare costs taxpayers nearly $100 billion annually in excess costs," he continued, referring to Medicare Advantage plans.
CMS is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who, like Oz, came under fire for his record of dubious claims during the confirmation process. Weissman said that "Dr. Oz is joining a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health. This is yet another dark day for healthcare in America under Trump."
In the middle of Trump's tariff disaster, the Senate is voting to confirm quack grifter Dr. Oz to lead the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services.
[image or embed]
— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Oz's confirmation came a day after Trump announced globally disruptive tariffs and Senate Republicans unveiled a budget plan that would give the wealthy trillions of dollars in tax cuts at the expense of federal food assistance and healthcare programs.
"While Dr. Oz would rather play coy, this is no hypothetical. Harmful cuts to Medicaid or Medicare are unavoidable in the Trump-Republican budget plan that prioritizes another giant tax break for the president's billionaire and corporate donors," Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, said ahead of the vote.
"None of Dr. Oz's 'miracle' cures that he's peddled over the years will help seniors when their fundamental health security is ripped away to make the rich richer," Carrk continued. "And while privatizing Medicare may enrich Dr. Oz's family and big insurance friends, it will cost taxpayers far more and leave millions of patients vulnerable to denials of care and higher out-of-pocket costs."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), was similarly critical, saying after the vote that "at a time when our population is growing older and the need for access to home care, nursing homes, affordable prescription drugs, and quality medical care has never been greater, Americans deserve better than a snake oil salesman leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."
"Dr. Mehmet Oz has been shilling pseudoscience to line his own pockets. He can't be trusted to defend Medicare and Medicaid from billionaires who want to dismantle and privatize the foundation of affordable healthcare in this country," the union leader added. "AFSCME members—including nurses, home care and childcare providers, social workers and more—will be watching and fighting back against any effort to weaken Medicare and Medicaid. The 147 million seniors, children, Americans with disabilities, and low-income workers who rely on these programs for affordable access to healthcare deserve nothing less."
Israel Bombs More Gaza Schools, Killing Dozens, Including Many Women and Children
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," said one observer.
Apr 03, 2025
Israeli airstrikes targeted at least three more school shelters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing dozens of Palestinians and wounding scores of others on a day when local officials said that more than 100 people were slain by occupation forces.
Gaza's Government Media Office said that at least 29 people—including 14 children and five women—were killed and over 100 others were wounded when at least four missiles struck the Dar al-Arqam school complex in the Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, where hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering after being forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled coastal enclave by Israel's 535-day assault.
Al Jazeera reported that "when terrified men, women, and children fled from one school building to another, the bombs followed them," and "when bystanders rushed to help, they too became victims."
A first responder from the Palestine Red Crescent Society—which is reeling from this week's discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of eight of its members, some of whom had allegedly been bound and executed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops—told Al Jazeera that "we were absolutely shocked by the scale of this massacre," whose victims were "mostly women and children."
Warning: Video contains graphic images of death.
Horrifying scenes following the Dar Al-Arqam School Massacre!#Gaza pic.twitter.com/xOvuq3Zztx
— Dr. Zain Al-Abbadi (@ZainAbbadi11) April 3, 2025
An official from Gaza's Civil Defense, five of whose members were also found in the mass grave on Sunday, said: "What's going on here is a wake-up call to the entire world. This war and these massacres against women and children must stop immediately. The children are being killed in cold blood here in Gaza. Our teams cannot perform their duties properly.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi said that the death toll was likely to rise, as some survivors were critically injured.
Dozens of victims were reportedly trapped beneath rubble of Thursday's airstrikes, but they could not be rescued due to a lack of equipment.
The IDF claimed that "key Hamas terrorists" were targeted in a strike on what it called a "command center." Israeli officials routinely claim—often with little or no evidence—that Palestinian civilians it kills are members of Hamas or other militant resistance groups.
Israel also bombed the nearby al-Sabah school, killing four people, as well as the Fahd School in Gaza City, with three reported fatalities.
Some of the deadliest bombings in the war have been carried out against refugees sheltering in schools, many of them run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—at least 280 of whose staff members have been killed by Israeli forces during the war.
The United Nations Children's Fund has called Gaza "the world's most dangerous place to be a child." Last year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts. More than 17,500 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Thursday's school bombings sparked worldwide outrage and calls to hold Israel accountable.
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," Australian journalist, activist, and progressive politician Sophie McNeill wrote on social media. "We must sanction Israel now!"
There were other IDF massacres on Thursday, with local officials reporting that more than 100 people were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn. Al-Wahidi said more than 30 people were killed in strikes on homes in Gaza City's Shejaya neighborhood, citing records at al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that al-Ahli's emergency room "is overwhelmed with casualties and, as is so often the case over the past 18 months, the victims are Gaza's youngest."
Thursday's intensified airstrikes came as Israeli forces pushed into the ruins of the southern city of Rafah. Local and international media reported that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families fled from the area, which Israel said it will seize as part of a new "security zone."
Human rights defenders around the world condemned U.S.-backed killing and mass displacement, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—whose bid to block some sAmerican arms sales to Israel was rejected by the Senate on Thursday—saying: "There is a name and a term for forcibly expelling people from where they live. It is called ethnic cleansing. It is illegal. It is a war crime."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued arrest warrants for the pair over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
According to Gaza officials, Israeli forces have killed or wounded at least 175,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including upward of 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Almost everyone in Gaza has been forcibly displaced at least once, and the "complete siege" imposed by Israel has fueled widespread and sometimes deadly starvation and disease.
Teasing Another Senate Run, Independent Dan Osborn Says 'We Could Replace a Billionaire With a Mechanic'
"Working-class candidate v. billionaire political race. I'm here for it," wrote one longtime progressive strategist.
Apr 03, 2025
Dan Osborn, an Independent U.S. Senate candidate who struck a chord with working-class voters in Nebraska and came within striking distance of unseating his Republican opponent last year, announced Thursday that he's considering another run, this time challenging GOP Sen. Pete GOP Ricketts, who is up for election in 2026.
"We could replace a billionaire with a mechanic," Osborn wrote in a thread on X on Thursday. "I'll run against Pete Ricketts—if the support is there." Osborn said that he's launching an exploratory committee and would run as Independent, as he did in 2024.
Ricketts has served as a senator since 2023, and prior to that was the governor of Nebraska from 2015-2023. By one estimate, Ricketts has a net worth of over $165 million—though the wealth of his father, brokerage founder Joe Ricketts, and family is estimated to be worth $4.1 billion, according to Forbes.
A mechanic and unionist who helped lead a strike against Kellogg's cereal company, Osborn lost to Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) by less than 7 points in November 2024 in what became an unexpectedly close race.
Although he didn't win, he overperformed the national Democratic ticket by a higher percentage than other candidates running against Republicans in competitive Senate races, according to The Nation.
"Billionaires have bought up the country and are carving it up day by day," said Osborn Thursday. "The economy they've built is good for them, bad for us. Good for huge multinationals and multibillionaires. Bad for workers. Bad for small businesses, bad for family farmers. Bad for anyone who wants Social Security to survive. Bad for your PAYCHECK."
Osborn cast the potential race as between "someone who's spent his life working for a living and will never take an order from a corporation or a party boss" and "someone who's never worked a day in his life and is entirely beholden to corporations and party."
"We could take on this illness, the billionaire class, directly," he said.
Osborn, who campaigned on issues like Right to Repair and lowering taxes on overtime payments, earned praise from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who told The Nation in late November that Osborn's bid should be viewed as a "model for the future."
Osborn "took on both political parties. He took on the corporate world. He ran as a strong trade unionist. Without party support, getting heavily outspent, he got through to working-class people all over Nebraska. It was an extraordinary campaign," Sanders said.
In reaction to the news that Osborn is exploring a second run, a former Sanders campaign manager and longtime progressive Democratic strategist Faiz Shakir, wrote: "working-class candidate v. billionaire political race. I'm here for it."
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