House Republicans pulled an all-nighter to get their Big Bill of Evil passed and shipped off to the Senate. As I wrote yesterday, it’s not impossible that the Senate will tone it down a bit. We’ll see. Note that the final House bill cuts Medicaid more. Emine Yücel at Talking Points Memo:
The massive reconciliation package — which already included massive cuts to Medicaid and the popular food assistance program SNAP, as well as tax cuts that will largely benefit wealthy Americans — got a makeover on Wednesday largely to appease the far-right members who were threatening to sink the bill.
Notably, leadership made substantial changes to the Medicaid portion of the bill overnight.
The new text moves up the start date of Medicaid work requirements from Jan. 1, 2029 to Dec. 31, 2026. That was one of the demands members of the Freedom Caucus had been pushing since last week.
The bill already included a provision that banned coverage of gender-affirming care for minors. The new text extends that ban to adults under the program as well. Republicans also expanded the criteria for a provision that could cause states to lose a portion of the funds they receive through the federal matching rate if they offer coverage to undocumented immigrants.
Another notable change is expected to incentivize states not to expand their programs under the Affordable Care Act. A newly added measure would give states a financial incentive not to expand coverage outside of the traditional enrollees, making higher payments to providers, like hospitals, for uncompensated care.
Some of the blue state people were able to raise the SALT cap, but IMO that’s not going to help them much in the next elections if Medicaid and Medicare are screwed.
Here’s another endearing change, reported in the New York Times:
The domestic policy bill proposes to stop efforts to improve staffing levels in long-term care homes in a section titled “preventing wasteful spending.” Specifically, the bill prohibits the health secretary from enacting a Biden administration rule that was meant to increase the number of care workers and improve conditions for about 1.2 million people in nursing homes in the United States.
But if they cut enough Medicaid, most of those places are going to have to close, anyway, so what’s the problem?
Here’s another bit from the Times:
The market for U.S. government bonds, the bedrock of the global financial system, continued to shudder on Thursday, as President Trump’s bill to extend expensive tax cuts and create new ones without significantly slashing spending passed through the House of Representatives. The bill has unnerved investors, deepening worries that the country’s debt is becoming unmanageable.
Yields on U.S. bonds, which underpin consumer and business interest rates around the world, from mortgages to corporate loans, have been rising in recent weeks. Yields rise as prices fall. Higher yields reflect investors’ concerns that lending to the government by buying its debt has become more risky.
Ya think? I wouldn’t lend money to the U.S. right now.
I’d like to think there are at least some Republican senators — and it wouldn’t take all that many — who recognize what a disaster this is and don’t want to be associated with it. We’ll see. House Republicans are just nuts. Or else they’re a lot more intimidated.
Jonathan Chait at The Atlantic.
The heedlessness of the process is an indication of its underlying fanaticism. The members of the Republican majority are behaving not like traditional conservatives but like revolutionaries who, having seized power, believe they must smash up the old order as quickly as possible before the country recognizes what is happening.
House Republicans are fully aware of the political and economic risks of this endeavor. Cutting taxes for the affluent is unpopular, and cutting Medicaid is even more so. That is why, instead of proudly proclaiming what the bill will accomplish, they are pretending it will do neither. House Republicans spent months warning of the political dangers of cutting Medicaid, a program that many of their own constituents rely on. The party’s response is to fall back on wordplay, pretending that their scheme of imposing complex work requirements, which are designed to cull eligible recipients who cannot navigate the paperwork burden, will not throw people off the program—when that is precisely the effect they are counting on to produce the necessary savings.
Except it may not produce savings. When states have tried work requirements they’ve found the “savings” were mostly eaten by the additional bureaucracy needed to implement the program. Although maybe they just plan to use AI now.
The bill sucks. Its goal is to lower taxes for the rich, which it does. It also funds some of Trump's most oppressive deportation fantasies. The cuts will make 7 to 8 million medically uninsured. It will take away food from the needy by cutting SNAP. Medicare funding will drop by 6%.
Bullshit Barbie claimed the bill does not add to the deficit. CBO does not agree. It will add around 3.5 trillion to the national debt over ten years. (Oh my, who to believe??!!)
The bond market is already reacting before the Senate even considers the bill. Moodys downgraded the US credit standing before the bill passed the House. Wait til the Senate passes it, and I predict they will, slightly moderated to allay the fears of investors. I would not be surprised if Moodys drops the US score one more notch if the bill passes. Wall Street has to report reality to its investors. We will be out of stock on some items – it's gonna get worse. Prices will rise. Buyers are pulling back from spending.
So what will voters believe in 18 months? What they see or what Dear Leader says? Yeah, I know. MAGA will swallow anything but they are not in the majority. Will citizens who lost access to health care register to vote and show up? If you're hungry and so are your kids will you inconvenience yourself by participating in democracy?
Fifty years ago, black voters did at great personal risk. Will we turn out voters in this moment of peril? Not with the DNC where they are. We'd have beaten down this bill except three House Democrats died after being elected, all of them over 70. The DNC isn't electing the best – they have a seniority system that protects the incumbent at all costs, even if he/she is at death's doorstep.
There's a simple three-word message the DNC won't adopt. It would change their standing with voters if they said it and meant it. "TAX THE RICH!" It's short, simple and it says whose side you are on. But way too many democrats are on the side of the rich on taxes but think being for minorities, migrants, and trans people makes up for selling us out on programs we need or financing them until the debt bubble bursts.
When the democrats take power again, hopefully in 2028, they need to have ready something that might be called "The American Restoration Act" that will essentially be a catalog of all the regressive, destructive polices in this Trump/GOP disaster of a bill, that are to be undone, and then restored policies improved upon. They need to claw back every last one of these giveaways, like tax breaks for tanning salons, tax deductions for private school tuition, etc. All of these things are paid for by taking money from Medicare/Medicaid and other programs that help poor and working class people, and nevermind the fact that these are many of not most of their own voters.
What Trump and republicans are doing is described as revolutionary in nature. Now is the time for democrats to be just as bold in response, starting with calling a spade a spade. Some are already doing that, but the entire mantra of the party needs to be that, in spite of those damned consultants and their constant salivating over republican voters.
Going OT… Trump is going to lay 50% tariffs on the EU. It looks like Trump wants complete capitulation – he's "not negotiating." What do I extract from comments he made today?
Trump is panicking. The tariffs scheme is blowing up in Trump's face. Trump knows prices are going up. (His comments to Walmart to eat the increased cost.) Trump knows the press will cover it as items go out of stock. The press will find ways to measure inflation that MAGA in government will deny. The economy will slow.
Remember. it's all a reality show to Trump. Reality doesn't factor into it. Trump is demanding that Europe build factories in the US. What that means is Trump wants to claim he's winning and the prosperity of high paying manufacturing jobs is right around the corner. (Like Trump's tax returns.)
The tariff war is a failure. Trump wants to paper over the fact. Rude economic reality is about to intrude on the promise of prosperity "tomorrow." There's a short window or time before reality bites. Trump is not trying to ACTUALLY turn around the results – he's trying to salvage the perception that it might work.
There are rumors that Netanyahu pans and expects the US to deport a million or so Palestinians to Sudan? Lybia? I'm trying to reconcile this with Trump being buddy-buddy with Arab states that support Palestinians. If anyone sees any method here, clue me in. But Europe will NOT take kindly to the US and Israel partnering in genocide, which the ethnic cleansing of forced relocation qualifies as.
Is it not a clue that genocide is the plan when Fearless Leader accuses the leader of South Africa of genocide in the oval office? Is that not what he always leads with? To accuse others (most times falsely) of what crime he is planning to commit? That sets up the bogus well what about so and so defense. So many examples in the past of this pattern.
Rep. Bennie Thompson –
I've always been struck and sickened by Republican lying, and their attempts to invert reality. F47 of course has taken it to new levels, even that is cliche. We're conditioned to know that if it's advertised as "a big beautiful bill", it's going to be exactly the opposite. Without even reading it. The more hype attached to it, the more awful it promses to be.
This bill, writes Jay Kuo, should be regarded as an opening bid. It has provisions that have nothing to do with the budget, don't change the income or outgo numbers, and will be struck per the Senate's Byrd Rule. Moreover, he writes that the theatrics made by the far right Freedom Caucus types – who want more cuts – is purely performative. They always make these noises, and they always fold at the last minute. It costs them nothing to do so.
What everyone is missing, is that the budget bill will not only cut Medicaid, but also Medicare – to the tune of $500 billion – because of Congress' PAYGO (pay as you go rule). They're not explicitly singling out Medicare, but it will be a casualty if this bill passes in its present form.
I'm looking forward to the riots in the streets.
Adam Schiff, Who is Kristi Noem?
I've read that part of the reason F47 is hammering Harvard: they wouldn't let Barron in. Waving lots of cash at them made no difference.
Like murdering someone on 5th Ave and the culties loving him for it, the senile orange man could sundown and drop a duce at a presser and the NYT and Fox would eat it up while the culties would start defecating in public in honor of their dear leader. Therefore, the congress critters will pass any pile of horse apples put in front of them.
An Ode to the Lazy…those who have no vision of what the future should be, so they just follow a crazy old man who sees exclusive luxury towers and golf courses covering a planet earth protected with golden domes.
" …it’s important for pop culture to engage with America’s disorienting descent into clownish authoritarianism." said Michelle Goldburg in her review of an upcoming HBO movie "Mountainhead".
So too for your comment, or ode if you will, here. Good one.