Trump Gets To Sign His Big Ugly Bill Today Because... CONGRESS ALWAYS CHICKENS OUT

The Republican Party Just Declared Class War Against 75% Of Americans

Sure, on the eve of Independence Day, nearly 20% of Americans— and even more young Americans— would rather have the British king than a democracy. Polling firm JL Partners found 19% of Americans supported the idea, with 48% opposed and the rest on the fence. “Whether the unexpectedly high ‘yes’ vote is a reflection of this current U.S. administration, or a growing fondness for the lost monarchical system, you’ll have to decide for yourselves.” But let’s put all that aside for the moment.

Yesterday, a few hours after Gym Jordan (R-OH) was on CNN saying ”We all wished it saved more money, but you know it's a good piece of legislation because every single Democrat hates it,” AOC tweeted “The fact that all these Republican lawmakers are running around trying (& often, failing) to get specific carve outs in their own bill so THEIR community isn’t subject should tell you all you need to know. If they think it’s so great, why don’t they want it as-is for themselves?” In the end, Trump’s and MAGA Mike’s Big Ugly Bill passed… the passage itself being appropriately ugly for such an ugly— as in profoundly damaging— piece of legislation. 

Trump, reports some of the Republicans who met with him in the last few days, doesn’t even know what’s in the bill. According to 3 of the congress members, the increasingly senile Señor TACO told them at one of the meetings that there are 3 things Congress shouldn’t touch if they want to win elections: Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. One member said to Trump that “But we’re touching Medicaid in this bill.”

On Wednesday night, Sahil Kapur reported that  Kentucky conservative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has opposed and supported and opposed the bill— and in the end voted against it— said he’s “raised $400,000 from 4,500 donors in the last 10 days for taking this principled stand. So my life hasn’t been difficult at all” [and that he’s] “not concerned” that Trump has been coming after him in a big way, already running hideous ads against him in the district and getting close to endorsing a Republican primary opponent. “He said,” wrote Kapur, “they’re trying to send a message to other Republicans. ‘They’re whipping this horse, because I’m out of the barn, to keep the other horses in the barn,’ he said. As House GOP leaders struggle to corral the votes of various Republican holdouts, including other conservatives who say they care about the national debt, Massie predicted they would ‘cut a deal for something’ and find their way to vote yes on the bill. ‘I doubt it’s a deal that I would make,’ he said. Massie argued there’s one simple reason other Republicans are unwilling to take a stand on the bill. ‘They’re just afraid of Trump and the backlash that would ensue if he called them out,’ Massie said. After his attempts to force a roll call vote on the 2020 CARES Act, the Covid relief legislation five years ago, Massie said: ‘I developed the Trump antibodies by winning my primary with 81% of the vote, having him tweeting at me multiple times that I should be thrown out of the party, etc., etc.’”

Many people found it bizarre that soon after, Massie switched his vote on the rule from yes to no and then when all the hardliners— Josh Brecheen (OK), Eric Burlison (MO)., Keith Self (TX), Scott Perry (PA), Bob Onder (MO), Andy Harris (MD) and Chip Roy (TX)— flipped to yes, he went back and switched to yes as well. No wonder the PunchBowl crew referred to him as “a one-man rollercoaster for the GOP leadership.” The deal he wants? Nothing to do with his constituents. He just wants MAGA Mike to get Trump to stop attacking him. It looks like that failed.

What a worthless pack of cowards these Republicans are! Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman, Laura Weiss, Samantha Handler, Brendan Pedersen, Ally Mutnick and John Bresnahan were watching these machinations more intently than anyone else. They pointed out that, in the end, the only Republican to vote against the rule was Brian Fitzpatrick, the Bucks County moderate, and that “What makes this so remarkable is that Harris, Roy and Self spent a huge chunk of this week dumping all over the bill, only to vote for it with absolutely no changes a day later. Roy went as far as to say that he wouldn’t vote for a rule at all and indicated he wanted to revise the package and send it back to the Senate. That’s not going to happen now… The House Freedom Caucus caved once again. They will lose a tremendous amount of sway in the wake of this episode.

“Surprising yes votes on the procedural rule vote,” they wrote, “included Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), who represents a district chock full of Medicaid recipients. Valadao voted for the motion at 11:20 p.m. as most of the members were already gone.” People who know Valadao aren’t surprised. A spine isn’t something he’s known for. After complaining about how terrible the bill was all week and threatening to not vote for it, Valadao’s whiny excuse for his YES vote made him sound like Susan Collins! Yesterday, he said he had “concerns” about the bill but ultimately chose to back it after being “assured by the administration” that extra funding would ensure the survival of at-risk hospitals.” Time for this clown to go. CA-22 should not be represented by a conservative (no matter the party).

Valadao has been able to win his reelections because the DCCC has recruited GOP-lite conservatives to run against him. This time, the most likely Democrat to face him in the general is grassroots progressive Randy Villegas, a New Deal Democrat. This morning he told us that he grew up on MediCal. “I know exactly what it means to a working family, to a sick child, to an aging parent. This vote isn’t just a betrayal— it’s a slap in the face to the very people David Valadao was elected to represent... Valadao promised to protect Medicaid, then voted for the disastrous Trump budget to destroy it anyway— leaving over 65,000 friends, neighbors and family without the health care they rely on every day to survive. Now we need to do everything we can to kick him out of the office he lied his way into.”

You can help Randy replace Valadao here.

But... in the end, he did vote for it, didn't he?

Our 6 PunchBowl reporters concluded that “The massive gamble is that voters won’t be turned off by Republicans cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP. On Wednesday, GOP lawmakers threw their caution to the wind to advance the OBBB over these reservations…Today is Johnson’s 617th day as speaker, a job he won in 2023 despite his lack of leadership experience. Johnson’s best trait was that no one disliked him. Now, six months into full GOP control of Washington, it’s best to think of Johnson’s speakership as a joint venture with Trump.”

It’s estimated that a third of skilled nursing care facilities— where they send patients for rehab after hospital stays— are going to close down. No services for people and big job losses across the board, but especially in red states, where many rural hospitals are also going to close down. As for people losing their health care, take a look at this list, particularly devastating districts that voted for Trump in states Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina (no wonder Thom Tillis couldn’t bring himself to vote for it!), Michigan, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Missouri, where state and local governments don’t have the money (or will) for backup plans:

“This is,” wrote Dan Pfeiffer, “the least popular piece of major legislation passed since the advent of polling nearly a century ago. But how does this vote impact Republican chances in the midterms? It certainly doesn’t help! It’s impossible to imagine that passing a total piece of shit bill that no one wants (and even most Republicans are ambivalent about) won’t hurt them… However, this bill could be a much bigger deal than just one election. It has the potential to break Trump’s coalition and reshape the electorate to benefit Democrats for several elections to come. The Big Ugly Bill could be a vote that Republicans come to regret for a generation. This budget bill is massive. It deals with health care, taxes, energy policy, immigration, and military spending. It’s filled with boondoggles and pork barrel projects to buy votes from members who said they would never vote for a bill like this. The complexity is a feature, not a bug, for the Republicans trying to jam the bill down the American people’s throat. It’s been hard to focus sufficient attention on any one terrible element of the bill. However, the simplest way to understand the bill is that it’s a massive transfer of wealth from the poorest Americans. The tax cuts overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest and corporations and they are (partially) paid for by slashing funding for health care and food assistance utilized by the poor and working class.”

Let's go celebrate July 4th with a masterclass from two super-smart Democrats. First, Elizabeth Warren's message to Massachusetts voters: “Donald Trump and the Republican Party officially sold out working people. Every single Republican now owns the fact that 17 million people will lose health care, that the cost of groceries will go up, that student loan payments will go up, and that utility bills will go up— all when families are already struggling with out-of-control costs. This is a betrayal of working people, and we will never let the Republican Party forget that they chose Donald Trump over the American people.” and, second, NY-17 progressive candidate Mike Sacks showing how to respond to how the Republicans voted yesterday. There's something wrong with any Democrats not communicating this type of message to their voters: