The so-called moderate Republicans promised they would not slash Medicaid. Conservatives vowed not to explode the national debt. Party leaders insisted that they would not lump a jumble of unrelated policies into a single enormous piece of legislation and rush that bill through Congress before any reasonable person had time to read it.
But President Donald Trump wanted his “big, beautiful bill” enacted in time to sign it with a celebratory flourish on America’s birthday. And so nearly all GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate, setting aside these and many other pledges, principles, and policy demands, did what the president desired.
Posted by TrixoftheTrade
4 Comments
It’s honestly impressive, like if you sat down and tried to craft a bill that would be seen as horrendous by anyone, regardless of their politics, it’d look pretty damn close to this.
This shit is going to haunt us for a generation
There was a book called [*Let Them Eat Tweets*](https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631496844) written by some political scientists a few years back that was all about the paradox of the national Republican legislative agenda being, above all else, tax cuts for the rich and service cuts for the poor, and the Republican base showing very little desire for this… but they keep voting for them.^† The first half of [*White Rural Rage*](https://whiteruralrage.com/) was also all about it (for context: the flak it got was mostly for the second half).
Both reached the conclusion that Republicans satisfy their base with “culture war trinkets” (can’t remember which book that’s from, but it’s from one of them) and then just do what their rich donors want when in power. Many people care more about protecting the traditional social hierarchy than economic policies that would help them make ends meet. So even poor conservatives usually choose the socially conservative, pro-rich party over the socially progressive, egalitarian party when only given two choices (thanks, single-winner elections!). Taking advantage of that is a cognitive cheat code if you’re a politician willing to pander to whatever grievances you think will get you the votes you need to pass pro-rich legislation. Meaning a lot of poor conservative voters are held hostage, politically, by their social conservatism.
† The other side of this equation is that Democrats under Obama and Biden spent a lot of energy, time and money passing rural economic development subsidies trying to win back rural voters with actual, material assistance, and it was totally useless electorally lol. Both books go into this in more detail. A more recent example is the [Kentucky county that relies on massive Democrat-funded government spending for things like addiction treatment centers](https://archive.is/2iEt4) voting for Republicans by huge margins, who of course are eliminating those programs because they consider them wasteful. All while conservatives accuse Democrats of not caring about the rural poor because they’re white! It’s absurd.
Is this bill a good thing in the long run? JD Vance was the tie-breaking vote on a bill that’s going to strip healthcare from millions. That could mean Dems control the White House in 2028.
I don’t want to be flippant about the human cost, but who knows what damage a Vance presidency would cause.
Any Republican who voted for this financial monstrosity that tries to claim they’re fiscally responsible going forward:
https://preview.redd.it/e3ezxdd96qaf1.jpeg?width=1500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84934342902e89a9e6f009300fc8e7029a9786ec