Why does everyone leave out the MANDATORY CUTS TO MEDICARE if this bill actually becomes law? Medicare will be cut by ~$400b because of how much of this bill is being done as deficit spending. Honestly, I think this is just as big as the Medicaid issue - if not bigger. And nobody mentions it.
While, like everyone reading this, I love it when Musk and Trump fight, I can't resist pointing out that Musk is calling BBB an "abomination" because the House stripped oupt funding for HIS SpaceX. Pork for me, not for thee. What an asshole..
Great summary of the state of play. I'll just say this, tho: any strategy that depends on the word "parliamentarian" isn't going to play outside the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol. Yesterday (Jun 6) Sen. Merkley tried using the Byrd rule to say on NPR why the OBBBA was in trouble — instead of directly confronting the lie that the Medicaid cuts would just eliminate "waste, fraud, and abuse". Apparently, despite having had going on six months to prepare for this fight the Dems seem to be completely out of the fight. Cong. Jayapal tried this morning — and failed — to address the very real harms to rural communities that defunding NPR (oddly she never used that term) would cause and never explicitly tied the deaths that defunding PepFAR would cause to the "urgent need" to provide federal money to billionaires. Lambs led to slaughter.
The obvious target for waste and fraud is the Department of Defense. No one who goes on and on and on about federal spending and the need to live within our means, etc. that does not bring up the need for a truly serious audit of DoD spending should be taken seriously. How to move beyond a Cold War economy ought to be a priority of both parties. (I know it's not easy, but it needs some solid thinking.)
Also, the run of the mill discussion about federal spending is always focussed on spending. Seldom mentioned is that the federal govt. suffers from an INCOME DEFICIT for which the Republicans are responsible.
Sarcasm alert: Reporters who cover might deign to once in a while mention we had balanced federal budgets in the late 1990a but three massive Republican tax cuts and two endless failed wars paid for by credit card wrecked what had been achieved by 2000.
Now they want to further starve the federal govt. of income it currently has. And the poor and vulnerable will be the victims again.
If the budget bills fail and we once again fall back on a Continuing Resolution to keep the government going the Trump 2017 tax cuts will lapse by the end of the year. This would be a good thing. It would not solve the federal income issue, but it would be a start. The best Dem strategy at this time might be to make this happen.
A good point about trump’s actual domestic agenda (vs lazy analysis /short hand descriptions of the proposed legislation). Although I am pretty much a political junkie, I don’t understand the criticism elsewhere of the House “missing 3 Democrats “ (all have died or otherwise not present for voting the first version of this bill ). What can the minority party do about this vote?
Find microphones and willing journalists (a rare and dying species) to stir controversy. Drop the Schumer drone, bang on the podium. Swear, put out some commercials (NBA and NHL championships have many eyes right now, good place to put out an ad that people will talk about). The silence right now is deafening.
"Trump and the White House have been lying about these cuts while they move to reduce a program vital to many of Trump’s own voters. How well that propaganda holds up could say a lot about the limits of MAGA’s appeal with poor and working class whites. Steve Bannon publicly warned Trump that “a lot of MAGA’s on Medicaid.”"
Why does everyone leave out the MANDATORY CUTS TO MEDICARE if this bill actually becomes law? Medicare will be cut by ~$400b because of how much of this bill is being done as deficit spending. Honestly, I think this is just as big as the Medicaid issue - if not bigger. And nobody mentions it.
Not to mention what is being done to "catch and kill" the Affordable Care Act as has been reported by Wendel Potter and Jonathan Larsen.
While, like everyone reading this, I love it when Musk and Trump fight, I can't resist pointing out that Musk is calling BBB an "abomination" because the House stripped oupt funding for HIS SpaceX. Pork for me, not for thee. What an asshole..
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Great summary of the state of play. I'll just say this, tho: any strategy that depends on the word "parliamentarian" isn't going to play outside the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol. Yesterday (Jun 6) Sen. Merkley tried using the Byrd rule to say on NPR why the OBBBA was in trouble — instead of directly confronting the lie that the Medicaid cuts would just eliminate "waste, fraud, and abuse". Apparently, despite having had going on six months to prepare for this fight the Dems seem to be completely out of the fight. Cong. Jayapal tried this morning — and failed — to address the very real harms to rural communities that defunding NPR (oddly she never used that term) would cause and never explicitly tied the deaths that defunding PepFAR would cause to the "urgent need" to provide federal money to billionaires. Lambs led to slaughter.
The obvious target for waste and fraud is the Department of Defense. No one who goes on and on and on about federal spending and the need to live within our means, etc. that does not bring up the need for a truly serious audit of DoD spending should be taken seriously. How to move beyond a Cold War economy ought to be a priority of both parties. (I know it's not easy, but it needs some solid thinking.)
Also, the run of the mill discussion about federal spending is always focussed on spending. Seldom mentioned is that the federal govt. suffers from an INCOME DEFICIT for which the Republicans are responsible.
Sarcasm alert: Reporters who cover might deign to once in a while mention we had balanced federal budgets in the late 1990a but three massive Republican tax cuts and two endless failed wars paid for by credit card wrecked what had been achieved by 2000.
Now they want to further starve the federal govt. of income it currently has. And the poor and vulnerable will be the victims again.
If the budget bills fail and we once again fall back on a Continuing Resolution to keep the government going the Trump 2017 tax cuts will lapse by the end of the year. This would be a good thing. It would not solve the federal income issue, but it would be a start. The best Dem strategy at this time might be to make this happen.
A good point about trump’s actual domestic agenda (vs lazy analysis /short hand descriptions of the proposed legislation). Although I am pretty much a political junkie, I don’t understand the criticism elsewhere of the House “missing 3 Democrats “ (all have died or otherwise not present for voting the first version of this bill ). What can the minority party do about this vote?
Find microphones and willing journalists (a rare and dying species) to stir controversy. Drop the Schumer drone, bang on the podium. Swear, put out some commercials (NBA and NHL championships have many eyes right now, good place to put out an ad that people will talk about). The silence right now is deafening.
Good piece! But please don't mince: disinformation is LYING. That's the word to use!
"Trump and the White House have been lying about these cuts while they move to reduce a program vital to many of Trump’s own voters. How well that propaganda holds up could say a lot about the limits of MAGA’s appeal with poor and working class whites. Steve Bannon publicly warned Trump that “a lot of MAGA’s on Medicaid.”"