As they debated Trump’s reverse Robin Hood bill, Democrats designated the United States Congress a “crime scene.” They were entirely correct.
I’m turning today’s post over to a couple of truth-telling Senators, whose truth-to-power words during the Senate’s marathon session come to us courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson, and accurately describe what has now transpired.
First, Senator Chris Murphy, who has been a fervent opponent of this despicable effort.
“[W]e’re debating a bill that’s going to cut healthcare for 16 million people. It’s going to give a tax break to…massively wealthy people who don’t need any more money. There are going to be kids who go hungry because of this bill. This is the biggest reduction in…nutrition benefits for kids in the history of the country.” Murphy continued: “We’re obviously gonna continue to offer these amendments to try to make it better. So far not a single one of our amendments…has passed, but we’ll be here all day, probably all night, giving Republicans the chance over and over and over again to slim down the tax cuts for the corporations or to make life a little bit…less miserable for hungry kids or maybe don’t throw as many people off of healthcare. Maybe don’t close so many rural hospitals. It’s gonna be a long day and a long night.”
Maine’s Senator, Angus King, is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, so no tribal loyalties prompted his eloquent speech.
“This bill is a farce. Imagine a bunch of guys sitting around a table, saying, ‘I’ve got a great idea. Let’s give $32,000 worth of tax breaks to a millionaire and we’ll pay for it by taking health insurance away from lower-income and middle-income people. And to top it off, how about we cut food stamps, we cut SNAP, we cut food aid to people?’… I’ve been in this business of public policy now for 20 years, eight years as governor, 12 years in the United States Senate. I have never seen a bill this bad. I have never seen a bill that is this irresponsible, regressive, and downright cruel.
When I worked here in the 70’s, I had insurance as a…junior staff member in this body 50 years ago. Because I had that insurance that covered a free checkup, I went in and had my first physical in eight years…and the doctors found a little mole on my back. And they took it out. And I didn’t think much of it. And I went in a week later and the doctor said, ‘You better sit down, Angus. That was malignant melanoma. You’re going to have to have serious surgery.’… And I had the surgery and here I am. If I hadn’t had insurance, I wouldn’t be here. And it’s always haunted me that some young man in America that same year had malignant melanoma, he didn’t have insurance, he didn’t get that checkup, and he died. That’s wrong. It’s immoral.
I don’t understand the obsession and I never have…with taking health insurance away from people. I don’t get it. Trying to take away the Affordable Care Act in 2017 or 2018 and now this. What’s driving this? What’s the cruelty to do this, to take health insurance away from people knowing that it’s going to cost them…up to and including…their lives.
After sharing those quotes, Richardson wrote that, “In fact, the drive to slash health insurance is part of the Republicans’ determination to destroy the modern government.” As she proceeded to remind her readers, that effort has been brewing for many, many years–going back to Grover Norquist, then a lawyer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Norquist believed that government should enforce contracts and protect people from bodily harm. Period. Taxes–in his warped worldview–were theft, not dues owed as a consequence of membership.
To Norquist and his ideological heirs, there is no We the People. There are only individuals, some of whom will prosper and others who will fail. Too bad for the lame, the halt, the marginalized…it’s the law of the jungle, not of civilization, and it’s the “system” today’s GOP endorses.
Richardson closed her Letter with this quote from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
This place feels to me, today, like a crime scene. Get some of that yellow tape and put it around this chamber. This piece of legislation is corrupt. This piece of legislation is crooked. This piece of legislation is a rotten racket. This bill cooked up in back rooms, dropped at midnight, cloaked in fake numbers with huge handouts to big Republican donors. It loots our country for some of the least deserving people you could imagine. When I first got here, this chamber filled me with awe and wonderment. Today, I feel disgust.
Many of us feel that disgust–and fear.
Professor-all I can say, is “thank you for sharing these words.”
It was during Trump 1.0 that most welfare recipients were drug users and didn’t want to work. States were enacting drug tests that cost millions of dollars, but discovered only $100,000 in savings. Not fiscally conservative and an inferior investment.
Reagan talked about “welfare queens” in the 1980s. However, it is Clinton in the 90s who has done the most damage to welfare recipients. He also crushed workers, as well as aligning the Democratic Party with Wall Street.
What cracks me up about these speeches is their rhetorical questions about “why” the GOP loves to take away health insurance from poor people. Why don’t Democrats want to give universal healthcare to ALL Americans? Obama had the opportunity and whiffed. He adopted the Heritage Foundation’s healthcare plan, which authored Project 2025, or the baseline for the OBBB.
These politicians making speeches know precisely why the GOP targets poor people and minorities. They work for the same oligarchs, and so does our entertainment media.
I’m waiting to see the platform for Musk’s American Party to determine which of the two parties is most impacted. I suspect it will take votes away from Republicans if they run any candidates. I’m also hoping to see a large slate of Democratic Socialists in 2026. I still believe Trump will cancel the elections to save the GOP from losing en masse.
This bill is just more evidence that republicans don’t care about lives except their own. Just before reading this I read George Takai’s piece in bluesky about the “pastor” in indianapolis who thinks all LBGTQ+ people should commit suicide or be executed by taco. I wonder if this goon preacher can show where Yeshua made any such statements.
Keep in mind two things about this bill: One, that two-thirds of Americans do not know what is in it, and (2) that the worst results of it do not take effect until 2027, after the mid-terms. So, while Dems and other thinking people will be warning others that their Medicaid is at risk, they will say “Mine has not been cut, Henny Penny thinks the sky is falling. Imma vote for Republicans…” and then, Bob’s your uncle, it’s too late and there goes the whole ball game.
The other possibility is that Dems sweep the House, maybe the Senate, then the cuts to Medicaid happen, and the people say “What the hell?! We elected you and then my Medicaid is gone!”, never knowing that it was the very MAGA party that did it to them.
Machiavelli would be so proud.
It’s a given that Trump will go down in history as our woat President, worst of all time. So now it’s woke vs woat.
The good news is that the DNC doesn’t need to write speeches listing problem-solving goals for Election Days, but recall what our sycophantic government passed as wealth redistribution laws, and sympathize with those who were robbed by them.
Our woat President is doing the work of the Democratic Party for them.
But, wait, there is even more! Trump is also signaling the end of a functional mixed economy of about 60% capitalism and 40% socialism, which the Earth cannot afford any longer. The rich getting richer and the poor getting screwed was never sustainable, that’s simple arithmetic. The DNC has to: “Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men. It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again!”
When you have half of your population ignorant and/or full of magical thinking you have a democracy falling apart and ripe for the picking. That population only learns the hard way, and in our case it will be when rural hospitals close, thousands of children die from disease, the elderly starve and the economy becomes one big, black market marketplace. Then and only then will real reform take place which will bring about a government based on morality and justice.
until the ACA myself and my wife, never had health insur.(cost)..the employers we were working for bought into so called insurance that turned out to be a joke. my wife broke her wrist while horseback. nope, you pay. her employer dumepd their sorry ass. that was before the ACA. striped plans that afforded little more than lip service. but what would you expect from a scam that has shareholders? were both kinda out of the mainstream, weve been fortunate not to be with health issues..im on medicare now, my wife has a decent employer and decent BCBS. we pay a percentage. but, in my 47 years of working in a truck,i never had insurance and the trucking industry has no money and feels cheap labor is the best way. its cut throat, and it treats us no better than day labor off of a corner.
if you ever think we make money,think again. at the day today, trucking rates are rock bottom. no imports due tarrifs in that segment, little mfg due cost and we will never see those jobs again under any admin.the markets are self absorbed by jiffy amazon and it doesnt get any worse. few account for the failures in this industry. 22/23 year, seen a 77% failure in new starts. if you pick apart the reasons, it all begins with where the money comes from,now.
the billionaire investors have locked us up into a no win for us. the lies and fuzzy feelgoods are now replaced with reality.trumps reality, in a industry that voted 85% to be screwed by him. but hey, we get to have justifiable life now to be bigots and assholes to everyone.. IF we vote next year, every lawyer will have a job fighting who won and who lost. weve become our own worst
theguardian , seems miami city wants to delay local voting.. hint…
Pete:
ya know one time someone here mocked my view on the vietnam war songs and how the radio made people aware of it. many a radio station is held for right wing views,merely by not, allowing any song that has any form of anti government. the producers, are held to keeping the bucks coming in,over the freedom of info and ,getting people aware of WTFs before they happen. our NPR in Nodak is a example of rightwing hide your head in the sand. id sing the sone again, Gil Scott Herons the revolution will not be televised or steppenwolfs Monster.. its as real today as it was in 1969..the young will decide, give some room too.
lets face it, were taking up resources and not producing any profits that makes gains for the fat cats. the obvious is served everyday in the news.
eugenics anyone? sounds like a mixed drink served by musk with a twist
of cyanide. or should we call it 2025?
We have been fortunate in our country because we have never experienced the devastation that occurred in WWII in most of the rest of the world. When you are rebuilding, you’re free to do things differently. That’s how the rest of the world got some of the best things any government could provide, things like universal healthcare and light rail transportation. We paid to get it started with the Marshall Plan.
Now, we’re looking at the rest of the world and we see what they have. More of us would like to have those things, too. Those “Libertarians” who want to shrink government until we can flush it down the drain have been preaching and paying to convince Americans that our taxes are way too high. We just can’t afford to do those things.
Obama’s biggest problem was he believed that he could secure Republicans support for the ACA, if he gave them Romney Care. After all, it was from the Heritage Foundation. He didn’t count on the racism of Americans towards him nor on the flexibility of the Republicans who can actually bend over backwards for their guy and touch their toes to present the Dems with the body part they should kiss. The bill was held up by the suits brought against it in a desperate attempt to find it unconstitutional.
It’s really hard to do things in America that spend money, particularly if it benefits everyone, not just those who believe that only the mighty men are deserving. If the only requirements are being human and present that’s a sin against their god.
Senators Whitehouse and King always seem to make good sense. Wonder if they have any presidential ambitions?
I knew Grover Norquist in the 1980s. His conservatism was more aligned with CATO libertarianism. In recent months the CATO Institute has taken issue with White House policies, as the libertarian brand is far more aligned with an ideology of individual freedoms and rights than the conservatism in full power now.
To lay the Trump White House at Grover’s feet is not fair, in my view.
I fear the conservatism we face now is more closely aligned with Taliban control of individuals, particularly women. Far, far from Grover’s libertarian roots.
The purpose behind impoverishing people, controlling education, forcing work for the Medicaid people need to survive, is CONTROL. We are facing a theocratic forced morality laid over vast corruption aimed at CONTROLLING the population, essentially enslaving workers in exchange for healthcare and food, with a cruel oppression that smothers resistance.
Americans are tough. We believe in our rights.
It will take time to assert complete control. IF they achieve that main aim.
Conservatism embraces different ideologies. Libertarians are already dissenting. Debt and budget conservatives are complaining, but still folding in with the Administration.
But the central core of this movement seeks nothing less than authoritarian control. Not only control of wealth, but control of work, knowledge, disinformation, morality. Control of women and birth, and all the moral shame women suffered for not being perfect wives and mother. Women have only had full individual rights to economic ownership, workplace rights, education rights and more for a few decades (ownership of a credit card in early 1970s). In that time women have taken leadership roles in every aspect of society.
This brand of conservatism in power now seeks to force their own morality on women in particular, starting with controlling birth/abortion/control of a young woman’s body up to risk of death. (Indeed women have died).
Immigrants bear the brunt of cruel military-like oppression now. It will be other ‘undesirable’ groups next.
Always an enemy. Always blame the opposition for the pain people feel. Never take the blame. Control the message. Change the message to suit whatever the regime wants to achieve.
From the Supreme Court to Congress, the balance of power is now with Trump. Power to enforce authority is being tested with Homeland Security extraordinary force, National Guard and even the Marines deployed against citizens.
The chink in this authoritarian theocratic conservatism in power is Trump himself. He is corrupt and immoral, a grifter and narcissist who has no interest in conservative ideology.
His leadership is incompetent and contradictory.
Yet the conservatives need him as he carries MAGA as a personal cult.
But they are having trouble controlling him, now that they have given the monster near absolute power.
So the true controllers are not normal budget/business Republicans or libertarians. It lies in the evangelical mega millionaires, Opus Dei Catholic Justices, old-fashioned southern racism, Tradition and Family conservatism bringing religious moral zeal to power and greed at the top, some unknown and some known.
And it started before Grover. Grover came to Washington DC as the Moral Majority claimed undeserved victory over the Reagan win. The secretive Council for National Policy was already in place. Southern conservative Blackwell and evangelical conservative Jerry Falwell were already training activists to infiltrate every branch of power and control. Dozens of ‘cells’ as I call them, offices with a couple employees with different patriotic-sounding names, were scattered over Capitol Hill. Institutions to rival others were already planned, funded and then put in place (Heritage Foundation as an answer to think tanks, Washington Times to rival the Washington Post).
In short, Grover is not the real problem. It is the secretive and consistent undermining of American progress and freedom for minorities and women in favor of power, wealth and moral authority of a few. Perhaps since the 1950s, but definitely since the 1970s, coinciding with civil rights and women’s economic, educational and sexual freedoms.
Once religious moral zeal takes authoritarian political power the Handmaiden’s Tale does not seem so fictional after all.
I am pretty sure that Heather will reference Paul Krugman’s post of last night in her report about today. For those who want to read the whole thing, the link is:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzQbgJHdJWcGxhdSLDnjwBnjDhJC
I am beginning to think that Nietshke was correct that God is dead. If he was alive he would not have permitted the Anti-Christ to be elected President!
CGH, Peter Thiel strongly believes that Greta Thunberg is the anti-Christ. He’s always talking about the end of times.
And Peggy, our neighbors in Ohio and Kentucky, have used the government (socialism) to take over the power of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and are finding they are saving hundreds of millions, if not billions. Who would have thought…? LOL
I guess W. VA. is next, and several in the South are going that direction. We already know Indiana will be the last to adopt, unless Eli Lilly can find a way to profit from it.
If Red States are figuring it out, who knows?
The “Why/” is simply greed!!
Thiel is deluded, as are so many others, but he is in a leadership position, which makes him dangerous. If there is such a thing as an anti-Christ, that person is the POTUS of the moment, and yes, I’m betting on his finding a way to halt the ’26 elections. Someone I know said that it appears that his bodily health is slipping, thus, if need be, he’ll do it on his death bed. He’s not going to hand his presidency over to Vance.
What the consequences of this woat administration will be was predicted by Karl Marx a long time ago; the end of the current model of capitalism. Marx missed on his guess of what comes next. A rebirth for sure. Not the death of the mixed economy but the birth of something new.
I won’t be around to participate in the rebirth, it will be done by others, like the birth of our country was 10 generations ago.
Can the US be lucky enough to be the favored place twice in a row? Will it be done without war unlike the first time?
IDK but both seem unlikely.
The crime scene tape needs to be extended around the oval office and the Resolute Desk too. Trump sending out letters with threats of imposing tariffs on the goods of foreign nations (where he has no power to tax their sovereignty) demanding that they make a deal with him. We need to know what these deals are and where the payment is going. It’s definitely not going into U.S. coffers.
The tariff would be paid by the importer, to the government, when the importer receives the shipment. Therefore, the price increase would be passed on to consumer when buying the merchandise, essentially being an increase in sales tax. The foreign countries know that those price increases in U.S. could decrease the amount of their products being sold. Customers could just refuse to pay the higher prices and not buy their product, tremendously decreasing their sales and profits.
Federal Court to hear the legality of trump’s tariffs on August 11, that have already been deemed illegal by authorities overseeing foreign trade.
I will always associate the name “Grover Norquist” with the defunding of California’s education infrastructure under Governor Ronald Reagan.
Lobbyist Grover Norquist is a well-known proponent of the strategy and has famously said, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Peggy, I would suggest you are correct about our Nation having “never experienced the devastation that occurred,” but would expand the context to WWI also. When I read the words of (pardon my language) a slimy little Nazi-wannabe puke like Beckwith warn about why we never should appease someone, as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did at Munich, I want to show photographs of the carnage of the trenches. They gouged a scar from Belgium through France to the Swiss border. The people in Europe were scared of that happening again. We sent troops over when those in power here started losing money. There was no (pardon my language again; since the Russian asset in the Oval Office has said “fuck,” “bullshit,” and “pussy” and not been bleeped, I’ll take some liberty) fucking reason for WWI. Several absurdities represent the insanity, but I believe Field Marshal Haig, upon hearing that his order of an attack of 20,000 had resulted in fairly high numbers of the 20K being mowed down in a few minutes, said, “Then we’ll attack with thirty thousand!” Then, of course, is how WWI led to WWII. We learned, in junior high & high school, that Germany had been devastated by reparations they’d been ordered to pay, in the Treaty of Versailles. The harsh terms led to conditions that Hitler exploited to grab power & it really wasn’t “about the Jews.” A lot of that is pure bullshit, but especially lacking was any reason for the Japanese flipping from being one of our allies in WWI (& they were very important in the Pacific) to enemies for WWII. The Japanese had pressed for a racial equality clause to be included in the treaty. Woodrow Wilson was about as racist as some of the classic Oval Office racists ( e.g., Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan) and opposed any such clause. The last two lines of a poem by Vonnegut come to mind: “We’ve seen where history’s been/and my, the dead did stink so.” (I think I have that correct).