When a piece of legislation is over 900 pages long, it shouldn’t surprise us to discover all kinds of “hidden” provisions that went unread and undiscovered even by the people elected to read and understand what they’re passing. (That includes Trump, of course–a man who evidently can’t read and quite clearly doesn’t understand anything beyond his own childish needs and impulses. Media sources have reported on his meeting with Republican legislators, during which he advised them not to touch Medicaid– totally unaware of what was in his “Beautiful” bill…)
Media outlets have varied widely in the adequacy of their coverage. Most have focused on the major elements of this abysmal legislation: the three trillion dollars plus it will add to the nation’s deficit, the largesse to plutocrats “paid for” by robbing millions of low and middle-income Americans of health care and food stamps, the gargantuan sums allocated to the creation of what can only be described as a Trump administration version of the Schutzstaffel, Hitler’s notorious SS.
Those elements are, admittedly, both the most prominent and most terrifying aspects of the bill, but the American Prospect recently highlighted ten lesser-known provisions that ranged from stupid to cruel.
File this one under “stupid.” The bill forces the states to shoulder more of the costs of the SNAP program. But when Lisa Murkowski negotiated a two-year exemption from cost-sharing for Alaska, the language of that provision exempted all states with an “erroneous payment rate” above 13.3 percent– language operating to exempt not just Alaska, but states with the ten highest error rates–and inadvertently incentivizing other states to increase waste and fraud in their programs.
The bill eliminates the $200 tax on gun silencers. Words fail.
Section 70309 allows municipalities to issue tax-exempt bonds to build spaceports. (I have no clue. Perhaps we’re closer to space travel that I thought?)
MAGA’s love of fossil fuels prompted a provision–inserted by Oklahoma’s Republican Senator Lankford– that eliminated taxes on oil drillers. The bill “includes an exemption for domestic oil and gas companies from the corporate alternative minimum tax, as long as they have intangible drilling and development costs.” Oil companies have lobbied consistently for this nice little loophole. (Climate change? Nah…just another scam like vaccinations…)
And speaking of the environment, the bill not only eviscerates President Biden’s climate program, it also provides vast subsidies to coal producers. As the article reports,
At least four million acres of federal land will be opened up to coal leasing, and the royalty rate will be cut from 12.5 percent to 8 percent. Incentivizing coal—the worst fossil fuel for the climate and also particulate pollution—in any way is bad, but Republicans are also literally subsidizing foreign steel companies in places like China, India, and Brazil, by making metallurgical coal eligible for “critical mineral” subsidies through 2030. This coal, which is used in blast furnaces to create steel, is mostly exported to poorer countries with fewer air pollution regulations. Sure enough, the coal doesn’t even have to be used domestically to get the subsidy.
Umn…how, exactly, does this make America great?
There’s much more: a $40 million appropriation to the National Endowment for the Humanities to build statues for a “Garden of Heroes” in Washington, D.C. (We don’t have money to feed children, but we do have money to build a “blood and soil” monument…); removal of limits on the ability of folks with pass-through income (think law partners or hedge fund managers), to take unlimited SALT deductions, giving rich people “yet another legal tax avoidance scheme, worth between $35 and $40 billion over the next decade.”
As policy analysts pore over the 900+ pages of this monstrosity, they will undoubtedly find more examples of pork for donors and lobbyists, funded by vicious cuts to programs for the needy. Meanwhile, the propaganda machine rolls on, with Republicans insisting that Medicaid recipients–the vast majority of whom are children, disabled and elderly–just need to get jobs. (As one FB response asked, “please send me a list of jobs that are available for Alzheimer patients.”) 92% of the rest already do have jobs.
Indiana’s two senators voted for this obscenity. Senator Jim Banks is a White Christian Nationalist and a fervent member of the MAGA cult; his vote was expected. Senator Todd Young, who might have been an effective lawmaker in a different party or time, and who clearly knows better, issued a statement that is gobsmacking in its dishonesty:
“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will deliver the largest tax cut in history for working and middle-class Hoosiers, expand the child tax credit, spur new economic growth and job creation, and advance President Trump’s agenda.”
I don’t know how Senator Young sleeps at night….
Young was correct about advancing tacos agenda. The lie is what that agenda is. Young apparently hasn’t been paying attention (kidding)
This bill is the culmination of what Republicans have been trying to do since 1934 – 1945. Project 2025 outlined all these things (I’m not sure about the gun silencers, but you know who is behind that.) well before the election. Trump, of course, lied when he said he wasn’t familiar with P-2025. But is commerce lackey Howard Lutnick sure did.
So now we see what a collection of dunces looks like when greed, corruption, favoritism and backwardness looks like in government. The shamelessness of all Republicans is now in the open for everyone to see. But this might cause Republican voters to stay home next year. After all, they’d NEVER vote for a Democrat even if it meant that their families would be better off. DUH!
Well, technically, Todd Young is correct about the middle class saving on their taxes, but it’s because of the gimmick used by Trump and Republicans in the 2017 tax cut, which increased the deficit. They implemented a delayed tax increase for the middle and lower classes this year to pay for that magic act.
Here’s the problem with the energy portion of the bill: we all get to choke on mercury-producing coal stacks because AI (or is it A1), and the tech distribution centers subsidized by Trump, consume massive amounts of energy. Instead of putting the burden of expanding the energy grid on the Tech Titans, Trump and the Republicans have made it our problem due to the massive investment by the Kochs’ dark network. Sorry, but doctors in Southern Indiana, Asthma Alley, will only get worse for kids and the elderly.
What needs to happen in Indiana is that every time the OBBB negatively impacts Braun, we need to hang it around the neck of every single Republican in the state that voted for this billionaire giveaway.
As a side note, Sheila keeps reinforcing that the current iteration of the Republican Party is no longer “conservative.” That’s a factual statement. When Democrats present a bill that adds to the deficit, the Republicans go nuts, but when it’s their turn in power, they do the same thing. I can still hear the shrill and condescending words of Congresswoman Victoria Spartz claim that we have to do something about the ballooning deficit. She voted to make it worse! There are charts circulating that show how many countries are reducing their holdings of US Treasury securities, including China and Japan. We will have to increase the rates of return on those bonds (borrowing) to fund our deficit and pay the interest on outstanding debt.
Additionally, a substantial amount of debt is set to expire shortly. These factors present a significant problem that the media is avoiding. I can tell you that Brazil and China are discussing it! 😉
The elimination of the tax on gun silencers turns out to be a secret back door to making silence is legal in the US. The current law outlawing machine guns and gun silencers has always been upheld by the Supreme Court because it’s a tax bill and not a restriction of gun rights. The day the BBB was signed a group filed a lawsuit challenging the 1934 law that makes many types of weapons illegal. This shows that the group was acutely aware that eliminating this tax would give them a legal challenge for the law. so this small week in the trash law was very intentional.
I need to be more careful when using the dictation feature on my iPhone. Apologies for some of the weird mistakes in my post.
I’m sitting here, wondering if I should read the BBB, so I can truly know everything about it. I’m also unsure if the regulations that come from this little ugly disaster will be posted for comments in the Federal Register, prior to implementation. Under ordinary circumstances – that is every other President – that would be the case.
Keep in mind that these things that we’re reading are from first reviews. Once we see everything that’s coming, Democratic State Attorneys General can begin filing lawsuits.
For years I’ve been saying that the most dangerous and cruel organized crime bosses are members of Congress. You can’t be elected to a US Senate or Rep position without lying to the voters. Once elected, they quickly learn that if they want to keep their new job they must fall in line by spending most of their time prioritizing and voting for the demands of their election campaign’s largest (corporate and hedge fund) donors. Republicans and Democrats are both guilty of this, but the Republicans are much more deeply owned by and dedicated to fulfilling their masters’ wishes.
Peggy,
I gave AI a chance (Gemini) to tell me what the OBBB bill (I used its official name) was, but it couldn’t even reference the bill online. It replied that it has not been passed.
For those who followed this Turd through Congress, Trump had to reach out to the holdouts – there were many in the House. Amazingly, they all signed the Turd anyway. I heard it was a screaming match, and Trump threatened them.
Just yesterday, I read that the right-wing media is spinning the argument between Trump and Congress as Donny insisting they “leave Medicaid alone.” LOL
Only extremely ignorant people would believe that, since he signed the Turd with Medicaid cuts. If he didn’t want them, he has VETO power. I bet you that every MAGA cult member will believe that Trump fought for them, but Congress snuck the cuts into the bill without him knowing it. You don’t need to be very sophisticated with propaganda when you’re dealing with the low IQ.
Trump is our WOAT (worst of all time) President for good and predictable reasons.
Theocracy (government based on beliefs) has always been, is, and will always be, a failure.
Successful government is based on reason.
A NYC conman who has never worked a day in his life so he has no idea how our country works. Not even a hint.
He believes that if his family of people who have never worked a day in their lives is wealthier, times are good. The magic must be working.
I just spent a day on the MIT campus and it seemed obvious to me that every single person there knows way more about how things work than everyone in Trump’s cabinet.
The cost to everyone who does work for a living will be, in a single word, unaffordable.
Like for every addicted person, all hope now is in recovery and rehabilitation.
Can we?
I just read that a bunch of people got laid off from the Work One Employment Agency in Indiana. So they can be unemployed right next to the people they were trying to help. Its terrible but anytime I tune into the news now its bad news. I am trying to remain hopeful but I feel kinda like that Bob Dylan song “It’s not dark yet, but its getting there.” The amount of damage being done by this governmental administration is shocking.
It’s the old “Elect a clown, expect a circus!” situation, but this time it is a blood circus.
Thank you for exposing these parts of this awful.
Heartbreaking, discouraging, infuriating. We all need to keep resisting, steadily.
Right now it sure seems like a long uphill trek.