Trump’s One Big Heartless Bill
Last week, House Republicans passed – by one vote – what President Donald Trump calls his “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
A more accurate title would be Trump’s “One Big Heartless Bill.”
The bill, which now awaits Senate action, embodies Trump’s apparent “Reverse Robin Hood” approach to governing – take from the poor and middle class, and give to the rich.
It’s a direct and deeply cruel attack on the moral compass of our country.
Trump has never hidden his apparent belief that the Super Rich are the deserving class, starting, of course, with himself.
The bill’s tax cuts would enormously benefit the nation’s wealthiest, while gutting the safety net programs millions of Americans depend on, including seniors, children, and people with disabilities. It does all this while exploding the national debt over 10 years, according to one model, by at least $2.5 trillion and as much as $5.1 trillion, depending on whether the Senate makes the tax cuts permanent. Trump’s Senate allies want to do precisely that.
Medicaid & Medicare
Last week Trump told reporters, “Here’s what I want on Medicaid. We’re not touching anything.”
Not true.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that Trump’s bill would cut nearly $700 billion from Medicaid. That will mean dramatically cutting support for children, low-income families, people with disabilities, and rural hospitals – more than 300 of which are already at immediate risk of closing.
The result? Some 8.7 million Americans would lose healthcare coverage. Another 7.6 million would be at risk of losing their coverage over 10 years.
Trump has also said that he wouldn’t touch Medicare.
Not true.
According to the CBO, Trump’s bill could cut as much as $500 billion from Medicare, affecting health benefits that some 68 million seniors and people with disabilities rely on.
“SNAP” Anti-Hunger Program
Trump’s bill cuts some $300 billion from SNAP, the nation’s most important anti-hunger program. Nearly 11 million people would be at risk of losing vital food assistance under the bill, including four million children and more than half a million adults who are 65 or older or have a disability.
These cuts to core programs that millions of Americans rely on will help finance the enormous tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
To justify the cuts, Trump and his followers will spin the familiar fairy tale that these massive cuts are about getting rid of “fraud, waste, and abuse.”
But these claims are rarely backed by real numbers to document how much actual “fraud, waste, and abuse” has been eliminated. The goal of these cuts isn’t efficiency. The goal is to dismantle the programs themselves.
Attack On The Judiciary
This bill isn’t just heartless. It also attacks the judiciary.
Tucked deep into Trump’s bill is a provision which could handcuff many if not most of the judges who already have issued 181 preliminary rulings against Trump and his Administration that indicate likely violations of the Constitution or federal law.
The provision would restrict the ability of federal courts to enforce their preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders (TROs), by prohibiting judges from enforcing contempt of court rulings if the government violates these injunctions, unless the plaintiffs posted a bond at the time the rulings were issued.
Since judges often waive the bond or set the bond amount at zero, this provision could prevent many of the preliminary injunctions and TROs that have been issued against the Trump Administration from being enforced.
This provision is a brazen attempt to permit Trump and his Administration to ignore rulings and contempt of court findings against them without consequence. It is yet one more anti-democracy attack on our foundational rule of law.
The Senate needs to knock this dangerous provision out of the bill.
________________
To sum up, the Trump bill gives huge tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need it, takes healthcare and food away from the millions of Americans who do need it, and callously places the burden of trillions of dollars in additional national debt on America’s children and grandchildren. It also seriously undermines the judiciary’s ability to check abuses by Trump and his Administration.
Trump’s “One Big Heartless Bill” is a gift to the rich, an offense to the poor and middle class, and an affront to our country’s longstanding values. There’s nothing “beautiful” about it.
____________
Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
