This is suddenly beginning to get fun.<\/p>\n
The House just passed a suicidal, democracy-eroding and billionaire-enriching
\nreconciliation bill \u2013 by a single vote, 215-214 — that gives Democrats a golden opportunity to sweep MAGA Republicans out of Congress in 2026, and out of the White House soon after that. If Republicans won\u2019t impeach him, Democrats will.<\/p>\n
House Republicans, all of whom are up for re-election next year, are, as of May 22, on record as supporting a $700 billion cut to Medicaid, which would deny health coverage to 83 million low-income people, and a $267 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps 41 million people with low incomes buy nutritious food. Most of the Republican congresspersons had promised they would never do that, but now they officially have<\/p>\n
As if to make up for that slap, MAGA Republicans assure us they are not touching Medicare, which serves more than 67 million U.S. citizens, but that\u2019s just another lie, a huge lie! They\u2019re cutting Medicare by $500 billion, which would be the largest cut to Medicare in history<\/em>, but that cut is hard to see because they\u2019re hiding it so well.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how they\u2019re doing it: The cut is not in the bill itself. Rather, it is a separate piece of legislation, called the PAY-GO Act, which will require mandatory \u201csequestration\u201d of Medicare funds to \u201cpay\u201d for tax cuts in the reconciliation bill that are not \u201cpaid\u201d for by other cuts in spending. The estimated $500 billion could change depending on whether the Senate\u2019s modifications increase or decrease the deficit, but the cut to Medicare is definitely there.<\/p>\n It’s easy to see why the Republicans are going to such lengths to hide that. Most of those 67 million people who depend on Medicare are 65 or older, and older people vote.<\/p>\n Added to the 124 million participants in Medicaid or SNAP, that brings the total number of people who are directly and substantially damaged by this bill to at least 191 million. Why any one of those people would vote for any congressperson who voted for that bill is beyond me..<\/p>\n But the problems with the bill run even deeper than that. Not only did most Republicans in Congress break their promises that they would never touch Medicare, Medicaid or SNAP, but they also promised us they would reduce spending, and they broke that promise too. They voted for a bill that would add $3.8 trillion in new debt.<\/p>\n But perhaps worst of all, House Republicans went out of their way to insert a single line deep in the 900-page bill that would shield Trump and his allies from being held in contempt of court. In other words, the MAGAs are trying to pass a law that would let Trump freely defy court orders. Any<\/em> court\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n That alone should sink the bill in the Senate because of its \u201cByrd Rule\u201d, which actually is a law (2 U.S.C. \u00a7 644) that prohibits \u201cextraneous\u201d provisions in reconciliation bills, and defines \u201cextraneous\u201d as anything that \u201cdoes not produce a change in outlays or revenues.\u201d Obviously, the Trump shield law does not do that.<\/p>\n A provision that violates the Byrd Rule could remain in the bill if 60 senators voted to keep it there. But that is highly unlikely because none of the 45 Democratic senators and two Independents who caucus with them are likely to vote for it, and a few Republicans might even join them. (Historically, most extraneous provisions in reconciliation bills fail anyway. The Congressional Research Service says that over the years 123 of 152 matters objected to as extraneous failed.)<\/p>\n