If there was any doubt left, the MAGA-ruled Congress proved yesterday that Donald Trump owns it by approving his sweeping \u201cbig beautiful bill\u201d that slashes taxes for the rich and pays for it by increasing taxes on the middle class and, especially, the poor.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a bill that poll after poll shows Americans, by wide margins, do not like. It extends tax cuts on rich people and corporations that had been scheduled to expire this year, adds new ones, increases funding for defense and border security, cuts nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid, sharply reduces food assistance for the poor (the SNAP program), phases out clean-energy tax credits passed under former President Joe Biden — and increases the debt limit by $5 trillion, something Republicans said they would not do.<\/p>\n
All just so billionaires can get more money. Damn that kind of greed!<\/p>\n
It was a major political gamble for vulnerable lawmakers because it left them wide open to attacks during next year\u2019s midterm elections that they have deserted their constituents. But they had a choice. They could either support what their constituents plainly wanted, or what Trump wanted. If they chose their constituents, Trump threatened to find and support opponents for them in next year\u2019s Republican primaries. He even threatened them with angry posts on social media, including this:<\/p>\n
\u201cMAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT\u2019S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
They folded. They are definitely his now.<\/p>\n
And the Supreme Court is leaning that way. One week ago today, the high court gave Trump a big win \u2013 not a decisive one but a big one.<\/p>\n
At issue was whether the 14th Amendment meant what it said: \u201cAll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State to which they reside.\u201d Trump had ordered that the amendment was unconstitutional, three district judges had ruled otherwise, appeals had reached the high court, and now it was up to the court to decide.<\/p>\n
But the court didn\u2019t decide that. Instead, the justices voted 6-3 to grant Trump\u2019s request to partially pause the three judges\u2019 opinions by repudiating the concept that local judges could issue nationwide injunctions. That decision, which becomes active in about three weeks, makes it seem the justices couldn\u2019t even invent a way to say the amendment doesn\u2019t mean what it says, so they started there and worked back to a place where they could give Trump something.<\/p>\n
It could have been worse. The court left open the prospect of additional litigation in the lower courts about how much the injunctions should be narrowed, as well as the possibility of class action litigation on behalf of groups who were not part of the original litigation but would be affected by the order.<\/p>\n
So yes, it could have been worse. The court could have capitulated to Trump entirely and ruled the amendment is unconstitutional. It didn\u2019t do that, but it capitulated enough. It signaled that even though judges across the country have been rejecting Trump\u2019s orders in remarkably high numbers, the Supreme Court has granted Trump unprecedented powers. The justices granted him immunity from being charged with any crime he may commit while performing his presidential duties, or allowing him to deport migrants to countries other than their own. It seems the Supreme Court is falling under his spell, just like Congress has done.<\/p>\n
Toss in the fourth estate\u2019s failure to do its watchdog job and Trump\u2019s march to dictatorship is nearly complete.<\/p>\n