There's is one overwhelming quality of the Republican party. The
ability to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. There's a reason
they're called "the stupid party", they earned it. By Rich Kozlovich
I'm
going to be honest here, clarity over this budget is difficult to
grasp. However, No matter what anyone says, I do know it will increase
spending, increase the nation's debt limit, and the national debt.
Another
thing that's clear is that old axiom, "Don't tax you, don't tax me.
Tax that fellow behind the tree", mentality is in play here, only it's
"Don't cut me, don't cut you. Cut that man behind the tree".
Especially if SALT is involved....both parties..... which is addressed
below.
Both parties are fighting to keep their wedge of the pie,
few of them will support the number one solution, which is, massive cuts
across the board, including Medicaid, which apparently has now become
untouchable.
My grandfather, a farmer and coal miner, was one of
the world's great
economists. He said if you spend more than you make, you'll go
broke. Beyond that, there's much here that seems irrational, and
confusing to me, so, here are the articles I've gathered, both pro and
con going back to when the bill was first introduced in the House to
lend a bit of history to this piece, not necessarily in chronological
order. So, peruse them and decide for yourself if you'd vote for it.
Personally,
I wouldn't, I don't see a thing that addresses what should be the
number one issue for all the members of Congress and the
Administration. Paying off the national debt, which is possible, all
it takes is guts. What I am in favor of is a budget battle and a
government shut down to force major cuts in spending, and major cuts in
the size of government.
What’s in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?The House passed the legislation in a 215–214 vote.
House Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to implement
President Donald Trump’s agenda in an early morning session on May
22. The legislative package,
totaling more than 1,000 pages, encompasses provisions that touch
almost every area of federal policy and spending, ranging from tax cuts
to Medicaid to the border. Though it makes spending cuts across several
sectors of the federal government, the Congressional Budget Office has projected the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.....
Republican Holdouts on the Big, Beautiful Bill: Politics at its worst May 22, 2025 - Very soon, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring the
Big, Beautiful reconciliation bill to the floor for a full House vote
before it heads to the Senate for more tinkering. As of now, several
Republican members of the House of Representatives have said they would
vote against the bill as it is currently written. Generally, the House Republicans who oppose the bill fall into two
camps: House Freedom Caucus members and Republicans in deep blue states.
Who are we protecting?
May 22, 2025 - Among the many aspects of President Trump's attempt to reverse
decades of "free trade" policy, which was a cynical label used to
disguise the deliberate hollowing out of American manufacturing, one of
the most important has been scarcely remarked. Critics of Trump's efforts to correct that disastrous policy delight
in mocking his new direction as "protectionist," as if that were
automatically a bad thing. Yet even the most avid advocates of so-called
"free trade" have supported selective protectionism. Alexander Hamilton
(1755-1804), the most "free trade" oriented of the Founding Fathers,
wrote of the benefits of protecting "infant industries." The idea was to
shield certain industries from foreign competition until they could
gain their footing and grow strong enough to compete globally. Those
being protected were American workers, the same group Trump is now
trying to benefit...........
Bond Market Shock: Is a New Financial Crisis Looming?On Friday, Moody’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating, sending shockwaves
through the bond market. Japan, in particular, is under intense
pressure, with yields on its 40-year government bonds (JGBs) surging to
3.45% from 2.09% earlier this year. This upheaval threatens the global
foundation of government bonds. Are we on the brink of a new debt
crisis?.......
Buckling under to the Green New Deal May 21, 2025 - (See also, “Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill retains hundreds of billions (maybe trillions?) in ‘Green New Deal’ spending” by Olivia Murray.) In an earlier
article
for American Thinker, I wrote about the Conservative Climate Caucus in
Congress, providing proof that bad ideas can flourish on both sides of
the political divide. I concluded the article by warning readers that it
was important to eliminate all vestiges of the Green New Deal and stop
subsidy-seeking companies from manipulating the political environment to
enrich themselves at the expense of the public.......
Trump appears to be losing patience with blue-state Republicans on SALT — President Donald Trump took
a surprising swipe Tuesday at efforts to increase a key tax deduction —
underscoring that the main beneficiaries would be Democratic “governors
from New York, Illinois and California.” His comments, during a visit to Capitol Hill to rally support for his policy megabill,
came as House Republicans from blue states are holding out for a major
increase in the federal deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT.......
GOP Rep. Massie: ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Add $20 Tril to debt - The
Big Beautiful Bill will add $20 trillion of federal debt over 10 years,
and that’s according to the authors of it.
But there’s another huge problem: it will increase the price of the $36
trillion of debt we already have, as bond buyers realize we aren’t
fiscally responsible..............
Trump after GOP meeting: Any Republican who opposes budget plan is ‘a fool’ -
President Donald Trump held a closed-door meeting
Tuesday with various Republican factions in an effort to bridge party
divisions over his "One Big, Beautiful Bill" — a sweeping piece of
legislation aimed at funding his agenda. While,
in Trump’s words, “there was a lot of love in the room,” he also warned
that he would regard as “a fool” “anybody that didn't support it
[meaning the bill] as a Republican.” He also assured that it would be
“the biggest tax reduction in history” and “the biggest regulation
reduction in history,” emphasizing that it would protect Medicaid and Medicare: “We're going to keep them, and even make them stronger.”........
Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill retains hundreds of billions (maybe trillions?) in ‘Green New Deal’ spending
May 20, 2025 - Congressional Republicans are the absolute worst, for many reasons, but
this time, it has to do with the “big” and “beautiful” tax bill that’s
working its way toward Donald Trump’s desk—Republicans, despite holding
both
houses, as well as the Oval Office, are set to retain hundreds of
billions of dollars in Green New Deal provisions, if they get their way.
Here’s the
context, from Adam N. Michel and Joshua Loucks at the Cato Institute:......
Tax reform isn’t inevitable -- it’s earned May 16, 2025 - In
the summer of 2017, Washington, D.C. was not just sweltering in
heat -- it was smoldering with political disappointment. Republicans had
just failed to repeal ObamaCare, despite a decade of promises. I was
the Digital Communications Director for Speaker Paul Ryan at
that time -- a job I also held for Speakers John Boehner and Kevin
McCarthy -- and those closed-door meetings in the days that followed
were disorienting. Congressional Republicans spent August licking our
wounds. But by September, we were determined to show the American people
that we deserved the majorities they gave us........
Chip Roy Spells Out What He Wants Before and if He Approves Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy said Monday on Fox Business that he
would like President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” to address
“deficit numbers” and tax policy before giving his approval on it. Late Sunday, the House Budget Committee narrowly
pushed through the
president’s budget reconciliation package, with Roy among three other
conservatives who pushed back against approving the legislation and
voted “present.” While discussing his vote on “The Bottom Line,”
co-guest host David Webb asked the representative what else he would
need to get him to vote yes, noting he “mentioned the Green New Scam.”.....
'Big, Beautiful Bill' Passes Committee Vote After Mike Johnson Agrees to Changes Pushed by Conservatives- President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” that would extend his
2017 tax cuts and reshape federal spending cleared a hurdle Sunday night
that it failed to clear last week. The bill passed the House Budget Committee 17-16 in a rare Sunday night vote, according to The New York Times. The bill failed a similar vote on Friday......
Majority Whip Barrasso Says Senate Will Match House Spending Cuts, Marking a Huge Shift in Direction - Republican Senate Whip John Barrasso told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo
that he believes the Senate will be able to match the big spending cuts
proposed in the House version of the budget. In fact, he thinks the
Senate might cut deeper.....
Here’s what’s in the House GOP’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package - The House GOP narrowly passed its massive tax and spending cuts package ahead of its Memorial Day deadline, sending President Donald Trump’s
“one big, beautiful bill” over to the Senate, where it will likely face
many changes. The package includes several controversial measures that
would deeply cut into two of the nation’s key safety net programs
– Medicaid and food stamps – while making permanent essentially all of
the trillions of dollars of individual income tax breaks contained in
the GOP’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. What’s more, it would fulfill Trump’s campaign promises to
cut taxes on tips and overtime, albeit temporarily. The magnitude of
the measures is evident in the estimates of the cost they would incur or
the savings they would produce. The tax changes in the package would
add $3.8 trillion to the nation’s
debt over a decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis
released before last-minute changes were made to the bill......
'Big, Beautiful Bill' Quashed by Several House Conservatives in Committee Vote - The “One Big Beautiful Bill” fell short in a House Budget
Committee vote Friday, with conservatives on the panel arguing it does
not cut federal spending enough.
Axios
reported that the final tally was 16-21, as GOP Reps. Chip Roy of
Texas, Ralph Norman and Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and Josh Brecheen of
Oklahoma joined all of the committee’s Democratic members in voting
against the measure......
Trump's OMB Director Quietly Calls Out the Republicans Threatening to Derail the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' - The Republican Party was on a game-winning drive for the budget reconciliation package, and it looked like they could fumble the ball on the goal line.
The bill is in serious trouble, given the House Republican majority’s
slim majority where a few defections can lead to disaster. It was not a
good Friday for the caucus (via WSJ):......
House Budget Committee Votes Down Big Beautiful Bill - The House Budget Committee voted down a budget
reconciliation bill just after noon Friday in a temporary roadblock for
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” The defeat of the bill is another expected — if
unnecessary — bump in the often messy negotiating process of the massive
piece of legislation.......
The ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ will bring big benefits for blue-collar workers
May 17, 2025 - Despite all these
provisions that will boost workers’ take-home pay and create new
manufacturing jobs, almost every Democrat continues to portray
Trump's bill as nothing more than a tax cut for the rich...... Kevin O’Leary sounds the alarm on tyrannical new provisions in Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill
- With “friends” like Republicans, who needs Democrats? Just yesterday I wrote
about a new betrayal out of Washington from our spineless Republicans
“representatives” who just passed a “pro-gun” bill—but not pro-gun in a
Second Amendment “shall not be infringed” kind of way, rather in a
showmanship and superficial pro-gun way. The LEOSA Reform Act (H.R.
2243) would establish a national constitutional carry…but only for law
enforcement. (At this time, I suggest you read Monica Showalter’s blog
on “cops who act like third-world cops because they are third-world cops” found here.)
Can we the civilian class, or as George Mason would say, “the militia,”
get the same recognition of God-given rights?..............
GOP Hardliners Defy Trump, Block 'Big Beautiful Bill' - The House GOP leadership suffered what the Hill
describes as a "stunning setback" on Friday when five conservative
members of their own party blocked a spending bill crucial to President
Trump's legislative agenda. The five Republicans joined all Democrats on
the House Budget Committee in voting against the sweeping package of
tax cuts and spending reductions—known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill
Act" in deference to Trump. The five dissenting Republicans want deeper
spending cuts...........
House GOP’s Medicaid Reform Would Force Millions of Able-Bodied Americans to Get Back to Work -
House Republicans’ proposal to impose work requirements on Medicaid
would force millions of Americans to meet new eligibility conditions or
lose coverage, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. At least
3.5 million individuals will be removed from Medicaid rolls due to House
Republicans’ proposal
to require most able-bodied Americans to work, volunteer or be in
school for at least 20 hours a week to qualify for the entitlement
program, according to a source familiar with an estimate from the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that could be released as early
as Friday. GOP lawmakers have justified the imposition of work
requirements among other reforms
to Medicaid by arguing that the entitlement program should prioritize
Americans who need coverage the most, not able-bodied adults or illegal
migrants........
Hawley: I Can’t Support House Bill’s ‘Real Medicaid Benefit Cuts’ - Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Inside Politics”
that he will not support the House spending bill because it has “real
Medicaid benefit cuts.” Hawley said, “It ought to be just a basic foundational principle, it
is wrong to cut health care for the working poor, and that’s what we’re
talking about here with Medicaid. My state is a Medicaid expansion
state, over 20% of Missourians, including hundreds of thousands of
children, are on Medicaid.”.......
All GOP Senators Have to Do Is Not Be Dumb, So We’re in Trouble - It’s times like these that remind me that the Latin root of the words
“Senate” and “senile” are the same. Of course, all bad senators aren’t
senile. Some are just stupid. But sadly, even the stupid ones are
necessary because we must keep the Senate in 2026 to make Donald Trump’s
second administration a success. That means we must be smart and
self-sacrificing, and GOP senators (and aspiring senators) must be smart
and self-sacrificing. Which means we have a challenge.....
Speaker: Critics Wrong, Bill Will ‘Reduce the Deficit,’ Not Raise It - The liberal media, suddenly concerned about spending and deficits with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
(OBBB), is missing the boat on what President Donald Trump's tax cut
and spending program will do for U.S. revenues, House Speaker Mike
Johnson, R-La., argued Sunday...............
OMB’s Vought: Big Beautiful Bill Doesn’t Increase Deficit - Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought pushed back
Sunday against Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency
commission, stating that the Big Beautiful Bill will not increase deficit spending or affect the growth of the national debt........
6 Senate Republicans Who Could Hold Up Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ - Senate Republicans will take control of the party’s
mammoth tax and domestic policy bill when they return to Washington on
Monday — and seek to win over a diverse group of GOP lawmakers agitating for changes to the legislation. Members are staring down a key four-week stretch to
hammer out provisions of the bill, with their Fourth of July goal in
sight and pressure mounting to complete President Trump’s top domestic agenda priority. .............
Rand Paul Threatens To Block Trump’s Economic Bill Over Debt Ceiling Concerns - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Sunday that he would support President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" if the debt ceiling hike was removed. Paul
told CBS' "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan that he and three
other Republican senators will hold out against the bill unless it is
modified. "I think there are four of us at this point, and I
would be very surprised if the bill at least is not modified in a good
direction," Paul said.
‘It’s Completely Unsustainable’: Republican Lawmaker Doubles Down, Knocks Trump Tax Bill - Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, is doubling down on his concerns about a bill that would make sweeping changes to taxes, Medicaid, food stamps and more after it was passed last month in the Republican-led House at the urging of President Donald Trump. The
more-than-1,000-page bill narrowly cleared the lower chamber on May 22.
Now, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where some
conservatives have raised concerns about the legislation's cost. "It's completely unsustainable,"...........
Musk Slams Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ As Undercutting DOGE, Raising National Deficit - Elon Musk said the spending in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.” Mr. Musk also suggested that the description of the bill goes too far. “I was like disappointed to see the massive
spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit … and
undermines the work that the DOGE
team is doing,” he said in an interview with CBS. “I think a bill can
be big or it can be beautiful. I don’t know if it can be both.”................
Deregulation deferred — not defeated — by the Big Beautiful Bill - In my latest Forbes column,
I detail how the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) had the
potential to revolutionize federal regulatory policy. But last-minute
changes in the House stripped away
provisions that could have both pruned existing rules and reshaped how
regulations are made and managed henceforth. The Senate now takes up the
BBB..............
Rand Paul States His Position on House GOP’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ - Sen.
Rand Paul (R-KY) is against the One Big Beautiful
Bill Act the House passed early Thursday morning and made his position
to Senate leadership clear. The sticking point for the Kentucky
Republican is that the bill includes language to raise the debt
limit................
Okay, so, now that you've read all these articles, is everything involving this BBB clear in your mind?
All this stuff about Iran is mind boggling, and much of it can be placed at the feet of the three Obama terms and the EU. Iran declared war on the west the minute the Shah left and Khomeini took over, 46 years ago, and have acted in that manner at a practical level ever since. The game playing should have ended long ago when Iran made members of the American embassy hostages, but then Carter was President,not Reagan or Trump. The minute Reagan was elected the mullahs decided it was a good idea to release them, after 444 days of Carter's incompetent policies of appeasement. Keep that in mind.
The minute Iran launched all those missiles at Israel, an outright undeclared act of war, that's when the line was crossed, and Israel had every right to retaliate in any way they saw fit.
I admire Trump’s ability to get adversaries to come to the table and make agreements, the Abrahamic Accords as an example. But you cannot make agreements with people who don’t want an agreement. Neither Russia or Ukraine wants the war to end, and most certainly Iran will not give up its desire to destroy Israel and do it with nuclear tipped missiles.
Iran has been found to have been lying about their nuclear program …. imagine that,and finally someone is telling the truth in the 11th hour. Make no mistake about this. The US has the intelligence that confirms all I’ve said, and I’m convinced this had to happen because Iran's domestic and international problems are so massive they fear they’re going to be kicked out of power, making this their last chance to destroy Israel, and they will not pass it up, no matter how suicidal it may be.
Operation ‘Rising Lion' has been launched, and it only took 46 years. Now five waves of Israeli fighters carried out hundreds of missions across distances thought to be impossible without refueling, but Israel proved the to be false before. On the first day they dropped over 330 munitions on about 100 targets, including the Natanz nuclear sight, which was just one of many. The top Iranian military commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a number of nuclear experts were killed. How great the damage was isn't clear, but it's being called superficial, and Iran has launched missiles and drones in response, which in the past has been largely ineffective, and the attacks by Israel continue.
I really love these Muslim leaders who spout nonsense like Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr who describes this a threat to the entire region and in infringement of Iraqi airspace to get to Iran. It's interesting you're not seeing the other nations of that region worrying about a threat to them since it's Iran whose been the threat to the region, not Israel.
It's also interesting how the people of Iran are viewing this attack. Understand this is an unusual kind of war. The Israelis are not practicing mass bombing, or targeting the civilian population. Don't you find it interesting they managed on the very first day to pretty much wipe out the leadership of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. They've selected targets that matter, and the Iraqi people are thrilled as the Iranian government has abused their people to the extreme for decades, including murder, rape, false imprisonment, rigged trials, etc., all in order to oppress their people.
I also have to believe the Iran government is now aware there must be a lot of spies giving information to Israel, up to date information. Otherwise how could they know where to strike so accurately?
If Iran falls it would be a good time to bring justice to all the victims of Iranian terror, including their vile actions against their own population. Hunt down all these murderous thugs, and let them stand trial and explain and justify their murderous actions.
More historical background and justification on why this was inevitable, here, here, and here, and finally, I think this eight point analysis by Andrea Widburg is excellent, The situation in the Israel-Iran war is kinetic, but we can discern a few things.