President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” or, as I call it, the “Big Bitch Bill” (abbreviated as BBB), scraped through the Senate today, with Senators Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul defecting from the MAGA Republican Party and a haggard-looking Vice President JD Vance having to cast the tie-breaking vote.
“In one fell swoop, Republicans passed the biggest tax break for billionaires ever seen, paid for by ripping away healthcare from millions of people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer lamented.
It should have rightfully failed, but unfortunately, Senator Lisa Murkowski sold out America. I was surprised only that it was not Ms. Collins who put the knife in the nation’s back. Comparing Ms. Murkowski to Judas may seem over-the-top; it is not. Knowing the bill’s impact on Medicaid and SNAP will be severe—12 million Americans will likely end up uninsured—Ms. Murkowski made a deal to exempt her state, Alaska, from most of the pain. To Hell with the rest of America, I suppose—if there is a Hell, a spot is reserved for her conduct. “I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans who are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that,” the senator said, but voted yes anyway. Contemptible.
“This has been an awful process—a frantic rush to meet an artificial deadline that has tested every limit of this institution.” Ms. Murkowski acknowledged. For propaganda purposes, Mr. Trump had demanded the whole exercise be completed by the 4th of July, so that he can celebrate stripping Medicaid coverage from millions of Americans to fireworks. Yet it seems to me that if she acknowledges there will be more evil than good borne of this act, and that it was not even responsibly done, she was one of a hundred people with the power to say no. She could have been that single, decisive person who could have saved Americans from suffering. But she did not.
I never expected Senator Josh Hawley to stand for the people of Missouri to the end. While I have been impressed by his genuine populist streak, I have never forgotten the sight of him pumping his fist to the crowd at the damnable January 6 insurrection. He talked some good shit about defending the Medicaid recipients, but has lamely excused his vote to strip them of their healthcare by claiming perhaps it will be fixed later. “This has been an unhappy episode here in Congress, this effort to cut Medicaid. And I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching. If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver for working-class people. You cannot take away health care from working people. And unless this is changed going forward, that is what will happen in coming years. So I’m going to do everything I can to stop that.” Everything he can, he says, except vote against the bill.
“So what do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding is not there anymore, guys?" Mr. Tillis said. “I think the people in the White House, those advising the president are not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise.” The senator has suggested that Mr. Trump has been “misled” by his advisors, which is interesting. The implication would be that Mr. Trump has not sat down and read through anything himself, and is uncritically accepting whispers from his Grima Wormtongue Stephen Miller (famously described by Terry Moran as a “world-class hater”).
Mr. Tillis has decided not to run for re-election, which I think is a bit of a shame—having finally grown the courage and conscience to oppose the excesses of MAGA Trumpism—after he helped shepherd ex-Fox News Host and DUI Hire Pete Hegseth through the nomination process for Secretary of Defense, voted to confirm anti-vaxxer RFK Jr for HHS, and helped install notorious snake Tulsi Gabbard in as the Director of National Intelligence—he has chosen to flee, instead of rectifying the damage he has done to the nation. In some ways, I prefer honest villains to these half-hearted heroes.
Former co-President Elon Musk appears to be back in his k-hole again, and has threatened to primary any Republican who votes for the bill. He described it as “a disgusting abomination,” “[A] massive strategic error … that will leave America extremely vulnerable in the future,” and then ranted about Porky Pig and creating his own political party—presumably, one whose platform is oriented around enriching Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX.
Mr. Trump retorted “DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” implying he might have Mr. Musk’s businesses destroyed. I thought it curious that he described DOGE as a monster—so, at last, Mr. Trump concedes that his administration is monstrous. He then intimated he could also have the billionaire deported: “Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.”
The schadenfreude is delightful. Mr. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars to destroy his reputation and worsen his businesses, and now he might be removed from the country! And I do agree with “Sloppy Steve” Bannon that SpaceX ought to be nationalized, as we cannot allow national security hardware to remain under the control of an unstable, hostile drug addict. But I think we ought to step back and be reminded of how petty, abusive, and dangerous it would be for the president to casually denaturalize a former friend over a political argument. That is the naked face of tyranny!
I shall, in the spirit of bipartisanship, recommend to Mr. Trump a more legitimate way to settle this bad blood. What he ought to do is have his politicized Department of Justice formally accuse Mr. Musk of using his access to the government’s sensitive information to kibosh investigations into his business, access information related to his competitors, and corruptly advantage himself and his allies with contracts. Then, turn a special counsel loose. These are real crimes Mr. Musk is suspected of, and if he happens to be innocent, then he will have his day in court like any American.
And what does America get in return for the sacrifice of the health and wealth of our poorest? Mainly, more ICE prisons and masked thugs operating with impunity. Extended tax breaks for the wealthy. Removal of funding for federal contempt of court charges, so that Mr. Trump’s hooligans can ignore court orders. The loss of “hundreds of thousands of good-paying construction jobs, billions of work hours, and hundreds of billions in lost wages and economic benefits to America’s middle class.” More predatory student loans. Inflation. Senator Ted Cruz gets to steal the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian and move it to Houston. $3 trillion tacked onto the deficit. A miserable world.
I never expected this administration to behave in a safe, sane, and consensual manner. I did think that Mr. Trump still cared about his personal popularity, which seems to no longer be the case—the Big Bitch Bill’s approval is at 27 percent. At this rate, sweeping the midterms should be easy mode, and all the pundits who thought America needed to “touch the hot stove” of Trumpism to learn not to fuck around with authoritarian morons should be satisfied to see the burning.
But I am not satisfied. It is not enough for me, when my friends and family are suffering, to see that my enemies are also unhappy. I want to see them do the right thing. Come to their senses. Ms. Murkowski knew better than to do this to America. She knew, and she did it. At every mile on the road to ruin, MAGA and even “normal” Republicans have had the opportunity to stop and refused, or tried to hit the brakes only once they had already become powerless. This must never be forgiven.