I spend quite a lot of my time paying attention to—and trying to understand—the daily drumbeat of news since Trump’s election. Trying to stay “up” on it all can be paralyzing—and that seems to be the point. (Remember Steve Bannon’s vow to “flood the zone with s__t”?) While voters are focused on the latest outrage, Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress have invested nearly all of their efforts to put together a breathtakingly bad budget bill. Should it become law, its net effect will be to 1) grow the wealth gap by being bleeding money out of social programs (and those parts of the economy that depend on that money, think rural hospitals) and transferring that money to the already wealthy and 2) endangering the value of the dollar by driving the national debt ever higher (more on that in a later post).
H.R. (House Resolution) 1, the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act” (yes, that’s its official name), known more appropriately as the Big, Bad Billionaire Act, was in the news last week as House Republicans passed it out of the U.S. House and sent it to the U.S. Senate. Each U.S. Representative must have spent a lot of time pouring over the bill’s 1,118 pages (see P.S.) before voting, right? That’s what they’d love for you to believe. But, consider that H.R. 1 was introduced to the U.S. House just last Tuesday (May 20), as a part of a 3976 page “Report” by the “Committee on the Budget, House of Representatives.” Two days later on Thursday, May 22, (lots of time for reading and careful consideration, right?) House Republicans started with a meeting of the House Rules Committee scheduled at 1AM (1 o’clock in the morning, not a typo). Six hours later, after a whole two hours [sarcasm alert] of allowed floor debate, at 6:56AM the same morning, the bill passed the U.S. House entirely on Republican votes, 215-214. All Democrats united in voting Nay.
Two Republicans also voted Nay—and their reason is telling: they objected to the bill’s worsening the national debt—something that, once upon a time, most Republicans pretended to worry over. Here’s the account of their votes from the right wing medium The Daily Caller:
Two Republican fiscal hawks voted against the “one big, beautiful bill” despite overwhelming pressure from House GOP leadership and President Donald Trump to support the legislation.
Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio joined House Democrats in opposing the president’s signature legislative package, citing concerns about the deficit impact of the bill. A White House statement of administrative policy released Wednesday suggested that voting against the legislation constitutes “the ultimate betrayal.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to follow through on the president’s threat Thursday. She told reporters that Trump will support primary challenges against Massie and Davidson for opposing the bill.
Of course, for these two it wasn’t about the massive tax giveaway to the already wealthy contained in the bill. Why? Because that’s the third rail of Republican politics. Instead, both of them voted Nay because the cuts to social programs weren’t sufficiently large! There was zero acknowledgment that, like any household budget, an equally good way not to run a deficit is by taking in more money.
Still, one must give Massie and Davidson some credit for recognizing the bill’s net contribution to our looming national indebtedness—and the risk that poses. (More on that in a subsequent post.)
A third Republican Representative, Andy Harris (R-MD) couldn’t bring himself to vote “Yea” and instead voted just “Present”—after threats from Trump and his wealthy backers. Harris was an early vocal critic for the same “the cuts aren’t great enough” concern over debt. Had he voted Nay, the bill wouldn’t have passed, so he is just a culpable for its passage as every one of those who voted “Yea”.
Still, that left 215 Republican sheep who dutifully voted for this travesty of a budget, including our own U.S. Rep from eastern Washington, Michael Baumgartner. Mr. Baumgartner is fond of writing letters in support of various eastern Washington interests, and fond of having his efforts talked up in the media. But when push comes to shove he votes with all the other Republicans who buckled to the threats and nonsense from the Trump regime to vote for a bill that will further enrich the already wealthy. Remember his cowardice in 2026. Call him using 5Calls.org and tell him you disapprove—and that you’re watching.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. You can have an unfiltered look at the 1,118 page H.R. 1, the monster “budget reconciliation bill”, as it was passed by Republicans in the U.S. House last week here. To see the text, scroll down that page and click PDF (2MB) for a download.