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POS BFB in da’ House: Be Water, My Friend

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”
― Ovid

“A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.”
― James N. Watkins

I said empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water.
Now you put water into a cup it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle.
You put it into a teapot it becomes the teapot.
Now water can flow, or it can crash.
Be water, my friend.
― Bruce Lee

After passing in the Senate yesterday, the POS big fugly bill is back in the House for reconciliation where the Senate version is struggling to pull together adequate support for passage across the GOP caucus.

The Freedom Caucus in particular is unhappy with the $3.3 trillion increase to the deficit over the next decade this POS legislation represents.

Trump and J.D. Vance have been calling all the intransigent GOP members trying to coerce their support for the bill, threatening them with primaries.

No word whether Elon Musk and/or his America PAC have been making similar calls offering campaign contributions in exchange for their NO votes.

The situation is fluid. It could change rapidly.

You, too, need to be fluid and make like water. Be persistent. Keep calling your representative and let them know you want them to vote NO on this wretched bill.

Remind them, too, they are part of a co-equal branch of government and should not cow to another branch ― especially a branch which is supposed to “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” not order other branches around.

Call the Congressional switchboard: (202) 224-3121 or use Resist.bot or 5Calls.org.

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The Sound of Teeth on Bone: Leopard Eating Leopards [UPDATE]

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. Update at bottom of this post. /~Rayne]

You knew eventually there would be intraparty autophagy given the conflict that emerged between Trump and his DOGE leader.

The leopard that bought a social media platform to ensure Trump and his party were elected is ready to gnaw on their faces. They were uncritical of Musk’s use of his Nazi bar X to aid their party, wholly accepting the wretchedness published alongside right-wing propaganda bolstering their position.

Now they’re going to have to face the fact the richest man in the world — the one person who could buy the lot of them with the change he can earn in a single day — is utterly enraged with them all.

I can’t blame him for feeling this way, either. I can’t stand Musk but I can understand his point of view.

Imagine burning up hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps even billions, of personal capital by personally taking on Trump’s Project 2025 government elimination measures as leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Tesla Takedown movement was in no small part a response to Musk slashing away at government without restraint.

Then the party he supported with his $44 billion dollar acquisition of Twitter completely trashed that sacrifice by increasing the budget deficit while trying to hide the $3.3 trillion increase from the public, extending the debt ceiling to pay for their bullshit including the massive expansion of ICE.

Gnaw away, Musk. You bought it, you broke it, you own it. Bon appetit!

The last time Musk threatened to launch a new political party in opposition to the GOP, Trump got pissy and made a counterthreat.

This time I would watch for more than an exchange of words. Tells about Musk’s seriousness would include:

• Establishment of one or more national PACs to fund the new party;
• Establishment of one or more state and/or national PACs to run campaigns against incumbent GOP congress members;
• Co-option of existing libertarian/GOP/conservative PACs for the same (think Russia’s dark money co-option of the National Rifle Association from 2012-2016);
• Creation of an umbrella organization and subset entities across all 50 states and the territories launching the new party presence;
• Recruitment of candidates who are willing to run under the new party banner.

Meanwhile, Musk could continue to use the dead bird app to support his efforts, this time against the GOP. It worked to get them elected, it could work against them as well. Not a lot of additional investment required, especially since Trump’s big fugly bill is so damned unpopular making weaponization of the bill against the GOP a piece of cake.

Musk was worth $363 billion dollars today, even after losing $4.38 billion since Friday. That’s $100 billion more than the next richest man, Jeff Bezos. This is the kind of money which can buy small nations — it’s already bought an American general election. A single good day’s gain in the stock market could easily yield more cash for campaign contributions than the contributions made in 2024:

Between January 2023 and April 2024, US political campaigns collected around $8.6 billion for the 2024 House, Senate, and presidential elections. Over 65% of that money, about $5.6 billion, came from political action committees (PACs).

(source: USA Facts)

The danger to the left should Musk make good his threat: a new political party aiming at taking out the GOP in thrall to their mob boss Trump may peel away some part of the Democratic Party.

Could be centrists (including the not-well-closeted racists, misogynists, and bigots) who feel threatened by the inclusiveness of those left of them.

Could be the gerontocracy within the Democratic Party who feel their death grip on power and relevance weakening.

Could be the horseshoe left which shares fewer ideals with progressives and centrists than the far right.

Whatever the case, the Democratic Party needs to stay clear of the leopards as they claw at each other; they need to offer a strong, clear vision of the future while working on the vulnerable states and districts.

North Carolina, for example, is now in play given Sen. Thom Tillis’s principled stance on the big fugly bill, choosing not to run for re-election instead of kowtowing to the GOP’s mob boss.

Let the leopards gnaw on each other. Stay clear, get busy.

~ ~ ~

Action Items:

• Check out Indivisible’s Stop The Cuts page, especially the Take Action Now section near the bottom of the page.

• Weak on federal budget terminology? See the federal budget glossary at National Priorities Project.

• Or simply keep up the pressure and contact your senators to tell them to vote NO on H.R. 1 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, recruit others to do the same. Congressional switchboard: (202) 224-3121 or use Resist.bot or 5Calls.

~ ~ ~

UPDATE — 8:30 AM ET —

Far more predictable than the weather. Somebody’s Depends are twisted about Musk’s threat.

Trump threatens to re-examine government support for Elon Musk’s companies as mogul trashes megabill
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-threatens-re-examine-government-support-elon-musks-companies-tra-rcna216156

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threatened to sic the Department of Government Efficiency on Elon Musk’s businesses, saying in a Truth Social post shortly after midnight that there was “big money to be saved.”

“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Trump said in the post. “No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE.”

“Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?” the president added.

A spokesperson for the Musk-backed America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the hours after Trump’s post, Musk reposted several graphics on X depicting a climbing national debt, which currently sits at more than $36 trillion, according to government data.

Emphasis mine. I am thinking of the aphorism, “I never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel,” antique in the digital age.

Musk can spill a lot more bits and pixels using X than Trump can with his personal social media platform.

Still amazing even after all of Trump’s previous tantrums that he believes it’s acceptable to weaponize government against an individual exercising their First Amendment rights, to benefit his personal and partisan agenda. Is this an official act? Debatable.

Whatever the case I’m buying popcorn futures this morning ahead of Round 3.

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Graphic: Quino Al via Unsplash (mod by Rayne)

Making America Gross Again: Big Fugly Bill Hits the Senate Floor [UPDATE]

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. Updates will be added at the bottom of this post. /~Rayne]

Trump’s big ugly bill will be up for a vote in the Senate this morning.

It takes money from hungry children and gives it to the already rich as Marcy has previously said, and the Center for Budget Policy and Priorities has quantified.

But this bill is a mortal menace to many Americans because of the bill’s cuts to Medicaid.

ER doctor McNadoMD spelled out the revolting death threats this bill poses:


EMTALA: Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986. They want to ditch 39-year-old legislation which assures Americans obtain

— a medical screening examination (MSE);
— are stabilized with an emergency medical condition;
— are transferred or accepted as a patient as appropriate and needed.

What are we left with if the GOP Senate knocks off EMTALA?

We already lost so many health care professionals because of COVID and have yet to replace them. COVID also cost this nation hospitals, thanks in no small part to right-wing refuseniks who rejected vaccines and masks. Rural hospitals were at risk of closure before COVID; 19 were closed in 2019. A net 50 rural hospitals were closed between 2017 and 2023.

We simply don’t have enough health care professionals or hospitals BEFORE the damage this bill’s cuts could wreak.

My 94-year-old father-in-law, a veteran, died last August. He ended up in the ER more than three times inside his last 18 months because his nursing home couldn’t handle his needs — basically a soft form of eviction until he was stabilized and returned to the home. This happened in a small town where the resources for his care were limited. If the local hospital closed, he’d have simply been evicted and died.

But I suspect the GOP doesn’t give a shit about lifelong GOP voters once they’re as elderly as my FIL was, without the kind of money to burn on political donations. They certainly don’t care about veterans. The GOP congressional caucus has become the death panels they warned us about.

And who pays for the unpaid ER visits — before the hospital goes bankrupt? We who have private insurance do, through increases to our premiums as hospitals increase overall charges to absorb the losses. This is an invisible tax on us, where Medicaid is fully visible.

In other words this is a definite death sentence for a group of Americans and legal residents who have kidney failure.


I don’t have words for this, but this is reality.

This is a real massacre being staged in the Senate, Kellyanne.

Across America especially in smaller cities and towns, Americans are going to face increasing poverty, illness, and death if this big fugly bill passes.

~ ~ ~

I need to get this post up so that you can see the problem and start working the phones and emails. I’ll continue to add to this post for a bit because you need to read what this ER doctor says about the bill’s likely impact if it passes.

Contact your senators and tell them this bill, H.R. 1 “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is simply not acceptable. Contact your family and friends, explain quickly how bad this bill is and tell them to contact their senators, too.

Congressional switchboard: (202) 224-3121

or use Resist.bot or 5Calls.

Call even if your senator(s) are Democrats or Independents, because they need to know how you feel, they need to know backsliding isn’t acceptable. Don’t trust they will do the right thing without hearing from you (I’m looking at Pennsylvanians especially given Sen. Fetterman’s increasing unreliability).

~ ~ ~

UPDATE — 2:09 PM ET 01-JUL-2025 —

The POS BFB passed with JD Vance casting the tie breaking vote.

Via Associated Press:

Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of votes, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session.

Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie to push it over the top. The three Republicans opposing the bill were Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The GOP owns this POS. It’s on them, they have committed to hurting this country.

Furthermore, they have completely abandoned any pretense of being the party of fiscal responsibility having voted to add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

** Do not let this lead you to despair. Let it anger you, and let that righteous anger motivate you to action.**

Continue to call your members of Congress — excoriate them if they voted for this POS BFB, thank them for rejecting it if they didn’t.

Find out when your members of Congress will be home over this break and whether they are having in-district sessions. Be there in person to communicate with them.

Our next major concerns should be how to care for others who will be directly damaged by this GOP bullshit, and how to protect the elections ahead.

Take the holiday break to rest up and ready yourself for the next phase.

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