ONE BIG BRUTAL BILL
- Senate Republicans passed their deficit-exploding, healthcare-eviscerating, billionaire-enrichening, outrageously unpopular bill today, with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance. Plenty of Congressional Republicans agree with the general public that this plan is a disaster — in part because it’ll cost 17 million people their health insurance, while taking away literal food from millions more (in the form of SNAP nutrition benefits). But take a big step back, and see the big picture: That’s just one in a series of stunning headlines about MAGA cruelty this week.
- GOP Senate leadership pushed the bill through with sweeteners for wavering lawmakers, who still hate it. In the end, the woman whose vote could have stopped the bill, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), caved like an Alaskan igloo in an arctic heatwave after she was granted concessions to spare her home state some of the pain she just voted to inflict on everyone else.
- Murkowski got downright icy when reporters asked her about her vote. “Do I like this bill? No. But I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests,” she retorted. Hilariously, she urged House Republicans to cut the terrible parts of the plan that she just voted for. “My sincere hope is that this is not the final product,” she said. “This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President’s desk. We need to work together to get this right.
- The bill now goes back to the lower chamber, where (you guessed it!) House Republicans hate the Senate’s changes and are signaling they won’t meet Trump’s July 4th deadline. But if you’re betting that Republicans will stand up to Trump… well, history suggests you’ll leave money on the table.
Some of the bill’s top backers have openly shrugged off concerns about the plan’s astonishing cruelty.
- JD Vance dismissed concerns about tossing 12 million poor people off their medicaid coverage as “immaterial,” compared to the awesomeness of getting more funds for border security and ICE’s deportation roundups. Translation: Chasing down migrants is infinitely more important than making sure poor people can see doctors. Got it.
- President Donald Trump underscored this point with a visit to the cartoonishly cruel “Alligator Alcatraz” on Tuesday, just as the Senate was passing his legislative monstrosity. That’s the official nickname for a remote new migrant detention facility deep in the Florida Everglades… in a wetland filled with alligators and pythons.
- “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator,” Trump joked before a photo-op. “Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this,” he said, zig-zagging his hand. “And you know what? Your chances go up about 1 percent.”
- Here’s how Fox News covered his mean-spirited prattle: “TRUMP ON IF MIGRANT ESCAPES, THEY’LL JUST GET EATEN BY WILDLIFE: I GUESS THAT’S THE CONCEPT.”
- This brand of MAGA cruelty is hardly confined to the homeland. A new study estimates that funding cuts to the USAID development agency will cost a staggering 14 million lives in Africa and elsewhere by 2030, including an estimated 4.5 million children under five. The agency’s aid work has already saved an estimated 92 million lives worldwide by fighting tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and more, the study found. But Trump and gazillionaire Elon Musk gleefully smashed USAID, claiming its work wasn’t worth supporting.
“We love everybody, we do,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters while traveling with Trump on Tuesday. “Not everybody,” Trump corrected.
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NEWS NEWS NEWS
The Trump DOJ moved to drop criminal charges against a notoriously violent MS-13 gang leader, apparently to protect his secret relationship with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. Give this widely missed story a read while imagining how Fox News would react if Obama or Biden had done precisely this. (And imagine he did it while wearing a tan suit!)
The U.S. dollar had its worst start to the year since 1973, bogged down by trade wars and GOP plans for deficit explosion. But don’t worry, Donald Trump’s family business already has a $2.5 billion hedge in cryptocurrency to protect his personal dollars! Thank goodness our dear leader’s fortune is safe, even if he tanks our national currency.
Final results of New York City’s ranked-choice Dem primary for mayor confirmed Dem nominee Zohran Mamdani won by a whopping 12 points.
The Trump Administration wants to defund the network of labs that monitor atmospheric CO2. This is like that time Trump thought that COVID would get better if we just stopped testing for it, saying: “I like the numbers where they are.” It’s basically that… but for the climate.
Iran-linked hackers are threatening to release more emails from Donald Trump’s inner circle, just like they did right before the 2024 election. We would never say, “Iran, if you’re listening.…” But we know a guy who would say that.
