Last time tax cuts like this were proposed, we were in the halls of congress for weeks, battling to stop the regressive tax bill from Trump’s first term.
The energy felt different this time, maybe more resignation. But people are still out there.
It was well worth pushing back the monolith.
Arriving in DC, someone held a sign declaring:
“Billionaires are Stealing from us.”
“This. This is is what is happening,” said Jennifer Flynn Walker. “Come to DC and kill this big messed up bill before it kills us. June 11, 18 and 25th. Don’t let them steal everything from you. From me. From us.”
With Trumpers in control of three branches of government, it was going to be a fight. Still, I woke up early for a trip to DC to fight Trump's not so beautiful budget bill with @populardemocracy. The day started with a press conference at First and Constitution. Climate and healthcare activists from around the country were on hand. “We are at the Capital because they want to gut medicare, medicaid, environmental laws, access to healthy food, food stamps. so the oil and gas companies can get tax breaks and a return on their investment,’ said one activist.
Betty from Popular Democracy was there to share the impacts of these cuts. People are gonna suffer. Families are already going through suffer meals, waiting for snap as the billionaires are lining their pockets...
Aaron J Hill from Alaska, notes today we have two paths, toward desolation row or something more connected. We are intricately entwined to our environments, Alaska sits on front lines of these changes, villages falling into the Bering sea. Lets protect, not abandon the environment. We cannot sacrifice the arctic, and Alaska's eco regions, we cannot abandon clean energy. The future is not in oil and gas. Alaska is not for sale. America is not for sale.
Senator Edward John Markey from Massachusetts stood to argue: “Their agenda is to loot medicare, snap, environmental policies, no bio tech... Trump's budget is a giveaway to Big Oil and billionaires—paid for by slashing Medicaid, food assistance, and climate resilience. It’s control disguised as policy. I’m standing with the @sunrisemvmt.”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said, “This is the betrayal bill. Transfer of wealth to billionaires, cutting medicaid, cutting nutrition assistance, snap, cuts to a clean energy future, to health care, stripping protections, destroying jobs for 62,000 people, the cuts are in red and in blue states, we will not stand for that...people starving, going without healthcare or environmental protections so big oil doesn't get another tax break on our back.
“Three years ago, we passed historic investments in the environment, putting us on the most progressive path,” noted Representative Melanie Stansbury. “We are not going back. We have seen an unprecedented attack on our communities and on our planet, drilling on public lands, they want to take away our basic protections. This is our call. We have to say no. Hell no. To save our democracy and our communities.
The Why, explained the organizers: “Trump's billionaire budget is trying to fund handouts to Big Oil, tax cuts for billionaires, and mass detention facilities with our tax dollars. Money that should be used for life saving services like Medicaid and SNAP that millions of Americans rely on to keep their family healthy and their kids fed. Honestly this is only the tip of the iceberg. Trump's budget is brimming with proposals that pad the pockets of his wealthy buddies and strip away critical government services we depend on. We’re descending on Washington to say No Deal! People all over the country are already taking action - it is a critical moment. It's the climate movement’s moment to throw down and say NO DEAL!
Carrying signs, declaring, “no deal for big oil oligarchs,” “they profit, we pay,” and “end polluter handouts,” we entered the Senate Office buildings.
“You are literally killing people” says the t-shirt of one of the activists.
Our first stop, a lobby visit to minority leader Chuck Schumer's office, imploring him to get creative, to gum up the works. Be a thorn in the side of the majority, just like Bob Dole and Mitch McConnell were when the democrats had majorities. No one is holding their breath.
Next stop, a lobby visit at Senator Ron Johnson's office. “The planet belongs to people,” says one visitor. “It's our job to protect the planet. Tell the senator the people will not move. Resist the bill.” Walking out, a few activists on hand, symbolically lay on the ground, as if killed by healthcare cuts, which is exactly what's happening for those without healthcare. All this to give tax cuts to the richest people in the country. It's a cruel policy choice.
Police moved in quickly to arrest the demonstrators, following us on our next stop.
Staffers in the office of Senator Tom Tillis, of North Carolina, didn't know what to think of us. “I’m here for people with asthma, with health care challenges. Kill the bill,” we implored, sitting in and chanting, outside his office. Kill the bill Finally, the capital police dragged us away. One was chipper. 'Well get you right out of here,' she said putting in the van, with charges of incommoding. Another looked like one of the door guys from Berghain in Berlin, not as scary. After searching, processing and running backgrounds on us, we paid our fines and they let us go.
Why did we get arrested today? The not so "big and beautiful" bill involved tax cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, environmental protections and nutrition programs, that will literally kill people.
Caught a 530 Greyhound out of DC, through traffic, onto York pa, past bucolic towns, sunset in a cemetery, to Harrisburg where Grama grew up, near where she went to college, sun going down, late night train through second thoughts, reflection.
Scrolled through the news about contempt toward the bill, from Musk, who thinks it does too little while increasing the debt: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.
And Robert Reich, who thinks it does too much.:
“Friends,
If enacted, Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill as it emerged from the House of Representatives would result in the largest redistribution of income and wealth in American history – from the poor and working class to the rich.
Hidden within the bill is also a provision that would allow Trump to crown himself king.
For months now, Trump has been trying to act like a king by ignoring court rulings against him.
The supreme court has told Trump to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Ábrego García, a legal resident of the United States who even the Trump regime admits was erroneously sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador.
Trump has done nothing.
Lower federal courts have ordered him to stop deporting migrants without giving them a chance to know the charges against them and have the charges and evidence reviewed by a neutral judge or magistrate – the minimum of due process.
Again, nothing..
So what’s the next step? Will the supreme court and lower courts hold the administration in contempt and enforce the contempt citations?
Trump and his Republican stooges in Congress apparently anticipated this. Hidden inside their Big Ugly Bill is a provision intended to block the courts from using contempt to enforce its orders. It reads:
“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued …”
Translated: no federal court may enforce a contempt citation.
The measure would make most existing injunctions – in antitrust cases, police reform cases, school desegregation cases and others – unenforceable.
Its only purpose is to weaken the power of the federal courts.
As Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkeley School of Law dean and distinguished professor of law, notes, this provision would eliminate any restraint on Trump.
“Without the contempt power, judicial orders are meaningless and can be ignored. There is no way to understand this except as a way to keep the Trump administration from being restrained when it violates the Constitution or otherwise breaks the law …
“This would be a stunning restriction on the power of the federal courts. The Supreme Court has long recognized that the contempt power is integral to the authority of the federal courts. Without the ability to enforce judicial orders, they are rendered mere advisory opinions which parties are free to disregard.”
In other words, with this single measure, Trump will have crowned himself king.
If it is enacted, no Congress and no court could stop him. Even if a future Congress were to try, it could not do so without the power of the courts to enforce their hearings, investigations, subpoenas and laws.
The gross unfairness of Trump’s Big Ugly Bill is bad enough. It would worsen the nation’s already near-record inequalities of income and wealth.
But the provision inside the bill that neuters the federal courts is even worse. It would remove the last remaining constraint on Trump, and thereby effectively end American democracy.”
We talked about the bill when I got home.
The Big, Beautiful Bill, the three Bs are what our bond rating will be if the bill and passes, says Wendy at the Magician. The US federal government's credit ratings are currently downgraded by all three major credit rating agencies: Moody's, Fitch, and S&P. Specifically, Moody's downgraded the US to Aa1 from Aaa, according to Moody's. Fitch had previously downgraded the US to AA+ from AAA in August 2023, according to Fitch Ratings. S&P downgraded the US to AA+ from AAA in 2011.
The Bulwark reports: “the Congressional Budget Office issued a revised projection for Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, including all the last-minute changes GOP leaders made before the House passed its version late last month. Nearly 11 million people would become uninsured, CBO thinks, thanks to roughly $1 trillion in budget cuts. And that’s on top of 5 million more who would lose coverage if a temporary boost to Affordable Care Act subsidies expires. Those are jaw-dropping numbers for health coverage, like nothing we’ve seen in American history.”
“The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History, writes
Jonathan Chait writes in the Atlantic,
Family friend Diane Hoffman commented, “Even worse than the economic horrors, are the political easter eggs tucked into this 1,114 page bill. see the following for a very quick summary of the bad news. SHAME ON THE REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED FOR THIS!!”
The Republicans have the votes to pass this by reconciliation, although they fired the parliamentarian, changing the rules of the game.
It's time for people to get to DC to fight this.
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