If you people don’t wake up, we common folk (you know, those of us who are not rich) are all going to be screwed, especially the poor on Medicaid and SNAP, as well as those of us who are dependent on Social Security and Medicare for our life’s subsistence.
According to Dan Pfeiffer on Substack, there are “$700 billion in Medicaid cuts which could cause 8.6 million people to lose coverage.”
And it will eventually kill the Affordable Care Act by death from a million paper cuts, and lead to cuts in Medicare, though you have to dig to find that information.
It will gut Planned Parenthood, which will eliminate essential health care for millions of men and women, mostly poor citizens who cannot otherwise see a care provider. What are these essential services you might ask? Basic healthcare for families; including breast exams (for both men and women — yes, 2% of men get breast cancer, too); pelvic (cervical cancer screening) and prostate exams; family planning, including birth control, pregnancy monitoring, STD screening and treatment. Children’s vaccinations. And a whole host of other services that the poor will not be able to get once Medicaid is decimated and Planned Parenthood is eliminated.
That is not the only thing that this Big Beautiful Bill of the Trump regime would do. It will gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps). $270 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program includes school breakfast and lunch programs. Meals on Wheels will be affected. This will also affect farmers by stopping the large sales to stores of the products covered by SNAP, which is covered under the Farm Appropriations Committee. Farmers were paid supplemental monies by the Trump Administration in 1.0, but it is not a sure thing now with all of the cuts and tariffs what the Trump 2.0 will do to help them.
It will gut the Department of Education. And funding for special education programming. Higher educational loans, Pell grants, and other programs and funding.
It will force through the SAVE Act, a voter suppression bill that they were unable to get through the Senate the normal way last term. Requiring all birthright citizens to prove that they are, in fact, birthright citizens. By requiring documents: birth certificates, which won’t be a match for those of us who took our husband’s name. Or a passport.
Many elderly, disabled, Black, and other POC may not have the means to obtain these documents. A passport costs $ 160 plus a $ 35 processing fee. That could be a real hardship for many. Having to take time off work, having transportation to get where you need to go to obtain either document, this will wreak havoc for a large portion of the population. This is not only voter suppression, it is also a Poll Tax. Which is unlawful.
Another item, that was placed in the bill, was the removal of suppressors (silencers) from the National Firearms Act (NFA). Also, there is a provision that would strip judges of their ability to hold the Trump Administration of having contempt charges brought against them. Something that the occupant of the White House does not have authority to do, nor does Congress.
There are so many other poison pills in this bill. Why do you think they scheduled the first vote on a Sunday night at 10:30 p.m.? And their second vote on a Wednesday at 1 a.m.? The third time the bill was voted on was at 1 a.m. on Thursday, May 22, with it passing much later that morning.
All this to give the über rich a tax break that will sunset in 10 years (unless they manage to make it permanent), and an expansion of the Trump’s 2017 TAX SCAM. So now we get Trump 2.0 – 2025 TAX SCAM. They managed to pass it through the House by one vote (215 to 214). Now it’s off to the Senate.
We need to get verbal NOW! We need to turn out in the streets.
We need to boycott the big businesses that will be getting these tax breaks, businesses like Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Hobby Lobby, Target, and so many more. Some of these companies pay their employees so little that they qualify for Medicaid and SNAP, the very programs that the MAGA GOP are decimating. Congress certainly will not require these businesses to pay for health care for these employees. Nor will it raise the minimum wage to a living wage so these employees can afford to pay for food for their families. The minimum wage has not been raised since 2009.
But if you note, the House did put a raise into this bill. Because, of course, many of these people are millionaires, and pharmaceutical companies, the big oil companies, Tesla, the automobile industry, and other industries in this country. The only way that we can hurt them is if we join together and boycott them entirely. Once that is done, we need to not only get out in the street protesting, but we must also strike. I understand that many workers cannot afford to go out on strike. But they can walk a picket line, maybe not at their own place of employment (due to fear of being fired by their own employer), but at an alternative location. It can be done.
For example, you can’t strike because you can’t afford to lose your hours. or your job? Work your shift, then go to a different location that is striking and walk their picket line. The same with your spouse, if they strike at their own workplace, they might be fired, they should likewise work their shift and go somewhere else to walk a picket line.
I’m sure that you all remember the story of Robin Hood well; this bill flips that story on its head. Instead of robbing from the rich to give to the poor, this bill robs the poor to give to the very richest in this country.
Dan Pfeiffer says, “But if you remember just one thing, let it be this: The richest Americans — those making $ 1 million or more — would get nearly $ 90,000 in tax breaks EACH YEAR (emphasis mine). The average family earning less than $ 50,000 would get LESS THAN (again, emphasis mine) a dollar a day.”
Peggy Van Sickle
Brighton
