The Big Bribe Bill

Republicans managed to pass the Big Bribe Bill today, after Trump brought the hold-outs to the White House and gave them some signed swag and told them he saw them on TV. That's all it took for them to sell out their supposed principles. (New York Times gift link)

Seriously. This is the level of puerile vapidity that passes for Republican leadership.

The Freedom Caucus = "free stuff for me," police state for you.

As one person said on BlueSky in response to this story, "i'd have more respect for this guy if Trump threatened him with violence and he buckled..."

I still don't know if the list of legal changes that would give Trump control of judges and elections, which I included in a post a couple days ago, are in the bill or not.

One aspect of the bill that has gotten no mainstream attention is its effect on Medicare (not Medicaid). David Dayen at The American Prospect has been following this, and wrote a brief explainer of how it will happen.

Here are another couple of political cartoons I've seen that are relevant:

This post by Senator Senator Scott Wiener sums it up:

In one fell swoop, they destroyed access to health care, shut down hospitals, upended clean energy, massively expanded their secret police force and took food away from kids. All to cut taxes for the rich and corporations. It’s one of the biggest betrayals of Americans in the history of our country.