An Unpardonable Sin
04/07/25 06:57
July 4, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 27) - During the 19 years I have been writing this blog, I have reserved the post nearest to Independence Day for an offering that is often nostalgic and/or aspirational. I find that hard to do this year. The events of the past 24 hours have made me seriously question the future viability of this nation. The battle over Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" was not your typical Capitol Hill budget battle. It was a fight over the heart and soul of America - and America lost. What congressional Republicans did yesterday was an unpardonable sin. They turned their backs on two and one-half centuries of American values to embrace neo-nationalist policies that echo Germany in the 1930s. Of course, the President's supporters laugh off this kind of talk as being "woke" - whatever the hell that means. I'll let you decide if that's true. Despite their public protestations to the opposite, the fact remains that the Republicans severely cut Medicare funds to low income Americans. They tell you that they are just making more of these poor wretches do what "real" Americans do, get jobs that pay for their healthcare. This ignores the fact that most of these people already work for employers who do not provide any form of health care. They tell you they've cut your taxes. And, in a sense, that's true. But what is also true is that Congress yesterday raised the tax rate among the lowest income levels while lowering it among the top one-tenth of one percent of earners. They've slashed many of the safety net programs to fund their "take from the poor and give to the rich" priorities. They are pouring money into defense programs and so-called border security. Much of our defense spending goes in support of Israel, an expansionist Middle Eastern power that has been waging a war of aggression - some even call it genocide - against Palestinians. However, it's on the latter point, immigration, that Republican hypocrisy rings loudest. They want to deport everyone who came to this country illegally — except the cheap labor farm workers who are the backbone of American agriculture. They want to deny birthright citizenship, even though it was a right memorialized in the original Constitution. Republicans plan to expand their immigration enforcement efforts by establishing what amounts to little more than concentration camps for the undocumented. ("Sieg Heil," anyone?) They've been sending out masked agents to arrest and deport non-whites, including American citizens. The basic argument Republicans have for their draconian approach is a warped view of what they call fairness, a belief that these "illegals" jumped-the-line ahead of those who immigrated properly. They need to wait their turn. Of course, one can't believe in "fairness" while denying due process. They tell you that only American citizens enjoy American rights. That's not what the Constitution says. Anyone within the borders of the United States enjoys constitutional protections.
But wait, there's more! The bill enacted yesterday cuts food subsidies for the poor, a policy that will severely impact farmers. Congress not only removed tax credits for alternative forms of energy such as solar and wind, but it has chosen to tax them. (A big win for the petroleum industry.) This is a policy that will cause Midwest consumer energy prices to soar. These Republicans are trying to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in favor of their ill-defined view of meritocracy.. However, one need look only at the disparity of opportunities between whites and non-whites in this country to know that the U.S. is a long way from becoming a meritocracy. I also suggest they re-read the Declaration of Independence, America's founding document, which proclaims that "we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." And to top it off, these "fiscally responsible" Republicans who like to bitch and moan about the budget deficit, adorned this legislation with pork barrel spending for pet projects that will raise the federal debt by nearly $4 trillion. They say the increased productivity produced by this bill will offset the deficit. Unfortunately, those are the same claims Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump made with their own tax cut measures. They didn't work then and they won't work now. Instead, they choose to pay for their donors' golf club memberships by stealing from your grandchildren. For the record: Democrat presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden all reduced the federal deficit during their times in office. Republican presidents Reagan, both Bushes and Trump all increased the deficit.
On this day after the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" was narrowly enacted, it's increasingly hard to take pride in what our nation has become, an oligarchy that serves only the rich and does so at the expense of everyone else - even you. We should be ashamed of what Congress has done - and polls suggest that a majority of Americans (53 percent), in fact, are appalled by this abandonment of basic American values. The greatest irony of the "Big Beautiful Bill" is that the very Americans who support Trump's vision of America are going to be the ones hurt the most by his policies. When the full impact of yesterday's betrayal becomes apparent, real change may finally occur. Until then, we must fight to preserve the values that made this nation the greatest on earth. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.