Haven’t much been following or, just a bit here and there; therefore a thread, as it seems to be heating up.
Last time around the Don was unprepared af and the Hoose GOP dropped the ball on health care by not picking up the ball, and not showing up on the field tbh, so let’s see how the new and improved Don Show works.
“This is not the big, beautiful bill that I had hoped for,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) said during the markup. “The flaw with this bill is it doesn’t go far enough, fast enough, to get our fiscal house in order. But it does take some great strides.”
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) complained that “too many people out here did not want the wonderful bill that so many of us were expecting in January and February.”
Republican leaders’ decision to enforce work requirements on Medicaid recipients in 2029, rather than sooner, “indicates that there was kind of a lack of sincerity,” Grothman added. “Nevertheless, there’s some good things in here.”
My understanding of the bill - as is currently written - would institute many of the changes wanted after trump leaves office or until after the midterms instead of now as many voters actually want.
Delaying accountability until after the next election effectively kills any genuine change that could or should be implemented. So it’s a good thing this bill died in committee.
Of course - tax breaks now, kick the can down the road to reduce spending (so deficit continues to go up) so you don’t get any blame for anything unpopular, and fuck the poor (while providing things like car loan interest deductions up to $10k (so… if you itemize, and have up to around $200k in cars loan?)). 'Merica, fuck yeah.
So we have a choice between a blue spotted leopard or the red spotted leopard, well - not much of a choice at all. Just people hoping it’s other’s faces that get eaten and not their own before the timer runs out.
This is the part that worries me as well. We’ve already seen riots from both sides, but thankfully not the same place at the same time. Hopefully, we don’t…
A new report by Goldman Sachs finds that while House Republicans’ tax cut package that’s moving through the reconciliation process cuts taxes by more than previously thought, it’s still not enough to offset the drag on economic growth created by tariffs.
So treading water.
“The net individual income tax deductions and business investment incentives in the fiscal package pending in the House should have a positive impact on growth in 2026 and 2027,” they wrote. “However, just as the revenue gains from tariff increases will more than offset the net increase in the deficit (compared with the current level) from the House fiscal package, the hit to growth from tariffs will more than offset the boost to growth from the fiscal package.”
Got that? Good but bad.
Tariffs also factor into the overall fiscal outlook in relation to the tax-cut package through the generation of revenue, though tariff revenue isn’t included in the estimate of the bill that will be produced by the Congressional Budget Office. Tariffs are taxes on imports that are paid by importers, who economists note often pass higher costs on to consumers via higher prices.
Yay. Tariffs are taxes on imports that are paid by importers. There you have it in black and white.
Estimates say the tax cuts will cost the federal government $4.6tn in lost revenue over the next 10 years.
Trump has also said his tariffs will bring in “trillions of trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt”. Estimates say if all of Trump’s announced tariffs are set in place, including retaliatory tariffs that have been paused, they would only bring in an estimated $3.1tn over the next 10 years. The 10% universal tariffs would generate $2.17tn in revenue.
What prompted Kass’ thinking came a day after Congress passed President Trump’s “beautiful tax bill.” The bill would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and add tax cuts but doing little to replace lost tax revenue.
The event that Kass saw was that the prices of credit default swaps on U.S. government debt (which pay off in event of a default) were nearing the prices now being charged on credit default swaps on Greece’s debt.
Greek’
Kass, president of Seabreeze Partners Management, thinks investors appear blissfully unconcerned with implications of the tax bill. “It appears investors are dancing like ‘Zorba the Greek,’ while the U.S. spends gluttonously,” he wrote.
What shocks Kass: “The bill’s debt impact — with a 220% debt-to-GDP ratio by 2055 — reflects the Republican party’s ideological shift to the Democratic party’s liberal big spending of the past.”
Women have real choices. Community health centers are vastly more available than Planned Parenthood, and more women choose them already. When Medicaid patients choose these centers, Medicaid dollars stay with them.
