The Washington Post: Medicaid Cuts & Trillions in Debt: What’s in Donald Trump’s Bill

Posted on May 22, 2025 by Erik Schneider

“On this episode, The Washington Post’s Libby Casey, Rhonda Colvin and James Hohmann break down a busy week in Washington, starting with the shocking shooting of two Israeli embassy employees. Then, the crew dives into the GOP’s “big, beautiful” budget bill: What’s in it, what the sticking points were, and what had to be negotiated.

Later, the crew breaks down the chaotic meeting in the Oval Office between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa – and how Trump is using Oval Office meetings to set up televised showdowns with other world leaders.

Plus, technology reporter Drew Harwell joins the show to preview Trump’s morally-murky dinner with investors in his crypto meme coin.”

Source:The Washington Post with a look at South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and The MAGA Don.

From The Washington Post

From Derik Schneider earlier on The New Democrat:

“I know I’m not making any news by saying this, but it’s important and it leads to my overall point about this bill: at the end of the day, if House Republicans just had a 1 seat majority and every singe House Democrat voted no on this legislation, but every Republican voted yes, the bill would still pass. And the bill is an accomplishment for the House Republican Leadership (led by Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise) in this sense because they can say that they showed that they can govern and get their agenda passed.

But in the broader world, the BBB is a pretty minor accomplishment because of the fallout that now awaits House Republicans going into 2026, with the increases of the national debt, deficit, and interest rates, that will affect at least 90% of the country in a negative way. And that’s just the start of the fallout…

From The New Democrat

And as Ederik Schneider said:

“So when I look at the bill, (that Donald Trump calls the Big Beautiful Bill) it takes me back to the early and mid-2000s, when you had a Republican President (in George W. Bush) and a Republican Congress.

President Bush governed on “deficits don’t matter”… his own Vice President Dick Cheney literally stated that in 2003. And he simply didn’t want to cut government spending because he ran as a New Republican who cared about people, but also believed in “free markets”. So as long as a Republican administration was saying “deficits don’t matter”, you weren’t going to have a Republican Congress challenge their own President and risk their own reelection chances.

So what the Republican Congress’s of 2003-04, and 2005-06, did was to say: “We don’t believe in budget cuts or tax hikes. So we’re going to fund our own new budget priorities, without paying for them. And cut taxes for everyone, without paying for them. And everyone in the country will thank us for that. Well, enough people to keep us in power…

From The New Democrat

So if you want to look at this bill from a Democratic perspective… I could do that for you and then I’ll get into what I think about this legislation as well later on.

Every single House Democrat did their jobs here. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Minority Whip Katherine Clark got 214 no votes from their own caucus, in a bill that does some have some real middle class tax cuts in it, like no taxes on tips and a few other things. But there’s at least 1 middle class tax hike in it (that I’ve found so far) dealing with the Child Tax Credit. And that’s important and because as the Trump Administration gets ready to borrow trillions of more dollars, that the House has just approved, and we’ll see what the Senate does, but if they pass something similar here, that’s a great issue for Congressional Democrats next year.

So think about this: while interest rates remain high, while the Stock Market continues to struggle, while people on Medicaid are losing that coverage, including seniors, while President Trump’s own voters lose their Medicaid, Food Stamps, and disaster relief… the deficit that’s already approaching $2T, the economy continues to struggle because of the Trump trade war, House and Senate Democrats will have a major opportunity to start building their Blue Wave. Which the Midwest would be a major factor for House Democrats, if this wave happens.

When I’m talking about a Blue Wave, I’m not just winning back New York and New Jersey for the House, but making real plays for the Senate in North Carolina, Maine, and even Iowa… 3 states that depend on Medicaid, Food Stamps, and disaster relief… states that can’t afford to see their cost of livings go up. And maybe even Louisiana and Texas, especially if Senators Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn get primaried out and replaced by MAGA candidates, who would have to run statewide in those 2 states.

As far as the “Big Beautiful Bill”: the phrase “guns and butter” was used a lot in the 2000s when talking about President George W. Bush’s economic and foreign policy. What that was about was the President taking us to war twice in Afghanistan and Iraq, cutting taxes by trillions of dollars twice, doubling the size of Medicare, (which is an entitlement program) and telling everyone that nobody has to pay for anything because as Vice President Dick Cheney infamously said: “Deficit don’t matter”.

Well if you are familiar with the Stock Market crash of 2008, which led to the Great Recession of 2008-09, you know that deficits do matter. it keeps interest rates up, it weakens the U.S. Dollar, which makes it very difficult for anyone who isn’t a millionaire or better, to borrow any money.

The “Big Beautiful Bill”, is really poorly named… unless it’s the title of a political horror film and you give it a soft title like that so you don’t scare the hell out of any potential viewers of it before they see the film. This is really just Donald Trump Manhattan Economics here. He personally has already bankrupt himself 6 times: why not the largest and most important economy and government in the world as well?

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads.

Posted in The New Democrat, The Washington Post | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ron Paul Liberty Report: Prosperity Or Poverty House Hands Donald Trump His ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Posted on May 22, 2025 by Ederik Schneider

“The House narrowly approved President Trump’s “big beautiful bill” earlier today, with two Republicans dissenting. Will this bill usher in a new era of prosperity…or will it drown the country in unmanageable debt?”

Source:Ron Paul Liberty Report with a look at The MAGA Don.

From the Ron Paul Liberty Report

From Derik Schneider earlier on The New Democrat:

“I know I’m not making any news by saying this, but it’s important and it leads to my overall point about this bill: at the end of the day, if House Republicans just had a 1 seat majority and every singe House Democrat voted no on this legislation, but every Republican voted yes, the bill would still pass. And the bill is an accomplishment for the House Republican Leadership (led by Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise) in this sense because they can say that they showed that they can govern and get their agenda passed.

But in the broader world, the BBB is a pretty minor accomplishment because of the fallout that now awaits House Republicans going into 2026, with the increases of the national debt, deficit, and interest rates, that will affect at least 90% of the country in a negative way. And that’s just the start of the fallout…

From The New Democrat 

So when I look at the bill, (that Donald Trump calls the Big Beautiful Bill) it takes me back to the early and mid-2000s, when you had a Republican President (in George W. Bush) and a Republican Congress.

President Bush governed on “deficits don’t matter”… his own Vice President Dick Cheney literally stated that in 2003. And he simply didn’t want to cut government spending because he ran as a New Republican who cared about people, but also believed in “free markets”. So as long as a Republican administration was saying “deficits don’t matter”, you weren’t going to have a Republican Congress challenge their own President and risk their own reelection chances.

So what the Republican Congress’s of 2003-04, and 2005-06, did was to say: “We don’t believe in budget cuts or tax hikes. So we’re going to fund our own new budget priorities, without paying for them. And cut taxes for everyone, without paying for them. And everyone in the country will thank us for that. Well, enough people to keep us in power”.

Now Donald J. Trump and George W. Bush, are obviously different men and politicians. Which is as newsworthy as saying people in Wisconsin can expect cold weather in January. But 1 thing they have in common is “deficits don’t matter”. Just pass your own conservative budget priorities, but don’t pay for them. And cut taxes for everyone and let future government’s (administration’s and Congress’s) figure out how to pay for the credit card bills that G,W. Bush and DJT left for them. They’re like an over-spoiled teenage daughter or trophy wife, who is given an allowance and their own credit card, by their daddy or sugar daddy, that is paid for by their daddy or sugar daddy.

It’s hard to imagine how government can be any more fiscally irresponsible, than G.W. Bush and DJT, when it comes to government. But they were both elected President twice. And hopefully you don’t need me to remind you that elections have consequences. In this case, really bad fiscal and economic consequences, that future administration’s and Congress’s are going to have to pay for, that the people are going to have to pay for now.

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

Posted in Ron Paul, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robert Reich: What You Need To Share About The “One Big Beautiful” Ugly Horrible Bill

Posted on May 22, 2025 by Derik Schneider

“The old professor in me thinks the best way to convey to you how utterly awful the so-called “one big beautiful bill” passed by the House last night actually is would be to give you this short ten-question exam. (Answers are in parenthesis, but first try to answer without looking at them.)

1. Does the House’s “one big beautiful bill” cut Medicare? (Answer: Yes, by an estimated $500 billion.)

2. Because the bill cuts Medicaid, how many Americans are expected to lose Medicaid coverage? (At least 8.6 million.)

3. Will the tax cut in the bill benefit the rich or the poor or everyone?(Overwhelmingly, the rich.)

4. How much will the top 0.1 percent of earners stand to gain from it? (Nearly $390,000 per year).

5. If you figure in the benefit cuts and the tax cuts, will Americans making between about $17,000 and $51,000 gain or lose? (They’ll lose about $700 a year).

6. How about Americans with incomes less than $17,000? (They’ll lose more than $1,000 per year on average).

7. How much will the bill add to the federal debt? ($3.8 trillion over 10 years.)

8. Who will pay the interest on this extra debt? (All of us, in both our tax payments and higher interest rates for mortgages, car loans, and all other longer-term borrowing.)

9. Who collects this interest? (People who lend to the U.S. government, 70 percent of whom are American and most of whom are wealthy.)

10. Bonus question: Is the $400 million airplane from Qatar a gift to the United States for every future president to use, or a gift to Trump for his own personal use? (It’s a personal gift because he’ll get to use it after he leaves the presidency.)

Most Americans are strongly opposed to all of these things, according to polls. But if you knew the answers to these ten questions, you’re likely to be in a very tiny minority. That’s because of (1) distortions and cover-ups emanating from Trump and magnified by Fox News and other rightwing outlets. (2) A public that’s overwhelmed with the blitzkrieg of everything Trump is doing, and can’t focus on this. (3) Outright silencing of many in the media who fear retaliation from the Trump regime if they reveal things that Trump doesn’t want revealed.

Please do your part: Share this as widely as possible.”

Source:Robert Reich on Facebook.

From Robert Reich

From CBS News:

“The House passed the GOP budget bill early Thursday morning by a narrow margin after last-minute changes were made to satisfy Republican holdouts. CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns joins with more.”

Source:CBS News with a look at Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (MAGA, Shreveport, Louisiana)

From CBS News

I know I’m not making any news by saying this, but it’s important and it leads to my overall point about this bill: at the end of the day, if House Republicans just had a 1 seat majority and every singe House Democrat voted no on this legislation, but every Republican voted yes, the bill would still pass. And the bill is an accomplishment for the House Republican Leadership (led by Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise) in this sense because they can say that they showed that they can govern and get their agenda passed.

But in the broader world, the BBB is a pretty minor accomplishment because of the fallout that now awaits House Republicans going into 2026, with the increases of the national debt, deficit, and interest rates, that will affect at least 90% of the country in a negative way. And that’s just the start of the fallout.

So why is the BBB a problem for House Republicans and perhaps Senate Republicans as well?

1. The national Republican Party, (I believe, at least) is in a “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” situation: they pass this very unpopular bill, that literally raises taxes on the middle class by limiting the Child Tax Credit, and cuts Medicaid funding as well, which affects MAGA’s own voters in rural communities, which goes on top of the FEMA cuts that these voters are already having to live with… the House is now probably gone for the Republicans next year. And now we’re just talking about how many seats Democrats will pick up: will it be 10, (which might be a small victory for House Republicans) or could be 15, 20, 25, and perhaps the Senate is in play as well, if Democrats put a wave together next year.

2. But if Congressional Republicans (House & Senate) weren’t able to pass anything here, (for whatever the reasons) it just backs up 1 of the Democratic arguments that Republicans don’t know how to govern… at least by themselves. And Independents would turn on them because of the gridlock and the fact that the Republican Party was completely in charge of the Federal Government the last 2 years. And MAGA would stay home on Election Day because the Republicans didn’t do anything for them.

It’s obvious why Robert Reich doesn’t like this bill. Show me a Socialist who’s ever supported any tax relief for anybody and I’ll show my ocean beachfront property in Wyoming, with a clear view of Russia from there. Show me government budget cuts that aren’t related to defense, intelligence, and law enforcement that any Socialist has ever supported, I’ll sell you my winter ski resort in Miami Beach. But if Democrats play this right, (big if) they now have 3 key issues, just on the economy that they can use to create their Blue Wave next year, that are now in the BBB:

Middle class tax hikes

Health care cuts to small towns and rural communities

And cuts to disaster relief that primarily affects small towns and rural communities.

And this is how Democrats go not from winning a bare majority in the House next year, but instead 20 seats, perhaps more than that in the House and have a real shot of winning back the Senate as well, because they’ll be able to not just win everywhere in the Northeast, but now will be able to win back the Midwest as well, because of the middle class cuts in the BBB.

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

Posted in Robert Reich, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jonah Goldberg: In Praise of Hippie Punching

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Rik Schneider

“I’m going through one of these moments in which a lot of people have decided that they know my motives better than I do. We don’t need to get into the weeds on that (spoiler: you don’t). But it does make me feel obliged to explain my motives upfront. I want the Democratic Party to get its act together for a few reasons. For starters, it’d be good for America. Second, it’d be good for the Republican Party. Last, if the Republican Party doesn’t get its act together and instead keeps going in a statist, protectionist, price-fixing, big spending, direction with an utterly amoral approach to foreign policy, it’d be good if the Democratic Party offered a (better) alternative to that.

So, here’s what I think the Democratic Party needs to do: Punch a whole lotta of hippies.

From what I can tell, the phrase hippie punching emerged about 15 years ago, in the last days of the Golden Age of the lefty blogosphere. It was used in a pejorative way to describe the way moderates or centrists demonstrated they weren’t too radical. I think it’s a pretty brilliant phrase, in part because it’s great spin. The image of a harmless hippie, maybe holding a “Vegetable Rights and Peace!” sign, getting unfairly clobbered in the mug puts the villainy on the puncher. “Hey, man, what did you do that for?”

Phrasing like “Bolshevik smacking,” “Whackjob whacking,” or “Radical slapping” takes away some of the suggestion that it’s unfair and unprovoked to attack the lefty fringe of the party. But “hippie punching”? That’s sort of like “Amish kicking.”

Of course, this is wrong on a whole bunch of levels. For starters, we’re not talking about literal violence—I’m against literal punching in politics generally—we’re talking about arguments and, well, politics. Second, the lefty fringe of the Democratic Party punches rightward all the time (in much the same way the righty fringe of the GOP punches leftward). I mean Bernie Sanders and AOC denounce the dwindling band of moderates in the Democratic Party whenever it suits them. This dynamic is not new; it’s the way the parties have worked at least for a century.

One last point on the wrongness of the alleged wrongness of hippie-punching: Fairness is overrated in politics. Or rather, fairness is misapplied in all sorts of contexts. If, for example, a Democrat thinks the government should nationalize the health care industry root and branch, it’s not “unfair” for another Democrat to say, “I disagree. I think that guy is nuts. And, I don’t think my party should have anything to do with such nuttery.” Whether it’s good politics to draw such distinctions is a prudential question. And, in this moment, I think it’s pretty obvious that the Democratic Party needs someone to do a whole lotta punching leftward…

Source:The Dispatch co-founder Jonah Goldberg.

From The Dispatch

I sort of got into what Jonah Goldberg was talking about myself, about people that I sort of call Hipster Democrats, back in April:

“I think especially in politics and government when someone tries to look or seem “cool’… to “go viral” on social media, they look like the 45-50 year old dad, who has 3 kids, who is bored with himself and his life, so he decides the way to “fix his life” is to:

grow a goatee,

wear their heir back with an entire bottle of gel, everyday

speaks exclusively in pop culture references and catch phrases

is always seen staring at his phone and with a coffee cup, etc… they don’t look real. They look like someone who is suffering through a middle age, pop culture crisis. They look like they’re trying to be something that they’re not…

From The New Democrat

And as Ederik Schneider said about this a couple weeks ago:

“And I agree with the point that both Matt Lewis and Rik Schneider we’re making. I think the left-wing of the Democratic Party, looks like a real-life, Hollywood political film, or “or reality TV show”, where everyone else is trying to “out viral” the other person and use that to jumpstart whatever career that they want to have for themselves.

But could you imagine if Socialists, even in the Democratic Party ever came to power in America? I mean their whole lifestyle, their culture, their way of life, is dependent and completely subsidized by the American capitalist and liberal democratic system. And most of them know that. Most of these folks are educated. Most of these folks make good livings for themselves, even millionaires.

Representative Alexandria O. Cortez couldn’t even afford to pay her own rent in Washington, when she moved here in 2019. Now she’s worth $30 million dollars. That’s what can happen to you become famous and have a large following of young hipsters, who think you are the coolest thing since skinny jeans and smartphones and you write a book or 2.

So 1, I don’t see Socialists ever coming to power in America, even if they’re “Democrats”. Because once people start thinking about what it would mean to have a socialist government in America, voters stop being impressed by all the hipster catch phrases and other fashion statements that these folks make and start thinking about how much a socialist government would cost them.

And 2, the left-wing in America, when the rubber meets the road, when everyone is at the starting gate, when the 2 warriors meet in the ring, etc… when it’s time to get down and do some business… they don’t want a socialist government either, because that would destroy their way of life and ability to joy life and afford all the high-end things that consumes them. But it’s cool to sound like a militant hipster, (especially with young people) who wants to “take down the man” and wipeout poverty, disease, bigotry, etc. But when it gets down to how you do those things and how you pay for them, not even Socialists are interested in doing that in America.”

From The New Democrat

Bill Maher talked about what Jonah Goldberg is talking about here, but referring to Occupy Wall Street, which was a very young, Millennial, left-wing, hippie/hipster, political movement, back in 2011-12. But he didn’t call them Hippies:

“Yes, they’re peeing outdoors and having sex in sleeping bags, or, as Bristol Palin calls it, ‘dating,’ but they’re not hippies,” Maher said on Real Time Friday. “The hippies are all gone.”

From Business Insider

Yes, anytime either of the 2 major political parties have a fringe in it, (or in this case both the Democrats and Republicans) that can obviously pose as a problem… especially when the fringe of 1 of the parties wins The White House and controls both chambers of Congress. Well, The White House and House. The Senate is run by Majority Leader John Thune… and he really isn’t anyone’s definition of a radical… except for course for the far-left of the Democratic Party.

But have 2 points here:

1. The reason why both major parties have their own fringes, is because of the two-party system. And I’m saying this as a lifelong Democrat, who comes from a German-American Democratic family, in Maryland. Which obviously isn’t unusual in this state.

I’m not saying I want a parliamentary, social democratic, form of government, because I don’t. But you let the Green Party have universal ballot and polling access, the Greens in the Democratic Party, would probably move over to the Green Party.

There isn’t a far-right, third party in America, because all the far-rightists are in the Republican Party right now. The Republican (whether this was intelligent or not) consolidated the entire right wing (center to far-right) in the Republican Party. Some Socialists are Democrats, but a lot of them are in the Green Party, or other far-left third parties.

2. As I talked about last month and as Ederik Schneider talked about here 2 weeks ago, we actually don’t see the left-wing of the Democratic Party as a political movement. More like cultural movement of very young hipsters, (or Hippies) who think it’s cool to look and sound antiestablishment, even in the Democratic Party. Not that different from what was going on in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the Democratic Party, with the original New Left. But most of those folks were Boomers, who grew up, got lives, and mainstreamed themselves in American society.

And you go up almost 15 years from 2011, a lot of Millennials are doing the same thing as the Boomers did. A lot of them, as well as even some Gen-Y people, voted for Donald Trump in all 3 elections.

And to remind you of what Ederik said 2 weeks ago:

“So 1, I don’t see Socialists ever coming to power in America, even if they’re “Democrats”. Because once people start thinking about what it would mean to have a socialist government in America, voters stop being impressed by all the hipster catch phrases and other fashion statements that these folks make and start thinking about how much a socialist government would cost them…

Republicans won’t like hearing this, including mainstream Republicans, (you know, the Conservatives) but 1 of the major differences between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party… the adults don’t sit at the table in the Democratic Party. They own the table and the kids sit in the other room… except when the adults need their votes for something.

The reason why “The Squad” and other left-wing Democrats, are always struggling to even get a major committee assignment, especially in the House, because they’re seen as too radical and the House Democratic Leadership doesn’t want to be put on the record speaking about their interesting (to be nice) statements, or actions that they take. Most left-wing Democrats can’t get elected anywhere statewide in this country. Bernie and Liz are the exceptions to that in Vermont and Massachusetts. But that’s out of 100 U.S. Senators in Congress. And none of these left-wingers are governors, either.

And as The New Democrat has said before, as well… 2025-26 is not about rebranding the image of the Democratic Party. Each Democrat running for elected office in this cycle, will control whatever their “brand” might be for that election. This cycle is about reminding voters that we still have a two-party system and why Republicans shouldn’t be allowed to have a unified government, with almost no political checks on their power, going into 2027.

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

Posted in The Dispatch, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Associated Press: Conservatives Block Donald Trump’s Big Tax Breaks Bill in a Stunning Setback

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Erik Schneider

“Wide of House Budget Committee during a markup session on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Rep. Chip Roy is introduced…

Source:Associated Press with a look at U.S. Representative Chip Roy (Republican, Texas) with his speech on the House Budget Committee.

From the Associated Press

U.S. Representative Chip Roy (Republican, Texas):

“But I have to now admonish my colleagues on this side of the aisle. This bill falls profoundly short. It does not do what we say it does with respect to deficits. The fact of the matter is, on the spending, what we’re dealing with here on tax cuts in spending, a massive front-loaded deficit increase. That’s the truth. That’s the truth. Deficits will go up in the first half of the ten year budget window. And we all know it’s true and we shouldn’t do that. We shouldn’t say that we’re doing something we’re not doing. The fact of the matter is this bill has back loaded savings and has front loaded spending. Nowhere near the Senate budget top line, by the way.

We are writing checks we cannot cash, and our children are going to pay the price. So I am a no on this bill unless serious reforms are made today, tomorrow, Sunday, we’re having conversations as we speak. But something needs to change or you’re not going to get my support. I yield back.”

This is what Fred Schneider wrote yesterday on The New Democrat about President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”:

“I think Jamie Gangel made the key point here: “Donald Trump went to Capitol Hill to show some love. But when he was there, he told House Republicans “You either vote for this bill, or you deserved to be voted out of office”. (That’s a paraphrase)

I’m not a whip in Congress, or anywhere else, (for that matter) but threatening your own members in the House, when your are the President, is not a sign of love. More like: “You do exactly what I say, or you are going to be in a lot of trouble”. It’s more like governing with an iron fist, instead of: “This is where we are. What can I do to bring people to my side and what can I do for them, to help them along”.

I don’t know if this bill is going to pass the House or not… especially by Memorial Day. But in its current form, it’s a huge deficit, perhaps even debt bomb. So it wouldn’t pass in the Senate because of it’s reconciliation rules, but also because of the cuts to Medicaid, Food Assistance, and School Lunches for low-income students, that vulnerable Senate Republicans don’t want to vote for.

So my question is: is it even worth passing this big, Donald Trump agenda bill, knowing it will be very unpopular when people actually find out what’s in it and how it would affect interest rates, and all the health care and food cuts in it and also knowing that it won’t even make it out of Congress, because the Senate might not even be able to take it up, without getting 60 votes, first?”

From The New Democrat

I’m not going to give you the “I’m old enough to remember when… because it’s cliche now. And besides, I’ve probably used it too much on this blog anyway. But when I first started blogging back in 2010-11, when I was in my mid-30s, I remember what were called Tea Party members back in Congress (especially in the House) talking about “deficit bombs, “debt bombs”, the deficit and national debt getting out-of-control, and the need to restore fiscal responsibility in the U.S. Government again.

Then comes Donald Trump along in 2015-16 and he becomes President of the United States in 2017 and fiscal conservatism all but becomes a political dinosaur in Washington. The Republican Party goes all in (as they say) on their right-wing cultural war… and that’s where American politics has remain, really since 2017.

At the end of the day, the House Freedom Caucus (which is really poorly named, for multiple reasons) could cave faster than a mouse in a cat fight. They did during the government shutdown debate back in March, which did nothing to address the deficit and national debt. But we might be finally seeing the old Republican Party (you know, Conservative Republicans) on a political comeback tour and at least a handful of House Republicans getting back to their fiscal conservative roots.

And this budget debate going on between House Republicans right now, is refreshing for me to see as a JFK/Clinton New Democrat, someone who takes the budget deficit and national debt seriously and wants something real done about it, to address those fiscal problems.

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads.

Posted in AP Video, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Lead With Jake Tapper: GOP Holdouts Appear Unmoved by Donald Trump’s Visit To Push His Bill Forward

Posted on May 20, 2025 by FredSchneiderUS

“President Donald Trump expressed confidence after meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill as he made a personal pitch for passing his massive domestic policy bill — but it’s unclear if he’s done enough to convince them to send the bill to the Senate this week. CNN’s Manu Raju reports the future of the bill is “still unclear.”

Source:CNN with a look at the King of Political Reality TV and 1 of his exec-producers on Capitol Hill. Perhaps you already know the names of these 2 men yourself.

From CNN

I think Jamie Gangel made the key point here: “Donald Trump went to Capitol Hill to show some love. But when he was there, he told House Republicans “You either vote for this bill, or you deserved to be voted out of office”. (That’s a paraphrase)

I’m not a whip in Congress, or anywhere else, (for that matter) but threatening your own members in the House, when your are the President, is not a sign of love. More like: “You do exactly what I say, or you are going to be in a lot of trouble”. It’s more like governing with an iron fist, instead of: “This is where we are. What can I do to bring people to my side and what can I do for them, to help them along”.

I don’t know if this bill is going to pass the House or not… especially by Memorial Day. But in its current form, it’s a huge deficit, perhaps even debt bomb. So it wouldn’t pass in the Senate because of it’s reconciliation rules, but also because of the cuts to Medicaid, Food Assistance, and School Lunches for low-income students, that vulnerable Senate Republicans don’t want to vote for.

So my question is: is it even worth passing this big, Donald Trump agenda bill, knowing it will be very unpopular when people actually find out what’s in it and how it would affect interest rates, and all the health care and food cuts in it and also knowing that it won’t even make it out of Congress, because the Senate might not even be able to take it up, without getting 60 votes, first?

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads.

Posted in CNN, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ben Meiselas: Donald Trump Cabinet BREAKS Under SCORCHING Cross-Exam

Posted on May 20, 2025 by kireschneider

“MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Democratic Senators destroying Trump Cabinet Members and top officials during a powerful cross-examination.”

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at U.S. Senator Chris “I need a shave” Murphy & Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.

From the Meidas Touch

Some of what I said about Kristi Noem last week, when she testified in front of the House Homeland Security Committee:

“But hey, the money is good, I guess she thinks the fame is good for a her future MAGA reality TV career… reality TV stars aren’t known for their intelligence and getting respect anyway, so why not embarrass yourself in front of Congress. Hell, the House and Senate, on the same day: why not?”

From The New Democrat

From what I wrote about Kristi Nome and the other Trump officials today on Threads:

I doubt I’m breaking any news here, but Trump officials tend to lie a lot. You can’t work for DJT, if you are not willing to put your own credibility on the line for him, knowing he’ll probably dump you anyway.

From Threads

As far as Kristi Noem, she plays the bimbo so well on TV, she really needs her own Hollywood produced, “reality TV” show. And maybe I’m looking too far into this, but before Donald Trump ran again for President starting 2 years ago, she didn’t play the bimbo on TV.

Pre-MAGA, Kristi Noem, was a 4 term U.S. Representative from South Dakota, she served as Governor of that state, she’s an Air Force officer and veteran. She was a mainstream, center-right, business and national security oriented, Republican. More of Ronald Reagan Republican, than anything to do with Pat Buchanan or Donald Trump.

So when I say “Kristi Noem plays the bimbo on TV”, that’s what I’m talking about. Her professional background indicates she’s more than qualified to be Secretary of Homeland Security. But her “reality TV” career and her MAGA career from the last 2 years, where she went out-of-her-way, to not just show she loved Donald Trump, but that she didn’t love him enough to be his Vice President, (and I’ talking about her doggone dog story) shows she’s just a MAGA, political, “reality TV” player, who is willing to play and look braindead on national TV, in order to appease Donald John Trump.

Also from my Threads page about what I said about Secretary Noem last week:

If you are Secretary Kristi Noem right now, I think the last place she would want to be, is in front of the U.S. Congress. (House & Senate) Democrats just have too many lawyers and too much material to throw at her. She just looks like a SNL skit right now.

From Threads

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

Posted in Meidas Touch, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tom Mullen: Democracy is The Problem

Posted on May 19, 2025 by Ederik Schneider

“A Wisconsin judge has been arrested for allegedly helping an illegal alien evade immigration authorities. The case has added gasoline to the fire blazing in the wake of several recent court rulings against the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport illegal aliens more expeditiously than customary due process procedures would allow.

The administration argues the judiciary is deliberately obstructing its attempt to execute the clear will of the people, expressed in the last election, to reverse the trend of mass illegal immigration into the United States. Its opponents argue the administration is violating established law and basic constitutional protections of individual rights, especially the Fifth Amendment guarantee that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

Both sides accuse the other of being “a threat to our democracy.” This has been a mantra repeated about political opponents for many years now, by everyone from Nancy Pelosi to Tucker Carlson. Carlson railed against suppression of free speech as incompatible with “a democracy.” Democrats wailed that we must “save our democracy” from their Hitler-cartoon version of President Trump, even after he’d left office.

But to paraphrase a popular 20th century president, democracy is not the solution to our problems. Democracy is the problem.

If Americans should have learned one thing, it is to be suspicious of anything the media repeat over and over, through every medium. And what they’ve heard night and day for the past decade, from conservative and liberal media alike, is some form of the message “democracy is in danger.” They’ve heard it so much that they’ve forgotten what it is they should be desperate to protect. And it isn’t democracy.

Before the progressive era, the American political system was generally referred to as “republican” rather than “democratic.” This may seem purely semantic and to some extent it would be if the Constitution merely described a simple republic. In that case, representatives would be elected by popular vote and would generally be expected to do what those who elected them want them to do.

But the Constitution isn’t even that democratic. Once elected, the representatives are not permitted to do anything the people who elected them want. They are limited to a short list of powers they are authorized to exercise, regardless of the supposed “will of the people.”

To make doubly sure they do not go astray, the first ten amendments to the Constitution specify certain rights the government is especially prohibited from violating, again whether a majority of Americans seems to want it to or not.

The enumerated powers, the separation of powers among branches of the federal government and between the federal and state governments, the bicameral legislature, the Bill of Rights – they are all there to thwart the power of the majority, in other words, to protect us from democracy.

Thus, it seems odd that every politician, every media pundit, and even most citizens refer to the government the Constitution describes as “a democracy.” Certainly, it has democratic elements, particularly the election of legislators (originally only the House was elected democratically by the people). But most of the Constitution is dedicated to restraining the will of the majority.

This is more than an academic point. It speaks to a fundamental question that most Americans would answer incorrectly: what is the purpose of the government?

Those who have internalized the idea the American political system is “a democracy” would probably say its purpose was to do “the will of the people” or some such rot. And who can blame them? That’s all any American has heard for most of his or her life. But that’s incorrect…

Source:Tom Mullen back from 2011. Which feels like 14 years ago. (For some reason)

From Tom Mullen

From what I wrote in response to Dr. Ron Paul’s preview of President Trump’s State of the Union speech from this year:

“When Libertarians or even old school Conservatives, (or Classical Conservatives) talk about what they would call a “free society”, they’re talking about a republic. But just like they’re all types of cars, planes, etc, there all types of countries and even republics:

Russia is a republic. They call themselves the Russian Federation. So I guess 1 could call them a federation of republics. But under their Constitution, they are a federal republic.

China is a republic: The People’s Republic of China. But anyone who is familiar with China and communism, knows that China is a Communist Republic. By far not just the most successful communist republic in the world, but the most successful authoritarian republic in the world as well.

Iran calls themselves the Islamic Republic of Iran.

My point here is it depends of what type of republic you are talking about. Republic itself doesn’t guarantee a free society or not…

From The New Democrat

guess Tom Mullen’s “alternative” to democracy in America, would be what he would call a republic. But as I mentioned back in March, republic in of itself, does not guarantee individual freedom:

You take democracy away in this country, how would our leaders be chosen to run the country?

Would just just have some “board of experts” there to decide what’s best for everyone else in the country and they would appoint our members of Congress and the President?

As U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill intelligently once said: democracy is the worst form of government, except for anything else. But 1 good thing about democracy, is accountability. The people don’t like their leaders, they tend to get replaced… unless they dislike their opponents even more. (Not uncommon in America) And in our liberal democratic republic, (as opposed to some social democracy, or communist republic, religious state, etc) our leaders aren’t just held accountable by the voters, but by our branches of government:

The executive holds the legislative accountable and vice-versa

The judiciary holds both the executive and judiciary accountable and vice-versa.

And the voters can hold both the executive and the legislative accountable. And to a certain extent the judiciary. If the voters don’t like a judge, or some judges, they can call on their members of Congress to speak out against that judge, or that ruling, even ask to have that judge impeached and removed by Congress, or even call for any of the courts to be expanded.

What I would really like to hear from “Libertarians” (as some of them still call themselves) is what their idea of a libertarian republic would be. I’ve never really seen that. And as Tom Mullen was sort of suggesting in his blog post:

“Before the progressive era, the American political system was generally referred to as “republican” rather than “democratic.” This may seem purely semantic and to some extent it would be if the Constitution merely described a simple republic. In that case, representatives would be elected by popular vote and would generally be expected to do what those who elected them want them to do…

that we go back to an America before the Progressive Era, how would he try to accomplish that. I doubt it would be popular in this country and it would also be very difficult to do, at least constitutionally.

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

Posted in The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

David Pakman: Joe Biden Has Aggressive Cancer, MAGA Conspiracy EXPLODES

Posted on May 19, 2025 by Derik Schneider

“Joe Biden diagnosed with aggressive metastatic prostate cancer, MAGA immediately floods the internet with conspiracy theories.”

Source:David Pakman Show with a look at President Joe R. Biden (Democrat, Delaware) 46th President of the United States & Donnie Boy.

From the David Pakman Show

I guess I have a few reactions to this.

1. If you are a Gen-Xer (like myself) you remember those “Don’t Do Drugs” commercials and PSA’s from the 1980s and early 90s. I do, because I was in school during the entire 1980s and early 90s. So Donald Trump JR., is just a couple years younger than me… so he would’ve been in elementary school for the entire 1980s. (Unless he dropped out, or was dropped on his head, over and over, or was kicked out) But let’s say he was 3-5 years older, you could easily see him in 1 of those commercials. Not as the guy, or teenage guy telling kids not to do drugs… more like the spot-on example of why you shouldn’t do drugs:

“This is your face on illegal drugs.

This is how you sound on illegal drugs.

This is what you believe when your brain is on illegal drugs.”

If you watch any film or TV show, maybe a documentary that has anything to do with a mental hospital, or some incase asylum for people who’ve committed violent crimes, but were committed there, instead of sent to prison, you’ll see:

1 guy claiming he can walk on water

another guy claiming he spoke to the man on the moon, when he went out for a walk the other night

maybe 1 guy claiming to be Jesus Christ himself.

Put Donnie Boy in 1 of those places, his hallucination would be: “Joe Biden had prostate cancer as President and The White covered it up for him.”

2. Ask The White House to cover up the President’s prostate cancer… what else to you want? How about next week’s lotto tickets for every single state? They were struggling to cover up the President’s mental fitness for the previous 6-8 months before the June debate last year. I mean Bill Maher could see that. He’s not a doctor or a physician. He’s a freakin standup comedian, for crying out loud. You don’t deal with prostate cancer with Aspirin. You need a doctor, you need checkups, screenings, etc, and there’s no way they would’ve been able to keep that to themselves. It would’ve been leaked out.

3. Don JR… damn, good, thing, that he’s never run for public office before, yet. I guess he puts some limits on his hatred for America and has saved the country from 1 of his own campaigns. But he’s just an Onion story at this point in his life. Whenever he speaks about anything now, it sounds like it was reported by The Onion, first.

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

Posted in David Pakman, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jonah Goldberg: Don’t Call This Conservatism

Posted on May 16, 2025 by Rik Schneider

“If you spend any time following the most vocal defenders of Donald Trump or various populist causes generally, some version of this question may have occurred to you. If you find yourself listening to defenders of a supposedly extreme right-wing Republican president’s signature policies, and then wondering aloud, “Wait, I thought conservatives were in favor of free markets?” you have an idea of what I am getting at. If you’re perplexed by the way many on the right celebrate and lionize a rogue’s gallery of libertines, scapegraces, sybarites, caitiffs, roues, abusers, and cads, you might wonder why you didn’t get the memo explaining that the right no longer cares about “moral rearmament,” or “family values.”

In short, if you’re a lifelong conservative, you might be struggling with the question of whether “the right” is where you belong. If being a principled defender of the constitutional order, limited government, free markets, traditional values, and an America-led world still makes you a conservative, are you still on “the right” when the loudest voices on the right reject most or all of those positions?

I ask these questions full of trepidation about getting sucked into what I call the paradox of labels. It is simultaneously true that labels matter a great deal and that arguments about labels can often be a pointless distraction.

So let me make a brief case for the importance of labels. Labels matter because we use labels—terms, constructs, categories, words—to understand reality and chart our course through it, both individually and collectively. If you think labels don’t matter, tear off the labels on all of your cleaning supplies, canned goods, insecticides, prescription medicines, etc. Eventually, you’ll change your mind—or die in the pursuit of making a point.

At the same time, if you invest too much significance in labels, they end up doing your thinking for you. The words become separated from the thing, and arguments about reality become fodder for logical legerdemain and semantic games about terminology. British philosopher Antony Flew popularized the “No True Scotsman” fallacy: If “no Scotsmen put sugar on their porridge,” then a Scotsman’s identity is held hostage to an opinion.

There’s a long history of this fallacy in politics. Pas d’ennemis a gauche, pas d’amis a droit—no enemies to the left, no friends to the right—was a credo for Popular Fronts (more on those later) in 1930s France and Europe generally. A similar spirit has infused the right in the last decade. Highly partisan Trump supporters will routinely insist that no true conservative would oppose him—and suddenly the definition of conservative (or right-wing) is held hostage to support for him. Or even take Trump out of it: In the 1980s, support for a strong national defense against the Soviets was a point of conservative consensus. So promoters of a particular weapon system would try to argue that members of Congress must fund it or be stripped of their conservative insignia, like a cowardly officer being stripped of his epaulets.

The only reliable way out of the paradox of labels is to define your terms. In Kantian terms, the task is to make the phenomenon—for our purposes, the labels—correspond as closely as possible with the noumenon, the thing-in-itself. Specifically, are right-wingers conservative? Or have the once overlapping circles in the Venn diagram parted from each other, like two celestial bodies following different paths after a long eclipse…

Source:AEI columnist Jonah Goldberg. Now he’s a real “Conservative”.

I completely agree with Jonah Goldberg here. If you look at The New Democrat’s WordPress page, we never tag Donald Trump or anyone is his MAGA movement as “conservative”, or that post as “conservative”, or having anything to do with “conservatism”. Why?

The only thing that Donald Trump believes in conserving, (which is what Conservatives actually believe in) is himself. And he’ll conserve his allies, but only to protect himself. And the only things, or people that his “MAGA” movement believes in conserving, is Donald Trump and themselves. Perhaps their way of life, but to do that they would amputate their hand because their thumb is sore. And what I mean by that is that they would:

Destroy the Constitution

Destroy the rule of law

Give up their brains, their sense of decency, character, moral values, even their religion, to defend anything that Donald J. Trump, or any of his allies does or says. Nothing “conservative” about any of that.

So if you really are a “Conservative”, you believe in:

The U.S. Constitution

The rule of law

Tradition

Moral values, decency, character

“Free markets”, private enterprise, property rights, individual rights, limited government, fiscal responsibility.

But if you are ‘MAGA”;

Free trade destroys jobs and the American way of life.

All those individual rights that Conservatives talk about, they only belong to the “real Americans”. Who are the “real Americans”? “MAGA”, according to “MAGA”.

And the Constitution only protects “MAGA” (according to “MAGA”) and only restricts what non-“MAGA” people can do when it comes to government. Or deficits don’t matter when they’re in charge. It’s not big government when it’s “MAGA” government.

You could say that “fascist” or “nationalist” is a better way to describe “MAGA”. The problem is, Fascists and Nationalists actually believe in things. They don’t just make up their beliefs and policies as they go along, or to meet the current political circumstances.

So what is “MAGA”? Well, it’s not “Make America Great Again”. They don’t believe that. Maybe they want to make their own corner of the store, their own neck of the woods, their own playgrounds, (to use some country cliches that “MAGA” would be familiar with) “great again”.

To me, at this point the Mass Army of Gigantic Assholes, (that The New Democrat calls MAGA) is nothing more than Donald John Trump’s personal, political cult, and his latest financial piggybank, that he uses to financially support himself, with all the merchandise and everything else that comes from this movement. It’s just his latest Don The Con venture for himself, that 50 million (give or take) Americans have taken a long, national, ride, to support him.

Source:The New Democrat

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

Posted in AEI Video, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment