No one wanted Trump’s devastating budget bill. Of course it passed

 No one wanted Trump’s devastating budget bill.  Of course it passed

 Donegan, Moira Moira Donegan

 The bill steals from the sick, elderly and hungry, and gives to billionaires and jackboots.  But Republicans will follow their leader anywhere

 

 The particular perverseness of American national politics is exemplified by the budget reconciliation bill that Donald Trump swiftly signed into law after it passed the House of Representatives on Thursday. It appears that no one wants it, everyone despises it, and it is widely acknowledged to be devastating for a staggering number of Americans. And yet, the bill felt inevitable: it was a foregone conclusion that this massive, malignant measure was something that everyone dreaded and no one had the capacity to stop.

 They didn't even try at all. In the Senate, a few conservative Republicans made noise about the bill’s dramatic costs: the congressional budget office estimates that the bill will add $3.3 tn to the deficit over the coming decade, and the senator Rand Paul, a budget hawk from Kentucky, declined to vote for it for this reason.  However, other Republicans, who previously claimed to be fiscally responsible guardians against excessive government spending, engaged in some freelance creative accounting to produce an estimate that erroneously claimed the bill's cost would be lower. Most of them quickly found themselves on board.

 Moderate Republicans, or what remain of them, also quickly quit the field.  Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina facing down an uncertain re-election bid, expressed concerns about the bill’s massive cuts to Medicaid, the federal low-income healthcare program on which many Americans – and many of his constituents – rely.  Tillis announced that he would not run for re-election after being threatened by Donald Trump with a primary challenge. He voted against the bill and ended his political career as a result. Susan Collins, of Maine – she of the perennial “concern” about the sadistic Republican agendas that she continues to support – made a rare departure from her usual formula and voted against the bill, a move that came close on the heels of polling showing her dismal approval rating among her constituents.  That left just Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, who agreed to play ball: she would vote for the bill, which she had publicly disparaged, in exchange for some money for her state.  The result was that Alaska will be exempted, at least temporarily, from new rules associated with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or Snap, which helps low-income Americans buy enough food to keep themselves alive.  Republicans threw in a tax deduction for Alaskan whaling captains – of all things – and with that, her vote was secured.

 It will make us sicker, poorer, more afraid, less knowledgeable, and more at risk. In the meantime, it will make the wealthy even richer. A few Republicans threatened to withhold their votes when the bill was sent to the House due to concerns about the budget and Medicaid. However, nobody believed them. They were always going to cave, abandon their stated principles and follow Trump’s orders, and they did.  After all, Trump had stated that he wanted the bill to be passed before the Fourth of July, and it was passed on July 3. He says jump, and the Congress asks: How high?

 They do so even when the demands that Trump makes are morally grotesque.  The bill will devastate Americans.  Its massive cuts to Medicaid, combined with expiring Obamacare subsidies, will result in an estimated 17 million Americans losing health coverage over the next 10 years, effectively undoing the expansion of healthcare coverage that was achieved with Barack Obama’s health law.  Some people who are currently eating because they receive food assistance will go hungry in the future as a result of the severe cuts to Snap. There are deep cuts to federal loans and grants for college students, and a near-reversal of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act’s investments in green energy, with tax breaks now going to climate-damaging sectors like coal and oil instead.  Because the bill creates a dramatic budget deficit, law requires that Medicare, the healthcare program for seniors, will face cuts, too.

 Including the legislation's subsequent effects, none of this matters. The steep cuts to Medicaid, in particular, will devastate America’s already fragile and partial healthcare system.  Planned Parenthood is now excluded from federal Medicaid dollars, meaning that about 200 of its roughly 600 clinics will probably have to close, making abortion less accessible even in states where it is legal, and putting contraception and STD and cancer screenings out of reach for untold numbers of American women.  Many rural hospitals will likely have to close, too, along with nursing homes.  Those healthcare clinics that remain will have longer wait times and more crowding, and offer more expensive care.  Ultimately, fewer people will be going to the doctor, and more of them will suffer and die needlessly of treatable and preventable conditions.