07-03-25 FULL SHOW - Short Show So Let's Celebrate Our Independence!

SHORT BLOG BECAUSE ROCKIES EAT THE SHOW AT 12:30 And I'm off tomorrow and Monday so we're talking Independence Day and the Not-So Big Beautiful Bill today.

OF COURSE THE BILL IS GOING TO PASS What did I say yesterday about the fake drama about the Big Beautiful Bill? I told you that there would be a good show of some of the members of the House who said this was a garbage bill and the Senate made it worse before they voted to move it along. And that is EXACTLY what happened. A seven hour procedural vote that cleared the deck for the bill to pass today, so everyone in the House can go home and talk about what a hard battle they fought but this is just how things work in Washington and gosh they wish it was different. So predictable. The bill should pass this morning. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad the tax cuts are permanent because if taxes had jumped right now it would crush people who are already being crushed by inflation's impact. But this bill just moves us closer to insolvency. I hope beyond all hope I'm wrong. Please let me be wrong.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE BILL? Well I've gathered up some stuff from people who think this bill is horrible and why. Here the Committee for a Responsible Federal Government shows how this bill is the biggest budget buster of ALL TIME. This column points out that the bill does nothing to deal with the crisis looming for Social Security and Medicare and even speeds up Social Security's demise. This column talks about the death of regular order, which will absolutely come back to bite the GOP again the next time the Democrats have a slim majority and big ideas, although that column does the best job of giving ALL the pros and cons and is worth a full read. This part on why they are using a reconciliation process instead of doing it the way it should be done is really good:

The bill’s secret weapon is something called budget reconciliation—a special process that allows legislation affecting federal spending, revenues, or debt to pass the Senate with just 51 votes instead of the usual 60. This procedural advantage was established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to streamline budget decisions. But it’s become the preferred method for passing major partisan legislation when one party controls Congress by narrow margins. Reconciliation was originally designed to ensure that Congress could implement budget resolutions by reconciling actual spending and revenue legislation with overall fiscal targets. The idea was to prevent individual appropriations or tax bills from undermining broader budget agreements. Over time, creative lawmakers discovered they could use reconciliation for much more ambitious purposes. Any provision that affects federal spending, revenues, or debt levels can potentially qualify for the expedited process. The current bill qualifies because virtually every provision either raises or lowers taxes, increases or decreases spending, or affects government debt levels. Tax cuts reduce revenues. Healthcare changes affect Medicaid spending. Even seemingly unrelated provisions can be crafted to meet reconciliation requirements. Reco