Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is horrible policy and greatly adds to the debt and deficit.
Trump’s superpower is his ability to threaten members of congress with primary challenges. Republican members of congress know the bill is a bunch of shit shoved together, but they voted for it anyways because they are weak cowards.
Congress is broken and has been broken for some time. Regular order where Congress members debate and understand bills is dead.
States like Alaska got a sweet deal by avoiding some of the bad policy coming from the bill. This was done to convince senators to vote for it.
Huge debt, bad policy, and sweetheart deals…where’s the tea party!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al0kZvcFlqc
U.S. murder rate is way higher than other developed countries. Our non-gun murder rate is normal, but our gun-murder rate is huge.
Much gun violence is not rational. It’s not clearly motivated by money or lack of fear of the justice system. It’s just two guys getting into an argument who fail to solve it peacefully and someone pulls a gun.
Parts of certain cities are overwhelmed with crime, so children are often left to fend for themselves. This develops a culture and an intuitive sense that if I don’t respond to provocation with violence, I will be taken advantage of. This leads people to instinctively respond to perceived provocation with deadly force.
Although gang violence is a big problem, most shootings are not gang related.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2raVsK4gnmo
“Seven of the men have no ties to South Sudan, but the administration wants to send them there as part of an effort to expel people to so-called third countries when U.S. law bars them from being sent to their home countries or when their home countries will not accept them.
“They’re now subject to imminent deportation to war torn South Sudan, a place where they have no ties and where it is possible, if not probable, that they will be arrested and detained upon arrival,” said Trina Realmuto, an attorney for the men. “This ruling is condoning lawlessness.””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/03/supreme-court-third-country-deportations-south-sudan-00439701
“Special tax breaks for venture capitalists, Alaskan fisheries, spaceports, private schools, rum makers and others — together costing tens of billions of dollars — quietly caught a ride on Republicans’ sprawling domestic policy megabill.”
Pork pork pork. Where’s the tea party!?
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/04/from-rum-to-gun-silencers-tailored-tax-breaks-add-billions-to-megabill-00438962
“These reversals may be surprising, but they were not remarkable. It was par for the course for congressional Republicans who, in recent years, have shown a proclivity for taking bold, theatrical stands before meekly capitulating in the face of political pressure — particularly from President Donald Trump.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/03/congressional-republicans-cave-megabill-big-beautiful-00439956
“The sprawling measure — which at its core was really one big, beautiful tax extender — was never about those tax rates or Medicaid or the deficit. The underlying legislation was no bill at all, but a referendum on Trump. And that left congressional Republicans a binary choice that also had nothing to do with the policy therein: They could salute the president and vote yes and or vote no and risk their careers in a primary.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/04/republicans-megabill-vote-jonathan-martin-column-00439333
“Trump said the tariffs on Japan and South Korea would be separate from any “sectoral” tariffs that he imposes. That appears to refer to the duties that he has already imposed on autos, auto parts, steel and aluminum under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which gives the president broad authority to restrict imports to protect national security.”
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“Trump said he was imposing the duties to help reduce the “very persistent” trade deficits with the two countries — meaning they export more goods to the U.S. than they buy from the U.S. — which the president blamed on Japan and South Korea’s tariffs and other trade barriers.
However, most economists disagree with that analysis, saying that macroeconomic factors like relative savings rates play more of a role in driving the overall U.S. trade deficit.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/07/trump-threatens-japan-south-korea-new-tariffs-00441302
“For decades, Republicans have extolled the virtues of removing loopholes and carveouts from the tax code, arguing it would make the system fairer and more efficient, while allowing for lower overall tax rates.”
…
“Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is not an exercise in tax simplification.
Instead, it began with a push to extend the party’s 2017 tax cuts — which despite some streamlining also introduced some complexity — and piled more on top, in line with a slew of presidential campaign promises. Add in a heavy dose of congressional politics, and the result was a sprawling and quirky piece of legislation that is distinctively Trumpy: lower taxes and a bigger pile of tax breaks.”
…
“several economists I spoke with worried it is the worst of all combinations: increasing the debt to pay for tax breaks that lead to neither growth nor other economically useful outcomes.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/05/trump-tax-cuts-megabill-republicans-00439787
“Tariffs will revert back to their April 2 rates on Aug. 1 for countries that fail to nail down new trade deals with the United States, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday, just three days before the Trump administration’s initial July 9 deadline for tariffs to return.
Bessent told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Trump administration would be sending out letters to 100 smaller countries “saying that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1st, you will boomerang back to your April 2nd tariff level.””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/06/bessent-trump-tariffs-deadline-august-00440522
“The catastrophic floods that struck central Texas on Friday show that accurate weather forecasts alone aren’t enough to save lives.
The National Weather Service issued timely warnings in advance of the deadly floods, meteorologists say. But they emphasized that forecasts are only one piece of an effective response — local authorities must be able to interpret weather warnings, communicate them to the public and help communities get to safety in time.”
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“In the case of last week’s floods, NWS began to escalate its warnings as much as 12 hours in advance, issuing flood watches beginning Thursday afternoon and upgrading to a flash flood warning by 1a.m. local time Friday, with more urgent warnings following into the early morning.”
…
“The NWS office in San Angelo, which serves some of the hardest-hit communities, has no permanent meteorologist in charge, according to a list of vacancies published by the agency in June. And the Austin/San Antonio office, also serving flooded communities, is missing its warning coordination meteorologist and a science and operations officer, according to the same list.
These roles often serve as liaisons between NWS meteorologists and local authorities or emergency managers. Warning coordination meteorologists, in particular, help translate forecasts into usable action plans that can aid the local authorities who make decisions and evacuate communities as severe weather systems approach.
It’s unclear whether those vacancies have affected coordination with local authorities. Top meteorologists at NWS San Angelo and NWS Austin/San Antonio did not immediately respond to questions about whether the openings posed any challenges during the floods.
But Tom Fahy, legislative director at the union that represents NWS employees, said in an interview that vacancies at the Texas offices did not cause any problems during the floods.”
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” “The crux of this disaster is a failure of the last mile of communication,” Fahy said. “The forecasts went out, they communicated the forecasts, they disseminated the watches and warnings. And the dilemma we have is there was nobody listening at 4 o’clock in the morning for these watches and warnings.”
Most people who died in Friday’s floods were located in Kerr County, which does not have a warning system, according to Kelly, the Kerry County judge, at a Friday news conference.”
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“In an interview with The New York Times, Kelly suggested that warning systems are expensive and “taxpayers won’t pay for it.””
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” A policy on the camp’s website suggests that campers are not permitted to have cellphones, smart watches, iPads or other devices with touchscreens. It’s unclear whether counselors had access to devices equipped with emergency alerts or whether the camp had access to a NOAA weather radio.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/07/texas-flood-forecasts-accuracy-lives-lost-00441068