What Is The Point?

[Supsalemgr]

There is no doubt there are a lot of questions many citizens have. Any bill of this magnitude would overwhelm the voters. I will stand on my thought that we must wait and see how it unfolds in application.

[Vrede too]

Actually, I think many if not most of them are more well-qualified for other occupations than they are to be congresscritters. How often do you hear them say, "I'm not a politician, I'm a (whatever)" Or "We need more (farmers, tractor mechanics, plumbers, accountants, yada) in Congress and fewer lawyers." Who I want to see in Congress is people who want to be there, who've wanted to be there as a career, and who have worked at getting a relevant education and career experience to be able to do the job. People that have studied government and politics, have taken training in negotiation, conflict resolution, and public speaking. People that understand the actual purpose of government and who don't think it runs the same way as a gym or bar.

I'm with you, hominy, except that in my experience gyms and bars have always been run better than Congress. In one the weak are supported and receive the training they need and in the other the assholes and creeps are quickly thrown out.

By the Numbers: Senate Republican Reconciliation Bill Takes Health Coverage Away From Millions of People and Raises Families’ Costs

... * Roughly 17 million people would lose health coverage and become uninsured by 2034 because of the Medicaid and ACA marketplace cuts in the bill, the bill’s failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits for ACA marketplace coverage, and other harmful ACA marketplace changes being made via rule changes, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)....

17 million!

Tally is mine.

Trump Takes Lie-Packed Victory Lap On Bill Slashing Medicaid, Food Stamps
Cuts to those programs by his ‘big, beautiful bill’ break campaign promises not to touch them, which many of his followers rely on.

President Donald Trump on Thursday evening characterized his just-approved cuts to Medicaid and food stamps as eliminating “wasteful spending” in a lie-filled victory lap speech in Iowa.
1

“With this bill, every major promise I made to the people of Iowa in 2024 became a promise kept,” he told his supporters in Des Moines about the massive tax-and-spending cut bill that cleared Congress earlier in the day.
2

He similarly claimed that he had delivered on his campaign promise of “no tax on social security” ― which is true only for a small set of senior citizens who happen to earn just over the existing threshold for untaxed social security income, and only if they die before 2028, when the new tax deduction for them disappears.
2.5

Might not help me, after all. Figures.

New tax breaks creating deductions on overtime and tip income similarly expire after just three years, while reductions to income tax rates that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest 20% of Americans are now permanently on the books.

The new bill ― which Trump and his allies call the “big, beautiful bill” and which he is planning to sign into law Friday ― extends tax cuts originally passed in 2017 and slashes close to $2 trillion in spending, half of that from Medicaid, a program Trump promised he would not touch. In all, the new law will increase annual budgets deficits by about 33% annually and increase the national debt by $4.1 trillion by 2034, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
3.5

Trump, as he nearly always does, meandered and rambled through various unrelated topics during his 66-minute speech. He invented a conversation with Iranian leaders in which they set a convenient time for when they would fire missiles at the U.S. military base in Qatar following his strike against that country’s nuclear facilities. He bragged about renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. He called bad bankers “shylocks,” an anti-Semitic slur. He confused Fifth Avenue in New York with Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., when recounting the $45 million military parade he threw for himself on his birthday last month.
4
He announced that he would host a kick-boxing match on White House grounds as part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebration. And he attacked Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City, as a “communist at the highest level.” ...
5

5 lies, there were certainly more. MAGAts must be so very proud.

[Vrede too]

7 little-known items in Trump’s big agenda bill

... Discovery is on the move

The space shuttle Discovery, parked at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Northern Virginia since it was decommissioned in 2011, will be relocated. Its new home: Houston....

It's Cruz-Cornyn pork, but Texas did get snubbed when NASA doled out 4 shuttles.

Space launch fees ...

Suck on that, Melon.

Bad news for gamblers ...

Kennedy Center renovations

, but it will all be gold leaf.

Gun silencer fees eliminated

The bill eliminates a $200 fee that gun owners are charged when purchasing silencers and short-barrel rifles, as well as registration and ownership requirements.

It removes those from the scope of the 1934 National Firearms Act, a Prohibition-era law intended to crack down on gangland crime. That law remains in effect for machine guns and explosive devices.

People will die, perps will not be caught.

Tax break for whaling captains

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski used her leverage as the Senate’s deciding vote to extract a series of concessions in the final bill for her home state. Among them: An increase, from $10,000 to $50,000, of a tax deduction for whaling-related expenses.

Fuck Lisa, but I don't have a problem with sustainable indigenous whaling.

Car buyers’ loan deduction

... On the other hand, those in the market for electric vehicles will see a tax credit created under former President Joe Biden and worth up to $7,500 eliminated at the end of September. It had originally been scheduled to last through 2032.

It's a shame. Do I want to rush and buy one? Probably not.

[GoCubsGo]

It's a shame. Do I want to rush and buy one? Probably not.

Do you have a place to plug it in?

[Vrede too]

It's a shame. Do I want to rush and buy one? Probably not.

Do you have a place to plug it in?

I have a detached garage.

[GoCubsGo]

It's a shame. Do I want to rush and buy one? Probably not.

Do you have a place to plug it in?

I have a detached garage.

Plan on an extra two grand for your charging station.

[Vrede too]

From: Social Security Administration
To: (Vrede too)

Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors

Unless there are hidden cuts to Medicare I will come out ahead in years where I owe taxes. Thank you, Daddy. I have decided to become a MAGAt and will be asking SoupySales to vouch me into CPF.

Of course, if I outlive my expectations and have spent down my assets I'm screwed by the Medicaid cuts. Guess I'll kill myself.

Trump Takes Lie-Packed Victory Lap On Bill Slashing Medicaid, Food Stamps
Cuts to those programs by his ‘big, beautiful bill’ break campaign promises not to touch them, which many of his followers rely on.


He similarly claimed that he had delivered on his campaign promise of “no tax on social security” ― which is true only for a small set of senior citizens who happen to earn just over the existing threshold for untaxed social security income, and only if they die before 2028, when the new tax deduction for them disappears.

Might not help me, after all. Figures.

Unusual Social Security email touts Trump bill. Here's what to know.

Social Security beneficiaries are accustomed to getting occasional emails from the program about matters like a benefits statement, but many were perplexed to get a different kind of message from the Social Security Administration late in the evening on Thursday, July 3....

Issuing an overtly political statement is unusual for the agency that oversees Social Security, which makes monthly payments to 73 million retirees, their survivors, and people with disabilities.

"It's completely unprecedented," said Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, a left-leaning advocacy organization focused on retirement benefits. "It's an enormous breach of trust."

Lawson contends that the email praising Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" violates the Hatch Act, a law against partisan political activity by federal government employees....

DonOLD Admin* illegals, again.

A tax cut for some seniors

... There are many Social Security recipients and seniors who won't get a tax cut, however....

Less benefit for those with lower incomes

"Lower-income earners benefit less than middle and upper-middle income households," Watson said.

On average, seniors in the bottom 20% income will save just 0.1% on their tax bill, according to the Tax Policy Foundation's analysis, about one-tenth of what those in the middle of the income distribution will save.

"It’s been marketed as tax relief for seniors, but a lot of seniors are going to be surprised when they find out it doesn’t apply to them," Watson said. "I'm getting asked all the time by folks what this actually means for their tax situation."

Social Security's long-term funding problem

And while some will soon benefit from lower taxes, the lost tax revenue could trigger a future automatic benefit cut for all beneficiaries.

That's because Social Security benefits aren't taxed like normal income. Instead of being used as general revenues, they go specifically into the trust funds that provide a backstop for Medicare and Social Security.

The Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance trust funds were on track to be depleted by 2033, but now that date will be moved up to 2032, because the senior citizen tax deduction will lop an estimated $30 billion per year off the tax revenues those trust funds collect, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That, in turn, will trigger a future automatic benefit cut of 24% to all recipients, the centrist think tank projects.

Those problems will only grow worse, Watson noted, if Congress renews, increases or makes permanent the senior tax deduction, when it expires in 2028.

"It's a mixed bag for seniors, because some seniors will get some tax relief; the cost of that, though, is borne by the entire Social Security system," Lawson said.

If I live 7 years (or fewer), which I expect to do, I will lose out as a result of the BUB. Thanks, MAGA . Thanks, Sen Budd and Rep Chuck Edwards.

Email comes amid customer-service 'crisis'

Critics are pouncing on the message arriving at a time when the Social Security Administration has been suffering from problems with customer service.

The Trump administration has reduced the agency's staff and instituted new rules on identification for applicants, resulting in average wait times that have ballooned to 90 minutes.

In June, the agency stopped making public real-time performance metrics about how long they will have to wait to reach a live person on the phone, and how long applications for new benefits take to be approved, USA TODAY reported on June 26. Multiple times, USA TODAY reporters called Social Security's 1-800 line they did not reach a live person before the line disconnected with no warning.

Why does MAGA hate granny?

[1 CAT FAN]

O Really has it covered, "Ka-Ching."

[Vrede too]

Do you have a place to plug it in?

I have a detached garage.

Plan on an extra two grand for your charging station.

Thanks. We'll see.

[Vrede too]

Republicans just cut Medicaid. Will it cost them control of Congress?

Hasn't anyone told them that Everything Trump Touches Dies?


That's IF we have midterm elections and IF the results are accepted.

[GoCubsGo]

Part of the point is when you lift the curtain there's a ton of pork , what a shocker GOP!


GOP megabill littered with special tax breaks

[Vrede too]

Part of the point is when you lift the curtain there's a ton of pork , what a shocker GOP!


GOP megabill littered with special tax breaks

Figures.

People Are Saying We Might Not Even Make It To The Midterm Election After Elizabeth Warren Tried To Give Hope About Republicans Having To "Face The Voters" In 2026

... Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive Democrat from Massachusetts, made a video in the car as she left the Capitol after voting on the bill last Tuesday.

"I'm leaving the Senate now," she says. "At the end of the vote, when the Republicans won, they cheered."

"They cheered over taking away healthcare from around 17 million people."

"They cheered over giving huge tax breaks to a handful of billionaires."

"They cheered over running up the national debt by another three and a half trillion dollars."

Republicans? That can't be right, can it?

... "But, we stay in the fight," she repeats three times. "And we proved why we stay in the fight, because actually, there are pieces of this bill that we got better."

"We got the tax on solar and wind knocked out, and that's gonna help with clean energy. We got a few different pieces and made them better," she says. "So that's reason number one. It's always the reminder. All of those calls matter."

Was the tax on solar and wind a stalking horse all along?

"... come November 2026, they're gonna have to face the voters. They're gonna have to face the people, the families of the people whose healthcare they took away. And they're gonna have to explain exactly what they just did just now on the floor of the United States Senate and whatever they do next."

"So," she sighs, "this is hard. But, damn. We stay in the fight. We stay in it not because it's an easy fight, not because we're guaranteed to win every time. We stay in it because it's the right fight." ...



(Liz! video)

As GoCubsGo said:

Leopards, I see leopards.

viewtopic.php?p=15320#p15320

[GoCubsGo]

Expect more of this.

[Vrede too]

Expect more of this.

https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/1942345612906594650

GoPPGo.

Haven't seen SoupySales here for a week. Do you suppose he's annoyed that we highjacked his 'Hakim gotcha thread' to talk about all the things wrong with the BUB and the process that passed it? For example:

Trump Failed To Deliver His ‘No Tax’ Promises And Is Now Just Lying That He Did
Trump’s tax and spending bill does not eliminate taxes on Social Security, overtime and tip income, but merely provides temporary tax deductions

... What’s more, the recipients of those tax breaks, along with every other American household, could soon end up paying far more because of the massive import taxes Trump says will take effect next month.

“It’s about $750 in tax cuts and $2,000 in tariff increases,” said Jason Furman, a top economist in Barack Obama’s White House, about the effects on the typical household.

White House aides did not respond to HuffPost queries about why Trump was lying about the new law and why he did not push to make those provisions that help middle-class Americans permanent, as he did the tax rate changes that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest.

Trump himself, meanwhile, has been claiming, falsely and unequivocally, that he has made good on his oft-repeated promises in 2024 as he ran to regain the office he had lost in 2020 after bungling the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime,” he told Fox News on June 29.

In Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting photo opportunity, he again claimed that he and congressional Republicans had delivered “no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime.”

TACO Don always LIES, always.

And on Wednesday, in an email to his small-dollar donors, Trump wrote: “I just signed into LAW something I’m very proud of: NO TAXES ON SOCIAL SECURITY!”

In reality, Trump and Republicans created a limited tax deduction for a maximum of $12,500 in overtime pay and $25,000 in tip income, and only for federal income tax. Workers will still have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on all overtime pay and tips.

The situation is similar for senior citizens whom Trump promised, repeatedly, that he would stop taxing Social Security payments. Instead, they will receive a new tax deduction amounting to about $600 for the typical recipient not already exempt from paying that tax because their total income was too low.

Opps.

And all three tax breaks will expire in 2028 – the year Trump leaves office, assuming he chooses to honor the constitutional limit of two presidential terms.

... Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the tariffs, tax cut extensions skewed to favor the wealthiest Americans, and cuts to Medicaid and food stamps in the bill reveal Trump’s true priorities.

“On Day One, he promised to lower costs but instead he passed the largest cuts to health care and food assistance in American history and has dragged the American people into a chaotic trade war with no end in sight,” Martin said. “The bottom line: Trump is a crooked liar and a con artist rigging the economy for the ultra-wealthy.”