The GOP, following the orders of their despotic leader Donald Trump, passed the budget bill that throws millions off of Medicaid, funds Trump’s mass deportations and cuts taxes for the wealthiest Americans. No matter the draconian cuts, the massive debt—more than we’ve seen in any budget bill by any president—has the bond markets shuddering, coming on top of the tariff chaos.
Then there are the hidden last-minute provisions in the bill, which, if debated at all, were only discussed in committee hearings and on the floor overnight so the GOP would not have the American people see what was happening. I’m just going to focus on three that have surfaced, but you know there’s more in a bill that is over 1000 pages and rushed through.
Democratic Congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado exposed the stunning provision that would allow Donald Trump to defy court orders, and he eviscerated Rep. Jim Jordan about it. Yes, tucked in the bill is a paragraph limiting a court's ability to make the government follow its rulings.
“This is a deep deviation from existing federal law," Neguse said. "And I find it astounding ... I imagine there will be a lot of limited government advocates who will find deep reasons to be concerned about this type of provision because as you can imagine it will preclude folks from being able to vindicate their constitutional rights."
Jordan huffed and puffed about looking at it again, somewhat feigning ignorance, but it’s in the bill, per Newsweek:
A provision "hidden" in the sweeping budget bill that passed the U.S. House on Thursday seeks to limit the ability of courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—from enforcing their orders.
"No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued," the provision in the bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, says.
The provision would prohibit courts from enforcing contempt citations for violations of injunctions or temporary restraining orders—the main types of rulings that have been used to rein in President Donald Trump's administration—unless the plaintiffs have paid a bond, something that rarely happens when someone sues the government.
Democrats also this week asked the Congressional Budget Office to score the impact of the bill on Medicare in addition to Medicaid. And lo-and-behold, the GOP had another surprise. They knew that significantly raising the debt would automatically trigger cuts to Medicare.
The Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would increase the national debt so much that, according to The Washington Post, “it could force nearly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare.” Some of those cuts would could come next year, as the bill would force officials “to mandate across-the-board spending cuts over that window that would hit the federal health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities.”:
When legislation significantly adds to the national debt, which already exceeds $36.2 trillion, it triggers ‘sequestration,’ or compulsory budgetary reductions. In that scenario, Medicare cuts would be capped at 4 percent annually, or $490 billion over 10 years, the CBO reported in response to a request from Rep. Brendan Boyle (Pennsylvania), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee.
Then, well past midnight last night, the anti-trans provisions were added, as The Advocate reports:
In the early hours of Thursday morning, while much of the country slept or was waking up, House Republicans rammed through a sweeping multi-trillion-dollar domestic policy package that slashes Medicaid, restricts food assistance, and — in a stunning escalation — bans federally funded health care for transgender people of all ages.
The heartless bigots added two provisions, one of which strips health care from the Affordable Care Act. The initial mark-up of the Medicaid provision said it applied to minors—and then “minors” was stricken, so it then applied to all trans people.
One strips all Medicaid and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program) funding for gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries, not just for youth but for trans people of any age. A second bans coverage for those same services under the Affordable Care Act by excluding them from the definition of “essential health benefits.”
Again, these are just three horrendous provisions added to the bill, which was forced through by Mike Johnson and Trump and passed last night with no Democrats supporting it. The bill still has to pass the Senate and there have been Republicans skittish about the Medicaid cuts. But you know Trump will make threats and they will fall in line. So I’m not hopeful that any of these hidden provisions—and more that we don’t even know about—will come out.
Let’s remember though that the GOP always overplays, and then gets completely slammed. So, as Democrats focus on the all out assault on the safety net, as Americans see it and feel it, we’ve got to make sure the GOP pays for it in the mid-terms.