The One Big Ugly Bill
How loudly "Christian values" House Republicans passed legislation totally antithetical to those values
Because I’m a nerd (and proud of it), while I’m listening to the Torah reading in synagogue, I’m reading the footnotes and commentaries.
Last Saturday’s reading seemed particularly apropos given that late Thursday House Republicans passed their laughably-named “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Laughable because a) it shows how cowed they are by a man who can barely string together a coherent sentence, and because b) this monstrosity of a bill isn’t beautiful for anyone except those in high income tax brackets and the Project 2025 acolytes who want to destroy the social supports that so many Americans rely on. Climate change deniers and oil and gas companies will also find much to celebrate.
Energy analysts at the Rhodium Group said their preliminary review of the bill found the changes could raise household energy costs by 7%.
Solar, wind and battery storage are expected to account for 93% of new U.S. electric capacity this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The American Petroleum Institute praised the bill for "preserving competitive tax policies," as well as opening up more oil lease sales and eliminating Biden administration policies such as its fee on methane emissions for the oil and gas industry.
And guess which states have benefited a lot from the clean energy boom: Republican ones! And yet over two-dozen GOP Reps whose districts benefited from clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act voted for the bill. Hope GOP voters in those states don’t mind higher energy bills when the South is baking in 100 degree heat waves. How are your egg prices doing?
As of August 2024, more than half of all IRA-backed projects were in Republican House districts, according to an analysis last year by E2, a firm that advocates for pro-environment economic policies.
"Despite many reassurances that Members support domestic manufacturing, a vote for this bill was a vote to close U.S. factories and concede manufacturing jobs of the most important energy resource of the 21st century to China," said Michael Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers For America Coalition.
At a time when we’re already at Gilded Age levels of income inequality, provisions in this bill, like the increase in the estate tax exemption for example, will only exacerbate the problem.
I’m tempted to call this the Great Big Boomer Bill, because it screws subsequent generations on so many different levels, not least the raising of the debt ceiling to fund all these benefits for the wealthy.
Mike Luckovich is one of my favorite political cartoonists, and this from last week sums up the situation well.
The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait called the bill “the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.”
That is not a side effect of the legislation, but its central purpose. The “big, beautiful bill” would pair huge cuts to food assistance and health insurance for low-income Americans with even larger tax cuts for affluent ones.
Saturday’s Torah portion was a double feature, Behar-Bechukotai. Behar talks about the shmita year, where the land is allowed to lie fallow and debts are forgiven, which occurs every seven years in Israel.
This particular footnote caught my eye, because of its truth and its timeliness.
The current administration is doing all it can to dismantle programs that addressed income inequality and the ability of people without inherited wealth to afford a college education. They want the rich to get even richer and those who weren’t born into wealth to be a permanent underclass with no protections or rights.
I lived in one of America’s richest towns for 20 years, and there was not nearly enough recognition about how the financial situation of the family you’re born into can give you a head start on so many different levels. Better healthcare. Better education. Preferential treatment in college admissions if your family donates big to a school. The Nepo-baby network in getting internships and jobs.
How will the wealthy ever know what it’s like to go hungry - not by choice because they’re trying to live longer through intermittent fasting, but due to lack of resources? They won’t. And they’ll continue to blame the poor for their own misfortune as a result.
Besides the Big Ugly Bill, we also learned how corruption in this administration runs deep - that it’s the feature, not the bug in everything Trump and his cronies do.
Last week, ProPublica (if you don’t donate to them, run over and do it now, because they are doing the investigative journalism that we need in this moment) published a piece about how many administration officials engaged in insider trading ahead of “Liberation Day” - clearly anticipating the market cratering. Some benefited on both ends - selling before the announcement and buying back once stocks had cratered.
More than a dozen high-ranking executive branch officials and congressional aides have made well-timed trades since Trump took office in January, most of them selling stock before the market plunged amid fears that Trump’s tariffs would set off a global trade war, according to a ProPublica review of disclosures across the government.
All of the trades came shortly before a significant government announcement or development that could influence stock prices. Some who sold individual stocks or broader market funds used their earnings to buy investments that are generally less risky, such as bonds or treasuries. Others appear to have kept their money in cash. In one case unrelated to tariffs, records show that a congressional aide bought stock in two mining companies shortly before a key Senate committee approved a bill written by his boss that would help the firms.
There was a time when people went to jail for stuff like this, even though they got off easy compared folks accused of minor drug crimes.
But under the Grifter-in-Chief, anything goes, it appears.
Just look at the Crypto Dinner, held Thursday evening at the Trump golf course outside DC.
When Trump first promoted his memecoin in January, three days before the inauguration, the limited amount released into circulation rose in value to $14 billion. The remaining 80 percent of the supply is controlled by CIC Digital LLC—a subsidiary of a conglomerate owned by the Trump family—and Fight Fight Fight LLC, formed by longtime Trump ally Bill Zanker. With little more than a social media post, Trump had added billions of dollars to his paper net worth. (The value of the circulating coins has since slumped to roughly $3 billion.)
The team behind the TRUMP coin announced the presidential dinner for the top 220 holders on April 23, promising the top 25 a close-quarters reception with Trump. The attendees would be selected based on who had held the most coins and kept them the longest between the announcement date and May 12, the website explained.
Let’s take a look at the largest holder of $Trump, Justin Sun.
The China-born entrepreneur has become increasingly entangled in the Trump family’s expanding web of crypto ventures; in addition to investing in the memecoin, Sun previously disclosed a combined $75 million investment in a separate crypto coin issued by World Liberty Financial, a company affiliated with the Trump family and promoted by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. In early May, Eric Trump announced a partnership between World Liberty Financial and TRON, a crypto network developed by Sun.
So people who invest in a scheme that benefits Trump and his ne’er do well sons, Don Jr and Eric, get face time with the President. In any other universe, Congress would be demanding hearings and the media would be all over this non-stop. But Congressional Republicans are mostly venal cowards, and the Roberts Supreme Court has proved itself incapable of dealing with judicial corruption. So it’s up to us, We the People, to show up en masse, by calling Congress and protesting in the streets - letting our elected officials know that “We’re not going a take it.”
Let’s go to this week’s haftorah, to see what the prophet Jeremiah had to say about this:
And let us say, Amen.
Sarah