‘A dark day for our country': Democrats furious over Trump bill's passage
Party leaders released a wave of statements after the sweeping tax and spending bill's passage on Thursday, revealing a fury that could peel paint off a brick outhouse.
'Today, Donald Trump and the Republican party sent a message to America: if you are not a billionaire, we don't give a damn about you,' said Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee chair.
'While the GOP continues to cash their billionaire donors' checks, their constituents will starve, lose critical medical care, lose their jobs – and yes, some will die as a result of this bill. Democrats are mobilizing and will fight back to make sure everybody knows exactly who is responsible for one of the worst bills in our nation's history.'
The bill's narrow passage in the House on Thursday, with no Democratic support and only two no votes from Republicans – which came from Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania – is 'not normal', wrote congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Ocasio-Cortez highlighted the contradictions in the bill that Democrats can be expected to campaign on over the next two years, pitting its spending on immigration enforcement against the loss of social benefits for working-class Americans. She noted that Republicans voted for permanent tax breaks for billionaires while allowing a tax break on tips for people earning less than $25,000 a year to sunset in three years.
She also noted that cuts to Medicaid expansion will remove tipped employees from eligibility for Medicaid and remove subsidies for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and reduce Snap food assistance benefits.
'I don't think anyone is prepared for what they just did with Ice,' Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Bluesky. 'This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion – making Ice bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, [the] DEA and others combined. It is setting up to make what's happening now look like child's play. And people are disappearing.'
Many critics referred to choice remarks made by Republicans in the run-up to the bill's passage that displayed an indifference to their voters' concerns.
Senator Mitch McConnell was reported by Punchbowl News to have said to other Republicans in a closed-door meeting last week: 'I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid. But they'll get over it.'
And Republican senator Joni Ernst, of Iowa, speaking at a combative town hall in Parkersburg in late May, responded to someone in the audience shouting that people will die without coverage by saying, 'People are not … well, we all are going to die' – a response that drew groans.
Cuts to Medicaid feature prominently in Democratic reaction to the bill.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib described the bill as 'disgusting' and 'an act of violence against our communities'.
She said: 'Republicans should be ashamed for saying, 'Just get over it' because 'We're all going to die.' They are responsible for the 50,000 people who will die unnecessarily every year because of this deadly budget.'
'There is no sugarcoating this. This is a dark day for our country,' wrote senator Raphael Warnock.
'Republicans in Washington have decided to sell out working people. As a result, millions will lose their healthcare and many millions more will see their premiums go up. Rural hospitals and nursing homes across Georgia will be forced to close. Children will be forced to go hungry so that we can give billionaires another tax cut.'
But budget hawks on the left and the right have taken issue with the effects this budget will have on the already considerable national debt.
'In a massive fiscal capitulation, Congress has passed the single most expensive, dishonest, and reckless budget reconciliation bill ever – and, it comes amidst an already alarming fiscal situation,' wrote Maya MacGuineas, the president of the oversight organization Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in reaction to the House's passage of the bill.
'Never before has a piece of legislation been jammed through with such disregard for our fiscal outlook, the budget process, and the impact it will have on the wellbeing of the country and future generations.'
'House Republicans just voted – again – to jack up costs, gut health care, and reward the elite with tax breaks,' wrote the House Majority Pac, a Democratic fund.
'They had a chance to change course, but instead they doubled down on this deeply unpopular, toxic agenda. They'll have no one to blame but themselves when voters send them packing and deliver Democrats the House majority in 2026.'
'Republicans didn't pass this bill for the people,' wrote Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat. 'They passed it to please Trump, protect the powerful and push cruelty disguised as policy.'
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Wild kangaroo harvests are labelled ‘needlessly cruel' by US lawmakers – but backed by Australian conservationists
The bill, introduced into the US Senate last month, came with plenty of emotive and uncompromising language. 'The mass killing of millions of kangaroos to make commercial products is needless and inhumane,' said the Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, as she introduced the Kangaroo Protection Act to ban the sale and manufacture of kangaroo products in the US. With the high-profile former Democratic presidential nominee Cory Booker as a co-sponsor, the two senators said Australia's commercial kangaroo harvest was 'unnecessarily cruel' and their proposed ban would protect 'millions of wild kangaroos and their innocent babies who are needlessly killed every year'. Backed by animal rights campaigners, the move is the latest in a string of attempts in recent years in the US Congress to ban kangaroo products. A similar push is ongoing in Europe. Last week the Center for a Humane Economy, which runs the Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign, announced British sportswear brand Umbro was the latest to join the likes of Nike, Adidas, Puma and Asics in phasing out the use of so-called 'k-leather' that has most often been used in some of their brand's football boots. But the success of the campaigns, and the ongoing criticism of Australia's regulated kangaroo harvests, hides a complex story and one which, Prof Chris Johnson says, is 'infuriating' for many Australian conservationists and ecologists. 'The public advocacy by opponents has been very effective, but unfortunately it's all wrong, is conceptually muddled and it's not based on knowledge or experience,' says Johnson, a kangaroo expert and professor of wildlife conservation at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. The Nationals leader and shadow agriculture minister, David Littleproud, accused the governing Labor party of failing to 'dispel misconceptions around the use and overseas imports of kangaroo products'. 'This has allowed animal activists to spread false information that kangaroos are being killed solely for [soccer] cleats. 'It's important to note that without a commercial industry, conservation culling is still needed to occur to manage populations. 'We know kangaroos can breed easily and are not a threatened species. The practical reality of import bans in the US would be detrimental to kangaroo populations in Australia.' The government did not answer questions sent to the agriculture minister, Julie Collins. Since European colonisation, farmers have grown pasture for livestock and added watering holes across Australia's landscape, both of which help kangaroos to survive and, in times of good rainfall, have backed controls and culls of the kangaroo's natural predator – the dingo. Johnson says grazing from abundant kangaroos can take away areas that other native animals such as bandicoots and dunnarts use to hide from introduced predators like cats and foxes. 'Overgrazing can be a serious ecological threat,' he says. 'The harvest protects other native species because it protects vegetation. If the kangaroo program fails, that would be a contributor to increased extinction threat.' Regulated commercial kangaroo harvesting takes place every year in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Since 2010, data collated by the Australian government shows that between 1.1 million and 1.7 million kangaroos have been killed annually under the commercial harvest. Harvest quotas are set at about 15% of the estimated kangaroo population, but the data suggests less than a third of the quota is used up each year. Kangaroo harvesting takes place at night, and a national code of practice says the animals should be killed by a bullet to the head. Ben Pearson, Australia and New Zealand country director for World Animal Protection, says this method of killing, coupled with a lack of oversight of both commercial and non-commercial kangaroo culling, which is also done under licence, is a concern. 'In other animal farming industries there is a requirement for humane slaughter which includes stunning before slaughter,' he says. 'With wild harvesting, kangaroos are shot outright and evidence suggests that many are not killed instantaneously, instead being merely wounded and thus suffering from gunshot wounds. Kangaroos that are wounded but escape could suffer over a prolonged period.' Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion A 2021 inquiry in the New South Wales parliament on kangaroo welfare found there was a lack of monitoring at the 'point of kill' for both commercial and non-commercial shooting, but the state government supported only two of the 23 recommendations in full. The inquiry heard that kangaroo kills were deeply distressing for some Aboriginal people, and animal rights groups said kangaroos had a right to live freely without human interference. If female kangaroos are shot, harvesters can find young joeys still alive in the mother's pouch. A national code of practice for commercial kangaroo harvesting recommends joeys are killed using blunt force trauma to the back of the head, and suggests using the tray of a utility vehicle as a suitable immovable object. It's a method which Pearson says is 'barbaric'. 'On an ethical level, we are opposed to the killing of kangaroos for non-essential items like football boots, particularly given alternatives exist and are in widespread use,' he says. Neal Finch is a wildlife ecologist and executive officer of the Australian Wild Game Industry Council, which represents kangaroo harvesters. He says the codes of practice of the kind covering kangaroo harvesting do not exist in other jurisdictions. 'It is not that we are inhumane. It is that we are exemplary,' he claims. 'Over 6 million native deer are killed in the USA every year. Over-abundant herbivores need management. The code of practice for shooting kangaroos requires a shot to the brain. Virtually all deer shot in the USA are shot in the chest. 'The reason campaigners can quote how many kangaroos are killed is because we actually publish that information,' he said. Kangaroo numbers are known to boom in times of good rainfall and then crash during droughts – swings that mirror Australia's variable climate. Between 2010 and 2023, official estimates of kangaroo numbers across four states show numbers fell as low as 25 million in 2010 and went as high as 53 million in 2013. Latest figures estimate a kangaroo population of 34 million. 'We either choose to sustainably harvest these kangaroo populations or we will see kangaroos starve in their many thousands during droughts, and habitats will be overgrazed and degraded,' says Prof Euan Ritchie, a wildlife ecologist at Deakin University. 'It's a choice.' As uncomfortable as the thought may be for many, Johnson says that in lean times, many kangaroo deaths may not be as short and sharp as one from a harvester's gun. 'The natural alternatives are being killed by a dingo or dying by starvation,' he says. 'There's less suffering entailed by the harvest than by either of those alternatives.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘It's offensive': voices from Iran as fans face 2026 World Cup travel ban
'It's offensive for any football fan to be prevented from participating in the World Cup, not just Iranians,' Ali Rezaei of Tehran's Borna News Agency says. In March, the national team became the second to qualify for the 2026 World Cup that will be hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. In June, Donald Trump authorised the dropping of bombs on Iran and hit the country with a travel ban. As things stand, while the national team will be able to enter the US next summer, fans – and perhaps media – will not. Residents of Tehran and other cities may have had enough to deal with of late, but still, being barred from entry stings, even if Iranians have long found it difficult to get into the US. 'If the US government has issues with the Iranian regime for any reason, it should not result in discrimination against Iranian citizens,' Behnam Jafarzadeh, a writer for leading sports site Varzesh3, says. 'If someone hasn't committed any illegal activity, why should they be punished? It's not just about the World Cup – the policy needs to change in general.' What can Iran do? 'Boycotting the World Cup is not a solution,' Siavash Pakdaman, a Tehran-based fan, says. 'Refusing to play on US soil would be a dangerous precedent – any host country could start excluding teams it has issues with. Just as the Iranian delegation can and should be present at the United Nations in the US, the Iranian team should also play on American soil if the draw requires it – without relocation.' There is a feeling that staying away would not make much difference anyway. 'It would only deprive the national team of the opportunity to participate in a major tournament and would ultimately hurt Iran more,' Jafarzadeh says. 'It might even be welcomed by some American officials. It could make headlines briefly, but once the tournament starts, it will be forgotten and will have achieved nothing.' Questions have been asked – including in Iran, whose supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has long banned competing against Israeli athletes – about what the international reaction would have been if Qatar had banned citizens from certain nations from attending the 2022 World Cup. 'If the USA makes it difficult for football fans to attend, then changing the host country is necessary,' Rezaei says. 'Doing so would harm the USA's reputation, not the World Cup's. If strict entry rules remain, we should focus on protecting football. This is supposed to be a celebration of sport.' Jafarzadeh is not confident that the competition could be taken away from the busiest of the three hosts. 'It is not a challenge Fifa and [its president Gianni] Infantino would want to take on.' Perhaps there is another way. 'Fifa should use all of its influence to push for a suspension of this policy at least during the World Cup.' Fifa may find it easier to place Iran in Canada or Mexico and hope that Iran don't make it to the latter stages, when there would have to be a game in the US. 'Playing in Mexico or Canada is not a real solution – it just ignores the actual problem,' Rezaei says. Many expect it to happen anyway. 'Canada has a large Iranian immigrant population, although some of them are opponents of the Iranian regime and the national team can't count on their support,' Jafarzadeh says. 'Mexico is probably a more attractive and less controversial destination for the team.' That is another question. The Iranian-American community is more than a million strong yet many of these headed west before, or in response to, the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion 'It seems that many Iranians who oppose the government consider the national team to be a representation of the regime – which I believe is wrong,' Pakdaman says. 'And since a larger number of these opponents live in the US, the team may face pressure from the audience during the matches. Of course, I hope my analysis is wrong.' Jafarzadeh, who went to the World Cups in Russia and Qatar and would love to go to the United States, says: 'Some see the team as one that represents the regime, and this sentiment is even stronger among Iranians living abroad. Of course, the war with Israel has stirred feelings of patriotism among many Iranians, but I'm not sure if this will translate into support for the national team. We'll have to wait and see how things unfold in the coming months.' That there is time is perhaps a small reason for optimism that things could change. Iran is one of 19 countries subject to a full or partial US entry ban. Several of the others retain hope of qualifying for the first 48-team World Cup, including Sudan, Sierra Leone, Venezuela and Haiti. 'Considering that there is almost a year left until the 2026 World Cup, there is a possibility that the situation may stabilise,' says Isa Azimi, a columnist and translator, regarding Iran's situation, though he is not confident. 'Despite claims of separating politics from football, Fifa has shown that it is not particularly independent when facing major political powers.' Especially when Infantino appears to prize his close relationship with Trump. 'If Fifa considers itself a global body independent of governments, it must stand up to such laws and not allow politics to contaminate the world of sports,' Pakdaman says. 'Of course, we all know that, unfortunately, such contamination exists – especially when one side of the issue is a superpower that answers to no one. It is Fifa's duty to treat all member countries equally, but will that actually happen?'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Donald Trump gave me the biggest break of my career at 60: KATTY KAY reveals how Trumpmania has transformed her world
There are few critics of Donald Trump who would admit he has done them a favour. But Katty Kay, veteran British reporter and presenter, is on a career high at the age of 60, in no small part due to the President of the United States. 'Yes, Donald Trump is good for business,' says Kay. 'Donald Trump, at the moment, is the only game in town, which is exactly how he likes it.' As one half of the hugely successful podcast The Rest Is Politics US, along with the outspoken Anthony 'The Mooch' Scaramucci (who famously managed just 11 days as Trump's communications director in 2017), she has seen the numbers rise from 2.1 million listeners in December to 7.5 million right now. The podcast only launched in April 2024, during an election year in which within months the sitting president had been forced out of the race after a catastrophic debate performance against his rival, the convicted felon Donald Trump. What followed has often seemed like chaos that needed explaining. In the second act of the Trump presidency, it seems that the more headlines the man in the White House grabs, the more people tune in. And the more famous Kay gets. This very morning, as she landed at Heathrow, someone recognised her. 'That happens most times I arrive in the UK. People say hello on the tube,' she says. 'It's always a bit of a surprise.' Weeks later, after Trump sends US bombers to strike Iran and boasts their 'spectacular success', I talk to Kay again. Trump's reaction reminds her of 2003 and George W Bush's early 'Mission Accomplished' jubilance in the Iraq war: 'We know how that ended.' But while other commentators are downbeat, with The Atlantic running the headline 'American democracy might not survive a war with Iran', Kay is circumspect. 'I'm pretty optimistic that the system holds,' she says. But she has been texted a lot of 'emojis with head exploding'. 'Or dumpster fires. A lot of dumpster fires have arrived on my phone over the last couple of years.' As a US correspondent, Kay has seen six presidential terms and two of them have been Trump, but the Washington veteran says this administration feels different. Contacts of hers – good contacts, she says, people who speak to Trump regularly – are more reluctant to talk. Journalists, she adds, are spooked that Trump might go after them by going for their taxes or burying them in lawsuits. Is she nervous at regularly holding him up to scrutiny? 'I did have a moment recently. I'm a green card holder. I'm not a citizen. And I had a moment of thinking, 'I wonder if I'll get hassled at the airport. I wonder if I'll get turned around.'' But scared? In a word, no. 'So they come after me. I mean, what are they going to do?' I ask Kay how she got the Rest Is Politics US gig and am told gently that she invented it. She'd come across an article by one of the co-founders of Goalhanger, the production company behind the The Rest Is podcast franchise, saying that they wanted to break into the US. 'American audiences are the Holy Grail and I remember reading that thinking, 'Hmm, maybe I could help them.'' A text to Alastair Campbell, a presenter on The Rest Is Politics (UK), led to a pilot episode. All Kay needed was a co-host. She and Scaramucci seem, on the surface, to make an odd couple. But she brings the calm to his storm. 'We definitely have different roles,' she says. 'After years of being a BBC journalist, I see things with a 'data analysis' brain and Anthony comes at this as – what would we call it? – a civilian? He's somebody who's come out of politics very clear about his opinions – not as a journalist. 'People have this view of Anthony that he's, you know, this brash ex-Trumper, Long Island Italian American. But audiences have got to know him now and appreciate how thoughtful he is, how smart and how steeped in history he is. He's one of the best- read people on American politics and history. 'As Brits,' she says, 'we think we know America because we've seen it in the movies. Every Brit I know who arrives in America thinks, 'Oh, yeah, I understand this country.' And then the longer you're there, the more you realise how different it is. Anthony is steeped in a side of America that most Brits don't know.' Kay's look is what you might call 'effortless Riviera': a white long-sleeved top, with its collar up and sleeve unbuttoned, and loose brushed sea-blue cotton trousers. Her perfectly blonde shoulder-length hair is swept back and she glows. Her sidekick, meanwhile, famously admits to careful skincare and judicious hair-dyeing. 'Anthony says that when people stop him in the streets in London it's always to ask, 'Which moisturiser do you use?' He says no one asks him about politics.' What does she make of this peacockery? 'I think he's opened up a whole new conversation for British men that it was about time they had,' she says, in a voice that makes me want to rush to the gents and look in the mirror. Katherine Kay was born in Blewbury, Oxfordshire, into a diplomatic family. By the age of two, she was living in Beirut, her dad serving in a number of countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Instead of sending their daughter to boarding school (save for a brief unhappy period when she was 11) her parents took her with them. The result was a change of school with every new posting, including a French-speaking lycée in Morocco. 'Six different schools in five years,' she says. 'I calculated once in three countries in two languages.' There were several consequences of this peripatetic life. Young Katty became a linguist, fluent in French and Italian. Also, she says, it made her adaptable. 'I could fit into different cultures or countries,' she says. 'It made me good at making friends quickly. On the downside, I don't have friends from childhood. I don't have a sense of continuity. Before moving to Washington, I never had a house I lived in for more than three years.' Paradoxically, in 2021, after a prolonged application process, Kay got Swiss citizenship (her father was born in Switzerland) and tweeted: 'Today I became Swiss. I cried when I opened the email. My dad, who died in January, was Swiss. As a child growing up in the Middle East, holidays with my Swiss grandmother were a refuge. When I arrive at Interlaken station, I feel I'm home.' She graduated from Oxford with a degree in modern languages, worked for a short, unhappy period at the Bank of England, then joined an aid agency in Zimbabwe. While there she met an old friend, the BBC correspondent Matt Frei (now with Channel 4 News), who seduced her into journalism. Her CV since then easily occupies two sides of A4, with stints at the BBC and The Times. In 2021, she left the BBC to work at a short-lived new company called Ozy Media, from which she resigned when allegations of fraud were made against senior figures there. She and her husband Tom Carver, a former BBC reporter, live in Georgetown, Washington, in the house they've owned for 25 years, and are there most of the year. They also have a house in West London's Hammersmith. She has two children, Felix, 31, and Maya, 29, with her first husband, Sebastian Mallaby, a former staffer at The Economist and The Washington Post, who now writes books (they're still 'very good friends' and spend Christmases together), and two with Tom: Jude, 25, and Poppy, 19. She is enormously proud of all of them. 'Felix works in the US Senate, as a camera technician. Maya is a PhD astrophysicist, which she really didn't get from me, and wants to work in climate modelling. Jude did a master's in marine engineering at Southampton University, having done architecture at the University of Virginia, and is now back in Washington looking for a job. And Poppy has just finished her first year of university in New York but is spending this summer working at the River Cafe [in Hammersmith]. She started this week, so I hope she doesn't drop the plates.' Their Washington home also has a helpful new perk: half the Trump cabinet has moved into the street around the corner. 'Literally, [Secretary of Health] RFK Jr lives 300 yards from my front door and passes my house every morning on his way to his AA meetings,' says Kay. 'And as I walk my dog now, I pass Kristi Noem [Secretary of Homeland Security] and Scott Bessent [Treasury Secretary] on my way to the park.' Interesting neighbours, and possibly nosy ones. I ask if she thinks that what's on the podcast gets back to Trump. 'He knows who I am, absolutely, because I do a TV show in the States, Morning Joe, two or three times a week, which is on in the White House. The President says he doesn't listen to it, but everybody on the show is convinced he does, because he quotes it back.' Has she interviewed him? Once, she tells me, but, she adds regretfully, not face to face. It was down the line. 'He told me that I was very negative about his [2016] campaign, but I didn't need to worry about it.' Did she get the impression he respected her? 'Donald Trump respects ratings. So if you have a platform that has reach, he respects the fact that you're reaching people. I don't think the fact that Donald Trump criticises you means that he doesn't respect you. I'm sure he respects Anthony. The fact that he criticises him often is a kind of compliment. It means he's listening to you.' So would she like to meet him again? 'Yes, but I think he's a difficult person to interview because you have to make the decision, do I fact check him in real time? In which case you will spend a lot of the interview fact-checking. But if you decide not to do the fact-checking in real time, you're allowing him to say things that aren't true.' One thing stands out in our encounter. Kay is having a ball. Her Instagram account is a sea of pictures of her with her family: trips to Paris and Spain with her daughters, Marseille with her husband. Far from fading out, her life couldn't be fuller. 'I spend weekends making jam and chocolate cakes. That's my relaxation,' she says. And there are the ballet classes. 'That's my favourite exercise. When I was about 13, I applied to the Royal Ballet and I didn't get in. I got into Elmhurst, another ballet school, and then decided not to go. But it is a thing I love doing. It's an exercise in humiliation, because I used to be quite good, and now I'm bad. So it's actually good for my sense of hubris.' And there's a lesson that she's keen to pass on to younger women. 'When I was in my 30s, I remember thinking I had to do things now; that I was going to run out of time and how could I possibly manage having kids and a career and there just weren't enough hours to do it all. I wish I could say to my younger self, 'It's OK, you don't need to rush. You're going to have years after your kids have left home when you can carry on working and be successful and reinvent yourself.'' Watch or listen to The Rest Is Politics US wherever you get your podcasts COOL FOR KATTY AI: terrific or terrifying? Definitely terrific, probably terrifying. Your idea of holiday hell A cruise. Go-to karaoke song Hey Jude - it's my son's name. He hates the song, I love it. Spotify song of last year Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe. I've always been a huge Dylan fan. I've seen the movie four times already – Timothée Chalamet is perfect: cool and aloof. Film that makes you cry Casablanca. Best movie ever made. Cat or a dog person? With a name like Katty Kay I don't think I have much choice. Feline all the way. Word you most overuse Yesbut… all one word. Obnoxious, definitely. Astrology: believe it or bin it? I'm a Scorpio but honestly, bin it. I don't even know what time of day I was born and Anthony says that's key. Hero beauty product Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant. An instant skin brightener – I'm addicted. Best breakfast In my ideal world, a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant. I have a sweet tooth. Favourite swear word F**k. Speaks for itself. Picture director: Ester Malloy. Stylist: Nicola Rose. Make-up: Sonia Deveney using Sisley. Hair: Federico Ghezzi using Bumble and Bumble.
