Speaker Mike Johnson touts passing of spending bill as Dems lament
After Republicans' sweeping spending bill passed out of Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson said it'll be "a great thing" for every American.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
15 minutes ago
- USA Today
Republicans passed the 'big, beautiful bill.' Will it come back to haunt them?
Congress passing President Trump's sweeping tax policy bill will have massive consequences for both parties in the 2026 midterm elections. WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's legislative package of tax reductions and Medicaid cuts passed out of Congress on July 3 and will soon be signed into law. Up next for Congressional Republicans: Surviving the midterms. Many Republicans argue that voters will feel the economic benefits of their bill and reward them by sending them back to Washington. Democrats say the bill is deeply unpopular and they'll use it to clobber the GOP in the November 2026 election. History, in this case, favors the Democrats' argument. The party that does not hold the White House typically wins the House in the midterm elections as voters express frustrations with the new president's policies. This trend applies regardless of party in modern history, with some exceptions. And public polling about the Republican bill already indicates voters aren't thrilled about it. A Fox News poll published in mid-June found 38% of respondents favored the legislation and 59% opposed it. Polls from Quinnipiac, The Washington Post, KFF and Pew reflected similar sentiments. "This will cost Republicans the House," said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is responsible for helping Democrats keep and win House seats. Democrats have their 'script' for 2026 The bill's Medicaid cuts are expected to leave 11.8 million Americans without insurance over the next ten years – a deeply "damaging" result that will drive up healthcare costs for families, DelBene said. Democrats have likened this bill to Republicans' 2017 attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, after which Republicans lost 40 seats in the House. "People want representatives that are going to stand up for them," she argued, "and this bill is an example of Republicans turning away from their constituents." Republicans have "written the script" for 2026, said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland. 'I'm certainly going to be talking about it all of the time,' he told USA TODAY. 'I mean, nothing could better capture the way that the Republican party just serves Donald Trump and our would-be monarchs and oligarchs.' It's not just Democrats who have identified the Medicaid cuts as a potential political threat. During a meeting with House Republicans on July 2, as GOP leadership scrambled to find the votes for the package, Trump said they shouldn't touch three things if they wanted to win elections – Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, according to the news site NOTUS. One member reportedly responded: "But we're touching Medicaid in this bill." Campaigning after Medicaid cuts Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, represents a swing district and recently announced he plans to retire from Congress. He has been a vocal opponent of the Medicaid cuts in the bill, but he said before the vote that he would approve the measure because it would save the average Nebraskan $141 per month in taxes and pour billions into the defense budget. Bacon said he believes the Senate's version, which implemented deeper cuts to Medicaid, makes it easier for Democrats to paint the package in a negative light during the midterm elections. "I could have defended the House bill every day. It was easy," he said. "But in the end, do I want to raise taxes on the middle class? No. Do I want to fix defense? Yes." Some Republicans are confident they can explain their reasoning to voters, including those who raised concerns about Medicaid cuts. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-New Jersey, argued before the vote that his concerns were allayed by provisions in the bill that would allow hospitals in his district to continue to draw down sufficient federal funds. "I've said all along that we have to do this in an intelligent way. I believe that it seems we've charted a way to do that. Where we started a few months ago, people were saying we're going to gut Medicaid. We're a long ways off from that." GOP confident tax breaks will carry them House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, said he believed the bill would prop up Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. "Every Democrat (in the) House and Senate voted no," Scalise said on July 3. "The American people are going to see great benefits from this bill, and they're going to know which party was fighting for them and which party was literally trying to hold up the vote for hours so that those families couldn't get that relief." "The Democratic Party still doesn't know why they lost in November. They're going to be reminded of that next year when they lose again," he added. The bill makes permanent the 2017 income tax cuts implemented during Trump's first term and pours $170 billion in border security funding. In a memo on the bill, the National Republican Congressional Committee indicated it plans to argue Republicans prevented "the largest tax hike in generations" and delivered a historic funding boost for border security. 'This vote cemented House Democrats' image as elitist, disconnected, snobby, unconcerned with the problems Americans face in their daily lives, and most of all – out of touch," Mike Marinella, NRCC spokesman, said in a statement. "House Republicans will be relentless in making this vote the defining issue of 2026, and we will use every tool to show voters that Republicans stood with them while House Democrats sold them out.'
USA Today
15 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump doesn't know what it means to be a veteran. His budget bill punishes us.
President Donald Trump doesn't know what it's like to be a veteran. And, based on his policies, he doesn't care to learn from those of us who do. Imagine going to war to protect your country and coming home to find your country no longer protects you. Under President Donald Trump, this could be the new reality for the 15 million veterans who depend on VA health care. His "One Big Beautiful Bill" budget includes changes to the Department of Veterans Affairs, meaning Kentucky veterans like me might have to wait longer for the medical care, including mental health care, that was promised to us in exchange for service to our country. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "Veterans could be particularly harmed by Medicaid and (food stamps) cuts given the complexity of their health care needs and their higher prevalence of food insecurity compared to non-veterans." His disrespect toward those who have served doesn't stop there. According to FactCheck: "The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs changed the wording in its bylaws to comply with recent executive orders. In making the changes, words including 'national origin, politics, marital status' were removed from language prohibiting discrimination. But existing federal law already prohibits discrimination on those grounds, the VA says." 'Extremely disturbing and unethical' is right on the money One doctor called the change 'extremely disturbing and unethical.' While that's how you could describe a lot of Trump's decisions these days, this one targets our troops with a dangerous type of loyalty test – as if being willing to die for your country wasn't test enough. Kentucky vets already wait months to settle VA claims and get the benefits and care they've earned. Now, between Trump's mass VA layoffs, proposed budget cuts and this new change in bylaws, the gap between what Kentucky veterans get and what they deserve will get even wider. People willing to fight for this country should not have to wait months for benefits and be forced to drive hours just to see a doctor. And they shouldn't have to worry about getting turned away for wearing the wrong hat. Opinion: Hegseth stripping Harvey Milk's name off Navy ship is weak and insecure This is an insult to veterans It is an insult to subject these men and women to political intimidation tactics after they've put their lives on the line to defend democracy, religious freedom, freedom of speech – the most valuable principles of our nation. And I'll tell you, discrimination ain't one of them. Opinion: You think Republicans realize they've started hurting the wrong people? Taking care of veterans should be a place where Democrats and Republicans find common ground, but right now the GOP is applauding a man who uses troops as birthday party decorations while cutting the care they need to survive. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. Donald Trump doesn't know what it's like to be a veteran. And, based on his policies, he doesn't care to learn from those of us who do. We cannot let our troops come home to a country where their lawful political beliefs could get them punished. If someone is willing to defend American principles with their life, we'd better make damn sure those principles apply to them, too. Bud Andrews is a retired Army master sergeant who lives in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. This column originally published in the Louisville Courier-Journal. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.
CNN
19 minutes ago
- CNN
Why the GOP doesn't want you biking to work but will spend millions on a ‘heroes' sculpture garden
The Republican tax and spending bill is 900 pages of barely readable text full of complicated proposals that would, among many other things, slash the social safety net in America and lavish wealthy households with tax cuts. It is reviled on the left for hurting poor people and reviled on the far-right for not going far enough to cut spending. It's a hard pill to swallow for lawmakers across the political spectrum, which is why it's loaded up with super niche provisions that reflect some of the ideological contradictions within the Trump coalition. Like, killing the $2 billion 'qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement,' a relatively cheap incentive that, at least in theory, would align with the 'Make American Healthy Again' sect of Trump loyalists. The benefit was suspended in Trump's first term, but before then it allowed employers to offer workers a $20 a month tax-free reimbursement for biking to work. (Healthy! Good for the environment!) The GOP package in Congress would eliminate it for good. There's also $40 million earmarked for a 'National Garden of American Heroes' — 250 life-size sculptures that Trump wants completed in the next 12 months ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary. The ambitious project is a longtime Trump vision that, according to Politico, will be almost impossible to pull off in time without the help of foundries in China. Incidentally, the money for the sculpture garden would be directed to the National Endowment for the Humanities, a government agency that Trump has been trying to eliminate since his first term. The NEH recently laid off 2/3 of its staff, canceled more than 1,000 grants and is marshaling its remaining resources to focus on next year's anniversary. These seemingly arbitrary small items are essentially sweeteners to win over lawmakers who might quibble with the broader thrust of the legislation. 'Now that we essentially do policy-making at a large scale, through these huge mega-bills in reconciliation… you have to stuff everything that you possibly can to try to get your entire coalition on board, particularly within the margins,' said Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank. 'So that's where you see a lot of these, 'huh, where did that come from?' items.' The clearest example of that is the litany of carve-outs for the state of Alaska and its 740,000 residents, known by some critics as the Kodiak Kickback. (Fun fact: 'Alaska' shows up in the text of the Senate bill more than 20 times; other states, if they're mentioned at all, show up fewer than four times.) The reason for all the Alaska love is simple: As GOP leaders drummed up support, it became clear that Sen. Lisa Murkowski would be a holdout because of the bill's expanded Medicaid work restrictions and changes to federal food assistance programs. Over the weekend, staffers scrambled to rewrite key pieces of the bill to win her support, my CNN colleagues reported. As a result, Murkowski locked in several Alaska-specific breaks, including a tax deduction for meals served on fishing vessels, a special tax exemption for fishing villages in the western part of the state, and a five-fold expansion of a deduction for whaling boat captains. Like the commuter cycling reimbursement that the bill would eliminate, these aren't big-ticket items. But they illustrate the haphazard and at times punitive way government spending decisions get made. On the cycling benefit, Jacquez says it is likely just a target for Republicans who see it as a culture war issue — a 'green' activity that largely benefits people in cities who tend to vote for Democrats. You can see that dynamic play out in other provisions, too. Republicans have tried to shield some of their rural constituencies from the worst effects of the bill, Jacquez notes. There is a rural hospital bailout fund designed to blunt the impact of Medicaid cuts, for example. But that doesn't do anything to help urban hospitals in New York City, where some 4 million residents, nearly half the population, are enrolled in Medicaid. In the grand scheme of a $3.3 trillion spending package, $150 million for America's birthday might seem fine. 'But that's $150 million that's not going to be spent on food assistance,' Jacquez said. 'Or it's a billion dollars that's not going to be spent on Medicaid. When every cent allegedly matters, these things do add up.'
