Until hell freezes over
The 1.0 Trump “administration” had one and only one “achievement.” It was the passage of a sinister tax bill that gave temporary relief and long term grief to the working class. That was to trick the suckers and losers who voted for him into thinking Trump actually gave a crap about them. The real reason for the bill was to give enormous tax cuts to corporations and millionaires and billionaires, Trump’s only actual constituents. That happened in 2017. For the remainder of his term Trump posted rage tweets and played golf.
Oh yes, Trump also promised to build a wall at the US-Mexican border. That was a failure, although jailbird Steve Bannon did manage to con MAGA suckers and losers out of millions of dollars to pay for it, money that he fraudulently kept. He was able to do that because Mexico refused to pay for the wall.
Trump also promised to come up with a big and beautiful infrastructure bill. That never happened. He also promised to come up with a big and beautiful healthcare package. That never happened.
This time around, in Trump 2.0, Trump has another “big and beautiful” bill (the words “big and beautiful” keep getting recycled because Trump has the vocabulary of a seven year old, with apologies to seven year olds) to give even more tax cuts to corporations, millionaires and billionaires, because apparently the 2017 tax cut wasn’t enough.
All of these tax cuts have to be paid for, of course. The last tax cut hasn’t been paid for. So the United States had to go further into debt. This time around they’ve learned their lesson in MAGALand. This time around they’re going to take the money away from millions of Americans on Medicaid. Many of those Americans will die without it, but that’s okay with Trump and his pals, the millionaires and billionaires. If they’re going to die they’d better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
But there’s disharmony in MAGALand, some of the Republican Senators voted against the bill. It can’t even get out of committee. So on Wednesday Trump met with those recalcitrant senators, with his personal concierge and so-called “Speaker of the House” Mike Johnson.
“The meeting was productive and moved the ball in the right direction,” Trump’s dye-job Barbie press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, lied in a statement. “The President reiterated how critical it is for the country to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill as quickly as possible.” Yes, the quicker the better, before too many people wake up and notice they’re being screwed by the, ahem, “president.”
Here’s the reality of the new tax bill. People making less than $17,000 will have to pay an extra $1,000 in taxes. People making between $17k and $51k will pay an extra $700. People making over $4.3 million a year will get a tax break starting at $389,000. And so on. So it’s literally true, this “Big Beautiful Tax Bill” is going to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Meanwhile the price of eggs is up, gas is still high, groceries (a word Trump claims he revivified) and rents have risen. Trump continues to lie, and the losers and suckers of MAGA continue to believe him. What a bunch of contemptible fools. I don’t know about you, brothers and sisters, but when they finally wake up they’ll have to wait a long time before I’ll give them any sympathy. Until hell freezes over.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.