The rats are eating each other
Donald Trump and the Republican Party have decided to advance their fundamentally evil budget bill through the Senate no matter what it takes. As I wrote yesterday, there are going to be some tragic things that we just can’t stop from happening. But here’s the thing: this legislation is already doing tangible damage to the Republicans’ chances in the midterms.
For starters, Republican Senator Thom Tillis – who just couldn’t bring himself to vote for the legislation – announced that he’s going to retire instead of running for reelection. Tillis represents North Carolina, a very winnable state for the Democrats. Tillis’ incumbency was the Republicans’ best chance of keeping the seat in 2026, but now they’ve lost that advantage by forcing this legislation through.
Then there’s Elon Musk, who is so angry about this budget bill that he’s vowing to fund a primary campaign against any Republican who votes for it, and/or start his own political party. There is precisely zero chance that a loon like Musk could ever get a new major political party off the ground (it’s the single hardest thing to do in US politics), no matter how much money he might throw at it. But Musk can make a mess for the Republicans. If he can knock out even a few vulnerable incumbent House Republicans in their primary races, it’ll open the door for the Democrats to flip those seats.
The cold hard reality is that Trump and the Republicans were always going to pass an evil piece of legislation that makes the rich richer by stealing from everyone else. It’s what they did back in 2017. But last time the giveaway to the wealthy was the only meaningful legislation that they could pull off in their two years in the majority, partly because we kept fighting against them. Now we need to do it again.
Meanwhile the Republican Party’s insistence upon passing this budget bill has prompted at least one recognizable Republican name to quit politics, while also prompting the guy who bought the last election for the Republicans to announce that he’s going to buy the next election to harm the Republicans. Oh, and it also happens to be a piece of legislation that’s polling overwhelmingly badly, and will only become even more of a drag on the Republicans’ chances once everyone begins to feel its effects. Was this legislation really worth it to them? We’ll see.
