Why We Should Repent and Lament the Big Beautiful Bill, not Celebrate It!

On Friday, the 4^th of July, President Trump signed into law the BBB (Big Beautiful Bill). He celebrated it and exclaimed, “It has something for everyone” and “Everyone is happy about it”.

I suggest that a better response is repentance and lament. The BBB was quite big, but definitely not beautiful. And most definitely, not everyone one was happy about it.

We the People Opposed the BBB

Although the Senate was evenly divided on the bill (50/50), and the House approved it by a slim 218/214 vote, the U.S. people were (and are) clearly against it. I looked at more than a dozen national polls, and in each poll, the disapproval rate was significantly greater than the approval. For example, “by a 21-point margin, voters questioned in the most recent Fox News national poll opposed the federal budget legislation (38% favored vs. 59% opposed). The bill was also underwater in national surveys conducted this month by the Washington Post (minus 19 points), Pew Research (minus 20 points) and Quinnipiac University (minus 26 points).” So, why did so many of our representatives in DC vote against the wishes of their constituents? They were bribed or bullied. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) held the decisive vote in the Senate. She was against the bill, but then the GOP leadership carved out special provisions for Alaska if she would vote in favor. In the end, she voted for the bill although it would hurt the other 49 states. In the House, there were a dozen Republican fiscal hawks who opposed the BBB because it would cause a $3.35 trillion increase in the federal debt. They were bullied with the threat they would be “primaried” in the 2026 midterm election by well-funded PACs if they voted against the BBB. These fiscal hawks “caved” and somehow “forgot” their fiscal integrity.

The BBB will Cause More Harm than Good

There are a few items in the BBB that I would have voted for (such as removing taxes from tip income). But these items pale in significance to those who will suffer tremendously due to the bill. Almost 12 million citizens will lose their health insurance because of the cuts to Medicaid. As a result, it is estimated that 51,000 people will die prematurely each year due to these cuts. Hundreds of rural hospitals and clinics will close due to the Medicaid cuts.

Our federal debt will increase by about $3.35 trillion. The Medicare and Medicaid cuts could have been avoided if the tax breaks for the very wealthy had not been extended.

“Woe to Those Who Call Evil Good, and Good Evil”

These words were spoken by the prophet Isaiah over two thousand years ago… but are still quite important today. Politicians of all persuasions tend to exaggerate the goodness of their positions and hide the negative aspects. This should cause all of us to dig deeper, to read the ideas and arguments of those we don’t like, and to ask the tough questions. Let’s commit ourselves to examine all the important issues and follow the truth wherever it leads…even if it leads to repentance.

The Amiable Divorce between Musk and Trump Became Messy and Ugly Last Week: Important Lessons from the “Bromance Breakup”

Full Disclosure: I am not a fan of Elon Musk. As I wrote in a previous post, Musk’s gutting of USAID was cruel and immoral. His action has caused the premature death of thousands of people. Nevertheless, the breakup of the Musk/Trump “bromance” teaches us some valuable, albeit sad, political lessons. The divorce began to go downhill last week and then got much worse.

On Tuesday, Musk did not hold back when he denounced Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill: “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.” The president responded, “I’m very disappointed in Elon.” On Thursday, the breakup between Musk and Trump turned even nastier. During his meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a reporter asked the president about Elon Musk’s sharp criticisms of Trump’s budget bill. Trump reacted, “He hasn’t said anything about me that’s bad. I’d rather have him criticize me than the bill.” Musk was quick to grant him his wish. By the end of the meeting, the two had quickly moved from what had been legislative differences of opinion into sharp personal attacks on their respective social platforms. Musk live-tweeted his responses to Trump’s comments on his social media platform X, getting progressively more personal. And Trump responded hard on his own platform, Truth Social. Late Thursday afternoon, Musk responded to an X user who called for the president’s impeachment by simply saying, “Yes.”

Trump tried to psychoanalyze the motivation for Musk’s outbursts. “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Musk had highlighted Trump’s hypocrisy by mentioning various quotes in which Trump had campaigned with promises of a balanced budget. These balanced budget promises were directly contradicted by the official predictions that the “big, beautiful” bill would increase the debt several trillion dollars over the next decade. Trump tried to defend himself by attacking Musk, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”

Musk then hit Trump in his most vulnerable spot: his election “victories”. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the Trump campaign and claimed he was in fact the reason Trump won the presidency. Musk affirmed, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House, and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk later added: “Such ingratitude.”

Musk fired another bombshell. He accused the Trump administration of withholding records about convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein because it involved Trump himself. “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote on X. “Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk later added: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

Both Trump and Musk realize, in their saner moments, that their breakup is damaging them both. As master of the art of distraction, Trump changed his emphasis to immigration issues over the weekend (Abrego Garcia, Los Angeles, etc.). Nevertheless, the breakup is worth analyzing. Readers can find complete lists of the attacks and counterattacks online, but those mentioned above are sufficient to warrant some sad, but true, lessons.

Cronyism is rampant in our government. Trump admitted handing out “Governmental Subsidies and Contracts” to Musk based on quid pro quo rather than merit.
The weaponization of government agencies is on the rise. Trump campaigned against the Democrats’ weaponization of agencies that were supposedly non-partisan. His own weaponization of the Department of Justice and other agencies, plus his threats against Musk are just as bad or even worse.

Our democracy is being ruined by the influx of unlimited money in our elections. Money is buying our politicians and our elections. We must return to reasonable caps on political donations.

The Transactional Relationship between Musk and Trump has Come to an End

The “special relationship” between President Donald Trump and the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, has come to the end of the line. On Wednesday night, Elon announced that his assignment as a “special government employee” at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was ending. On Friday that decision became official as the president gave Musk a farewell celebration in the White House. Of course, Trump tried to “spin” the story by claiming Musk’s actions as very successful. Read on for the “rest of the story”.

They had a transactional relationship that had hardly been created “in heaven”. Therefore, when they were no longer useful to each other, it was time to call it quits, although they have done so rather amiably.

As head of DOGE, Musk led the crusade to make huge reductions to federal spending. (I do applaud the attempt to move towards a balanced budget. It is Musk’s methods that I criticize.) He infamously appeared on stage with a chain saw and promised to cut out waste, corruption, and fraud from federal agencies. He originally predicted he would save $2 trillion, but in fact, the savings are closer to $150 billion. Even these “savings” lack documented evidence. Some of his cuts, like the hollowing out of USAID, were unbelievably cruel and caused the premature, unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of malnourished and sick people all over the world. Other agencies saw the number of their employees decimated with a chain saw with no rhyme nor reason, instead of the needed precision of a scalpel. For example, his cuts included the federal employees who were responsible for overseeing our atomic energy program. These workers had to be rehired within days. Some of his cost-cutting firings have caused more loss in federal income than the dollars that were saved. A prime example is the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) whose personnel numbers were cut in half during the tax season. Not only did this cause significant delays in the processing of tax returns, a reduction in the availability of taxpayer assistance services, and problems with the implementation of recent tax code changes. It will also greatly reduce the number of audits performed on those suspected of trying to cheat the system. The amount underpaid by these cheaters is measured in millions and perhaps billions of dollars, which will now not be collected.

Most of Musk’s indiscriminate cuts are tied up in the courts. The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit for violating federal privacy laws for giving DOGE access to systems that contained personal information on millions of Americans without their consent. The payments for these legal fees will be astronomical. For all of these reasons, Musk’s approval rate in national polls have fallen to about 35-38%, several points below Trump’s. Consumers have also shown their displeasure by boycotting Tesla cars. Sales have fallen significantly this spring not only in the United States, but also in Canada and by a whopping 50% in Europe.

Nevertheless, Musk is rich enough that he didn’t need to hide his opinions. He hated to be a “yes man”. He publicly feuded with members of Trump’s cabinet. He recently pointed out that he disagrees with the Trump agenda on some key issues. For example, he criticized the “big, beautiful budget” bill for increasing the national debt by about $4 trillion which is directly opposite to the goals of DOGE. As this bill has moved to the U.S. Senate, it now depends on the courage (or lack thereof) of Republican senators. Will they increase the debt by giving beautiful tax breaks to the very rich, while at the same time cutting benefits to Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and Veterans? Musk is gone, but there still is time to correct some of his mistakes.

Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Budget Bill”: Are Republicans Gaining the Whole World of Wealthy Donors, but Losing Their Soul?

This past week Republicans in the House of Representative passed President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Budget Bill”. It is really big, but is it beautiful? It is a megabill that funds a laundry list of items on the president’s agenda. It now needs to go the Senate, where it will likely be modified and then returned to the House for “reconciliation”.

Budgets are moral documents, insofar as they represent one’s priorities. It is appropriate to raise moral questions about this legislation. Will this budget bill help or hurt most Americans, but especially our poorest citizens? Is it beautiful or is it selfishness disguised as efficiency?

What might Jesus of Nazareth say about this big, beautiful budget bill? Jesus (revered as the Son of God by billions around the globe, and as a great moral teacher by many others) taught a lot about money and economics. He warned that human greed is deceitful and destroys true life. He raised a probing question: What does it profit a person to gain the whole world, if they lose their soul? (Mark 8:36) If many people are losing their soul, their conscience, their compassion for others, this loss of our soul will be felt by “the least of these” that Jesus loved so much.

Jesus also warned his followers that human rulers usually lord it over their fellow citizens, while at the same time, they lie about all the “good” they are doing for people. (Luke 22:25) Therefore, we the people need to be diligent and discern the truth from the propaganda misinformation that comes at us from both sides of the aisle. I would like to “forward” Jesus’s question to the Republican members of the House of Representatives. Although they claim this bill would do so much good, if it hurts our neediest neighbors, are we losing our soul?

Since both Republicans and Democrats tend to spin information for their own advantage, what sources can we trust? I suggest the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It is nonpartisan. Both Republicans and Democrats love the CBO when it backs up their claims, but they both hate it when it reveals their distortions and disinformation. (“Figures never lie, but liars do figure”) The CBO is the closest thing we have to an impartial “referee” in Congress. The predictions below are the estimates of the CBO based upon the budget bill as currently passed in the House of Representatives.

The most significant items in the bill are (1) the renewal of the Trump 2017 income tax legislation scheduled to end this year; (2) cuts in Medicare and Medicaid benefits; (3) cuts in food stamp benefits / SNAP.

Democrats claim that the legislation favors the very rich whereas Republicans affirm that the budget bill is beautiful for all citizens, especially the middle class and the poorest people. The CBO estimates that, due to the provisions of this bill, the wealthiest 10% of the population will see a 4% increase in their wealth next year. The CBO predicts the poorest 10% of our people will see a 2% decline in their income next year and a 4% drop in the following year.
President Trump promised not to cut Medicare or Medicaid benefits. The CBO predicts over $800 billion will be cut from these programs. Republicans claim most of this is due to waste, fraud, and the removal of “dead people” on the list who are currently receiving benefits. The CBO denies these claims. It sure seems to me that Trump broke his promise and would sign this legislation.
The CBO claims that the “big, beautiful” bill will add to our national debt by at least $3.3 trillion. Republicans don’t like this prediction and they claim the CBO (the official referee) underestimates the growth in our economy. During his first term, Trump predicted his economic plans would not add to the debt. He was very wrong. His supporters seem to forget that Trump increased the national debt by $7.8 trillion during his first administration (the highest jump in any four-year term).
There are major changes in health care, especially in Medicaid and “Obamacare”. The CBO predicts that 13 million Americans would no longer have health insurance. Here again, Republicans don’t like these figures and they claim the CBO is “wrong”

Food stamps (the SNAP program) currently serves one-in-eight Americans each month. This bill would cut $230 billion over ten years, literally taking food out of people’s mouths.
Some of the provisions of the bill do help low wage earners (for example, no taxes on tips). Nevertheless, these are mere “crumbs” compared with the lavish deductions given to the very rich.

As I affirmed at the beginning of this post, budget bills are moral documents that should be evaluated by their (estimated) consequences. I choose to use the criteria taught by Jesus: What happens to the “least of these” among us? According to his standards, this bill does not seem very beautiful. In fact, it is quite ugly.