Free Republic

President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is one step closer to becoming law — and reshaping policy from Medicaid to taxes. The House passed the massive spending bill on Thursday afternoon in a 218-214 vote. Every Democrat voted against the bill, along with two Republicans: Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. The final passage came after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke for roughly eight hours and 45 minutes in opposition to the bill, breaking the record for the longest House floor speech in American history. The bill now heads to Trump's desk for signing, which...

If you like all the Science NASA has done since 1961, then wave it all goodby. NASA budget cut to the lowest since 1961 - before there was a manned space program. No more Rovers, probes, [ even 99942 Apophis probes cut, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis ]. There are no private entities that can or will pick up the slack. Cuts to Hubble and to Webb will leave them orbiting junk. Coupled with the possible collapse of SpaceX from 47's vengeance feud with Musk, the US will no longer have a space program - civilian or military. These twin disasters in the making...

With the passage of the BBB by the Senate today, one of the issues I was interested in was what happened to plans to eliminate Medicaid funding for illegal immigrants. And it's actually a bit difficult to figure out what is going to happen now.So the backstory here is that the feds haven't agreed to directly fund Medicaid for illegal immigrants anywhere. However, some states have rolled out versions of Medicaid which cover some illegal immigrants using state funds. California in particular has expanded Medical to cover all immigrants who meet the income threshold. However, that expansion cost the state...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Friday a budget that pares back a number of progressive priorities, including a landmark health care expansion for low-income adult illegal immigrants, to close a $12 billion deficit. It’s the third year in a row the nation’s most populous state has been forced to slash funding or stop some of the programs championed by Democratic leaders. Lawmakers passed the budget earlier in the day following an agreement of a $321 billion spending plan between Newsom and Democratic leaders. But the whole budget will be void if lawmakers don’t send him legislation to make it...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Senate Republicans to expect to see the legislative text of the budget reconciliation package on Friday evening and then to vote at noon Saturday to begin debate on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Several GOP senators, however, refused to say whether they would vote to proceed to the bill, including Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he’s a hard “no” on the legislation because it includes a provision to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.

In the linked MSNBC interview, Mandini emphasizes his commitment to protect the Jewish community from anti-Semitic hate crime attacks.

Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed two budget proposals Wednesday, calling them partisan and reckless, as legislators near a deadline to reach a deal and avoid a state government shutdown. Her action comes after House Republicans indicated last week that a budget negotiated by the state Senate and Hobbs’ office lacked the needed votes in its chamber. The House instead introduced a budget to keep state operations running beyond June 30 and buy more time for negotiations. The chamber passed a separate budget earlier this month. “It cuts tuition, raises pay for law enforcement, fixes critical roads, and reins in...

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is slamming the Biden administration for what he calls an “absolutely infuriating” last-minute spending spree, revealing that more than $90 billion in green energy loans were pushed through by the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office in the weeks between President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection and his January inauguration. In an interview with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle, Wright detailed the results of a newly completed review of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, revealing that “more than $90 billion in loans were closed or committed in the 76 days between...

Groups like this fixate on the number of individuals with health insurance coverage, regardless of whether those individuals engage in fraud.The left is ignoring potential fraud to pursue its own ideological objectives.That’s the shorter version of a series of analyses regarding the House-passed reconciliation bill released in recent days by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The organization, and other leftist groups like it, fixate solely on the number of individuals with health insurance coverage — regardless of whether those individuals engage in fraud, or even whether those individuals belong in this country.The Kaiser analyses create state-by-state breakdowns of projected changes in...

NATO members are rushing to show President Donald Trump they’re shoveling money into defense — some with a dose of creative math — as Russia’s battle with Ukraine grinds on and war threatens to consume the Middle East. The group’s summit this week in The Hague, which Trump plans to attend, will attempt to set a deadline for members to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense. Trump has complained about European defense budgets since his first term, claiming the U.S. gets ripped off by countries that rely on Washington for a security blanket. The way allies approach this at...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is up for re-election next year. She may be vulnerable to primary challenges within her party, and some polls show Republicans within striking distance of her in the general election setting. She underperformed in 2022, when former Congressman and current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin gave her all she could handle. At a recent hearing on Capitol Hill, Hochul demonstrated her ignorance about a string of heinous crimes committed by illegal immigrants who were shielded and protected by her reckless 'sanctuary' policies. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who may run for governor in 2026, made the most of...

During a Tuesday Fox News appearance, Paul, a Republican with strong libertarian convictions, told Mornings with Maria host Maria Bartiromo that he was not voting for the bill. 'I'm enthusiastically for the tax cuts, I voted for them in 2017 I helped to formulate those tax cuts in 2017,' Paul stated. 'I will not be the deciding vote against this, I promise you that. If I'm the deciding vote against this, they will negotiate with me.' 'Right now they are not negotiating with me, because they don't think they need me, so I will not be the deciding vote. The...

These days, it seems that a mysterious group called “the CBO” rules the world. Or at least Washington. Unfortunately, they’re not very good at predicting things and their bad calls can lead to bad policy results. The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) predict what will happen with spending, tax revenues and deficits from new bills and congressional budgets. They have made headlines of late with their absurd warning that the Trump tax bill to extend the 2017 tax cuts and other reforms, like eliminating taxes on tips, would add some $4.6 trillion to the debt...

Elon Musk and House Republicans both promised to tackle federal spending. It turns out only one of them was serious, and it wasn’t Musk. Musk, who broke with President Trump this week after labeling Republicans’ reconciliation bill a “disgusting abomination,” might claim some authority. As leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, he was the public face of Trump’s assault on government. Remember him feeding the U.S. Agency for International Development into the wood chipper? Encouraging civil servants to quit or be fired? The chain saw? Musk loves the theatrical: He helped scuttle an omnibus spending bill last year mainly...

Let’s face it, no one expected Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” to be perfect. But for Elon Musk to adopt the intransigent position that the work of government should stop in its tracks in pursuit of perfection is a manifest nonsense. Especially when considering OMB chief Russ Vought’s explanation of how the bill helps reduce the deficit. Musk has a habit of failing to see the wood for the trees. He’s been a long-standing backer of China, which my website has reported on for years. He supported DeSantis, not Trump, in the primary. He recently tried to depose Brexit leader Nigel...

PULSE POINTS:❓What Happened: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says its analysis of President Donald J. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” finds the legislation introduces historic fiscal reforms, achieving $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings and reducing the deficit by $1.407 trillion. This analysis contradicts a fiscal score released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that claims the bill would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion.👥 Who’s Involved: President Donald J. Trump, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), OMB Director Russ Vought, Elon Musk, and the U.S. Congress.📍 Where & When: The OMB’s top-line...

“The (puny) ask: Elon Musk recently criticized the GOP’s “massive spending” reconciliation bill, which he says “undermines” the savings DOGE has found. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller responded that Musk was wrong to expect reconciliation to lock in DOGE work, saying that the proper tool was rescission. “So where are the lock-ins? DOGE says it has identified some $180 billion in savings, though Congress needs to approve many of the grant cancellations and other clawbacks. “Yet the White House rescissions request is for a mere $9.4 billion—out of annual discretionary spending of $1.6 trillion. This (supposedly) cost-cutting...

UNHINGED: @SenSchumer says "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE" if we pass the largest tax cut in history, block illegals from taxpayer-funded health care, and cut the deficit. These are NOT serious people.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that recent U.S. tariff increases will reduce federal deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next decade, primarily through increased customs revenue and lower interest payments on federal debt—more than enough to offset the projected cost of President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cut bill. In a separate analysis, the CBO recently estimated that extending the 2017 tax cuts, as proposed in the administration’s new tax and spending bill, would increase the deficit by roughly $2.4 trillion over the same period. That legislation would reduce federal revenues by $3.67 trillion while cutting spending by $1.25 trillion,...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that President Donald Trump’s budget bill will not pass because it has a “grotesque” level of spending. Johnson said, “The president and Senate leadership has to understand that we’re serious. They all say, ‘Oh, we can pressure these guys.’ No, you can’t. Again we’re we’re being very respectful. You know, I ran 2010 as part of the Tea Party Movement. We were mortgaging children’s future. We were $14 trillion in debt then now we’re over $37 trillion. We’re serious about this. They need to take us seriously. Don’t insult us....