The jubilant House of Representatives leadership claimed their narrow win, 218-214, on the President’s reckless and cruel tax bill was a “wonderful thing for all Americans.” For the loyal and faithful Christian right, House Speaker Mike Johnson, on cue, insisted, “a lot of credit goes to God and freedom loving Members of the House who have been working on the President’s bill for over a year.” But it fell to the peppy Republican Chairwoman of the House Conference Committee, Lisa McCain (R-Mich), to put a winning face on the wobbly sow she had just voted to heap upon her unsuspecting constituents outside of Detroit. “This bill.” she declared beaming, “is about putting more money in the pockets of more Americans.”
Now why would a perfectly pleasant looking mother with four photogenetic children repeatedly spew out such nonsensical rubbish? Greed and ambition. Lisa McCain is eager to do what it takes to play big in Trump’s world and she expects to be rewarded.
Belatedly, some have decided enough. Time to take exception to and challenge Trump and his battalion of liars, posers, and zealots. They might begin with the facts, challenge the wishful thinking, and confront the shameless McCain liars. The bill just passed, plain and simple, is Trump’s ugly sow. Sows need a lot of slopping. They love to wallow in the slushy mud and tumble in the mire and then wobble back to the trough for more slopping. Make sure Trump and every Republican who fed and kept this greasy sow alive is stuck in their swampy pen with the ugly sow they sired.
Lisa McCain and the Republicans know Trump’s massive bill puts more money in the pockets of the rich and super rich capitalists and pays for some of that historic largess by taking away Medicaid health and hospital care and food from the very poor, including children and seniors. Lisa McCain didn’t misspeak. She may even believe part of what she said. After all this is the same careless congresswoman who recently claimed Social Security payments were going to people born 150 years ago; the same Congresswoman who in 2022 declared Trump had “caught Osama bin Laden.”
The mean, wacko, and reckless Trump sow, H.R. 1, is about money and who gets what, and a total lack of concern for the poor and those in need. This perverse Trumpian show includes the classical elements of arrogance, entitlement, and hubris. Indisputably President Trump controls the executive and legislative right down to dictating the day and hour the House convenes and adjourns, and he may be close to capturing the judiciary. Trump and his team are dancing and popping corks. They are on a roll. They may have also convinced themselves that they can do no wrong and are entitled to do pretty much what they can get away with while they control the levers of power or until they are stopped.
That arrogance and swagger of power was painfully apparent July 4th, the day of our country’s birthday, when the president with his detached first lady in summer white, standing by his side, went on and on with his tired shtick out on the Truman balcony before he signed his reckless bill into law. Only Trump would try to make our country’s birthday celebration about him and his recent steamrolling the House and Senate again. Only Trump would have the hubris to suggest that his great tax bill is up there with our country’s accomplishment of two hundred and forty-nine years of a consecutive functioning democracy.
Only Trump would have the chutzpah to use the Social Security Administration on July 4th to send out the message below to every Social Security recipient in America:
“The Social Security Administration (SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Beautiful Bill, a landmark piece of legislation that delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans.”
This free political flier from a federal government agency paid for by U. S. taxpayers is outrageous and illegal, and straight out of the Trump playbook. The day Trump signed his reckless tax bill into law he officially launched his campaign of lies and distortions to sell the American people on what he did for them in his 900 plus pages tax bill.
He is now in campaign mode to convince American voters he kept his promises to the working class and seniors; he never touched Medicaid; never added trillions to our debt nor kicked millions of Americans off health care; he never lied to the American people; and most especially, he wants you to know he loves you; he never left you. Don’t keep your distance (don’t abandon me and the Republican senators and members of the House I own in next year’s election).
I kept my promise; don’t keep your distance. I never sought fame nor fortune; I never invited them in, though it seemed to the world that was all I desired. I haven’t made hundreds of millions in my first six months in office, no matter the fake Wall Street Journal and New York Times documents.
I love you and hope you love me. One look at me and you know it’s true. I made America great and strong and safe and beautiful again, and I did it for you.
This blueprint is straight out of his all-time favorite Broadway musical “Evita,” based upon his favorite fascist political operatives Juan and Eva Person. (Why do you think he loves waving to his people from his Truman balcony?) Trump just put Democrats on notice this is how he is going to sell his unpopular ugly sow bill to America and beat Democrats again next year. Even Fox News admits the Trump sow is hugely unpopular and a big gamble for Republicans.
Still, Trump may well sell his ugly and wobbly sow. Notwithstanding the Trump madness and corruption, his lack of focus and discipline, as well as a noticeable declining ability to respond in real time to a direct question, he remains a proven salesman with a remarkable track record when scripted.
If Democrats are going to take back the House and regain some measure of power, they will have to outsell the President. That will take selling the American people with specifics on a more solid, measurable, and reasonable way forward as they reconnect with millions of Americans they lost over the past two decades. Democrats must touch, connect, and enlist new Democrats. That challenge will require a campaign against the sow H.R. 1, and a team equipped to fight, communicate, and win. This requires putting together the team and plan in the next 90 days.
One starting point for Democrats to reconsider is where they stand on spending for defense. There is a hard-core group of Democrats who have taken pride for much too long in never having voted for a defense spending bill. Nancy Pelosi tried without much success to change that. With real dangers coming from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, rigid opposition to an effective military is a recipe for remaining in the minority for decades. How do you put up a yard sign touting support for Ukraine and then vote against a bill to pay for the weapons and service members to wage that fight? Trump is foolish and dead wrong on Ukraine.
Lastly, for over fifty-five years Republicans and Democrats both failed to secure our borders. That delay and neglect came crashing down during President Biden’s watch, and Trump seized on the Biden ineptness and inability to act and made that a winning campaign issue. Most voters favor enforcing border security. What Democrats oppose is the unlawful and often inhumane and uneven way Trump goes about enforcement. It is not a sign of weakness to admit Trump has been right or partially right on some key issues. In fact, candor may well make Democrats more accessible and appealing to more voters.
There are stark and Important differences between how Republicans and Democrats act, give and take, allocate, and govern today; and those differences and inequities are reflected in the tight vote count on Trump’s not so beautiful sow H.R. 1. Democrats must connect with and sell America on a clear message.
Aubrey Sarvis,
Army veteran and retired lawyer