The Powerful v. The Powerless

As cynical as it gets: Tax breaks now; Medicaid and SNAP cuts the day after the midterm elections (assuming they happen).

Thom Tillis (R-Common Sense), begged and pleaded with his Senate colleagues to step away from the just passed big ugly bill that, in order to preserve massive tax cuts for the wealthy, takes a big bite out of healthcare for the poor, and adds $3T to the national debt. Senator Tillis knows, and tried to tell his colleagues, that throwing 11.8 million people off of their healthcare in order to make permanent tax cuts for the rich is political suicide.

Our charming president then threatened to primary Tillis if he didn’t get in line with the rest of the lemmings. Tillis, deciding not to walk off the cliff with them, chose instead not to seek reelection. He said it was the easiest decision he’s ever made.

Among other things, this huge, steaming pile of a bill:

· Cancels renewable energy investment, ceding the future of energy to China, while pumping up fossil fuels, and hastening climate change. Elon Musk: "It gives handouts to industries of the past [Big Oil] while severely damaging industries of the future [solar, wind, etc.]."

· Has a truly “Let them eat cake” vibe, cutting $600B from Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the rich;

· Adds $45B for immigration enforcement, a 15X increase geared toward getting those dangerous farm and hospitality workers out of our kitchens and fields, and into Salvadoran cages;

· Is a presidential power grab, setting up the arch-right dream of a “unitary executive.” It’s disheartening to watch Congress neuter itself;

· Doesn’t even try to hide the heavy-handed authoritarianism it represents, what with the proposed concentration camps and amped up surveillance that will make us look like a police state faster than you can say, “Bob’s my uncle.”

In immigration news, the allegedly undocumented immigrant father of three United States Marines, was knocked down and beaten by thugs that we presume to be ICE agents. They cover their faces. They wear no identification, and for all anyone knows, they’re a well-armed street gang. The immigrant landscaper raised his boys to be patriotic. They all joined the Marine Corps. He has never bothered anyone, pays his taxes, and loves the United States.

Again, the cruelty seems to be the point, thanks to the guy they’re calling the “Border Czar,” Tom Homan, who comes off on TV in his faux law-enforcement Halloween get-ups (he is NOT a law enforcement officer—he just plays one on TV) as nothing more than a drooling thug. This guy looks like a Batman villain, and I don’t mean the sophisticated movies that have had such a great run over the last 20 years. I mean the campy 60s TV show. Homan is right up there with Burgess Meredith’s Penguin.

He loves to go on about how they’re arresting criminals, just like President Trump wanted, but the president talks about deporting criminals. Particularly, violent felons. By U.S. Code, the dishwashers, cooks, housekeepers, construction workers, landscapers, and agricultural workers who are here without documentation are guilty of a simple misdemeanor, not a felony. Those who are here with temporary work permits are being swept up from courthouses as they await immigration hearings to make their status permanent. It is heartbreaking to watch ICE treat them like public enemies.

The Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, had a moment. She managed to get to the president one evening and told him that he would lose his core support among farmers if he continued to allow ICE agents to stomp though the fields arresting undocumented farm workers. She told him that our wheat, corn, and soy crops are at risk of going unharvested, and would represent economic calamity if left to rot. She circled back the next morning to underscore her warning, and he relented, announcing that ICE would suspend activities in restaurants, hotels, and farm fields. That lasted less than a day. Someone, presumably Trump’s most influential advisor, Racist-in-Chief, Stephen Miller, had the president reverse course (I know, how unusual), and after a few hours’ respite, the raids resumed, Making America Great Again.

All this leads me to wonder if Donald Trump knows (or even cares) that his presidency is being ruined by this overzealous Goon Squad. Stephen Miller, who directs Homan’s squad of Flying Monkeys, says, “America is for Americans.” Logic that flies in the face of both our history and our better judgment.

Sorry future Einsteins. Try Canada.

There is a lot of speculation that the president doesn’t care because he plans to stop the midterms from happening next year. He knows how vulnerable a lame-duck president is in his final two years, and he knows how quickly Democratic majorities in both houses would reverse his avalanche of executive orders. He would certainly be impeached, and doesn’t want to find out if the third time is the charm.

©Jon Sinton 2025