This week’s essay and this podcast episode are about the Reconciliation Budget Bill that was just signed into law by the president, and all the painful repercussions we’ll be dealing with as a result. Since every single Democrat and Independent fought against this bill, I think it’s important we call it the Trump MAGA Republican Reconciliation Budget Bill. I think they need to own the bill they were thumbs-upping themselves over and praying for and clapping about.
They got what they wanted, and I think it’s vital everyone (especially the people supporting this administration) remembers that. When children and all of our most vulnerable people across the country lose their Medicaid benefits (children’s Medicaid benefits are named different things in different states, for example in Idaho it’s called the Idaho Health Plan for Children), I think it’s vital the people who voted for this president take ownership of the repercussions of their votes. All of them.
When Trump and DOGE - (oh hey, this is gonna be a long aside, but remember when the president’s supporters loved Elon Musk and thought he was this fantastic philanthropic billionaire donating his time because he’s so nice - and not because he was raking in even more dough hand over fist, winning government contracts left and right, and getting all the rocket launches his heart desired, approved without any of that pesky oversight?) - anyway, when Trump and DOGE made cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) months ago, people who work in the agency started voicing their alarm, loudly.
They expressed serious concern about our climate crisis and increasing extreme weather events (like our wildfires out here in Los Angeles this fall, and very sadly, like the flooding in Texas right now) and their ability to warn states about impending weather events with such deep funding cuts. Here is a link telegraphing what might happen if DOGE and the president went through with their plans. Here is a link about the further cuts that were included in the Trump MAGA Republican Reconciliation Budget Bill. Here is why they’re so devastating to states like Texas.
It is pathetic and exhausting to see the lengths MAGA Republicans will go to try to absolve themselves of responsibility when their policies and priorities lead to tragedy. This was today, folks:
No. No one is controlling the weather with space lasers or anything else. We have a climate crisis because we treat the planet like it’s our “personal resource ATM” - we’re addicted to AC, iPhones, and now AI to name a very few. We have extreme weather as a result of our own greed. We have a president who pulled us out of the Paris Accord and thinks “drill baby drill” is a good slogan for these times, because he’ll be dead soon, and really doesn’t care about the rest of us. Musk and crew have their eyes on Mars, don’t get confused and think he’s a friend now.
People will die and they already are, and it’s devastating. Is the president in Texas right now, where he should be comforting families? No. He was playing golf yesterday, and having a “victory event” at the White House, celebrating the fact that 17 million Americans will lose their health insurance - but he gets to build more Alligator Alcatrazes.
This episode is largely about the pillars required for a democracy to sustain - things like free and fair elections, the rule of law, the separation of powers, an independent judiciary, a free press, due process, and the right to protest. It’s about what happens when those pillars are eroded at warp speed, and 32% of the population still thinks everything is great. And it’s about the need to remain stubbornly hopeful that the 31% of us who did not vote for this, and the 36% of us who did not vote at all, can fight like hell for a much better and kinder future for us all.
Sending so much love to Texas. My god my heart breaks for all the families there, and the parents who lost their little girls at Mystic Camp - my heart just hurts for y’all so much. I’m so sorry, there aren’t any words at all. But I am writing through tears.
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