Tag: vote
Margie Whines That Her Life In Congress Is 'Miserable' -- And Costs Too Much

Mad Margie Is Sorry She Voted For Trump's Budget Bill

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, previously celebrated the House's passage of President Donald Trump's "One Big, Beautiful Bill.” But now she claims that she would have voted against it—had she actually read it.

In a post on X, Greene explained that she didn’t know that the bill includes a provision blocking states from regulating artificial intelligence, and had she known, she would have voted against the Medicaid-slashing legislation that passed by a one-vote margin.

"Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there,” she wrote.

Greene had been championing the dogshit legislation that slashes health care and food stamps while exploding the deficit with tax cuts for the rich. And after it passed the House ahead of Memorial Day, she cheered.

"We passed President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill out of the House this morning and now it’s on its way to the Senate!!" Greene wrote on X, celebrating the fact that the legislation would block Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood.

But now she claims that she didn't read the full bill, the text of which was released late at night and just a few hours before the House voted on it.

But Greene isn't the only Republican to admit to having no idea what she voted for.

Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska said he didn't know that the bill includes a provision that would make it more difficult for federal judges to enforce contempt rulings—a last-minute addition from sycophantic lawmakers who want to protect Dear Leader from being held accountable for ignoring court orders.

“This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill,” Flood said during a town hall, where he was mercilessly booed by his constituents who were angry that he voted in favor of the bill.

As backlash mounts against the bill, it’s possible that we’ll see other GOP lawmakers express remorse for voting in support of legislation that will kick millions of people off of their health insurance and food assistance while potentially taking down the U.S. economy.

It seems that even Republicans understand how much of a political loser the bill is, as GOP lawmakers are straight up lying about its Medicaid cuts to try to avoid voter backlash, which has exploded at town halls across the country.

The White House even released a fact sheet assuring Americans that people won’t “literally die” because of the bill.

If you have to explain to people that you don’t think they’ll die from your signature legislation’s health care cuts, it’s safe to say that you’re not in a great place politically.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

How Six Republicans In Congress Will Profit From Broken Medicaid Promise

How Six Republicans In Congress Will Profit From Broken Medicaid Promise

Just five weeks after pledging that they would not support the Republican Party's budget reconciliation package if it included cuts to Medicaid, six GOP lawmakers ultimately did just that on Thursday morning—and an analysis by government watchdog Accountable. US suggested they voted for the legislation to benefit themselves, despite the suffering it would cause for their constituents.

Along with cutting Medicaid for close to 14 million Americans and slashing nearly $300 billion in food assistance, the bill Republicans voted on in the early morning hours after weeks of deliberation included a tax policy proposal to expand a provision called Section 199A, which was previously introduced during the first Trump administration as part of the GOP's original law providing tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

The bill that passed in the House Thursday would raise the percentage of qualifying business income—such as rental income—people can deduct from their taxes from 20% to 23%. The provision is now set to expire at the end of the year.

If it's extended as written in the reconciliation bill, Accountable.US identified six Republican House members who could directly benefit from the expansion of the "pass-through deduction": Reps. Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, Rob Wittman of Virginia, Jen Kiggans of Virginia, Young Kim of California, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey.

Those six lawmakers were among the 12 who last month wrote to GOP leaders to say they represent "districts with high rates of constituents who depend on Medicaid" and to "reiterate our strong support for this program that ensures our constituents have reliable healthcare."

"We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations," wrote the lawmakers last month. "Cuts to Medicaid also threaten the viability of hospitals, nursing homes, and safety-net providers, nationwide. Many hospitals—particularly in rural and underserved areas—rely heavily on Medicaid funding, with some receiving over half their revenue from the program alone."

"It is the peak of hypocrisy that the loudest and most vocal opponents of Medicaid cuts cowered in a matter of days in favor of a bill that will make the largest cuts to Medicaid in modern history—all to pay for lower taxes for the richest."

With the six Republican members poised to earn thousands more each year from the pass-through income deduction, those concerns appeared to have evaporated on Thursday.

"It is the peak of hypocrisy that the loudest and most vocal opponents of Medicaid cuts cowered in a matter of days in favor of a bill that will make the largest cuts to Medicaid in modern history—all to pay for lower taxes for the richest," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. "Even worse, those very members stand to financially gain from those tax cuts, while their own constituents lose their healthcare. Their votes aren't just a flip-flop; they are a betrayal to hardworking Americans everywhere who will be worse off because of this bill."

Accountable's Cash in Congress project found that for the 2023 tax filing year, the six members of Congress earned a combined $327,000 in pass-through income, according to financial disclosures.

Bresnahan stands to benefit the most from the extension of Section 199A, The American Prospectreported, as he earned at least $137,000 from rental properties. Out of the six lawmakers, he also represents the most Medicaid beneficiaries: 230,000.

Wittman reported $105,000 or more in pass-through rental income, and represents 125,000 people who receive Medicaid. Kiggans reported $50,000 and represents 130,000 people who use the healthcare program for low-income Americans.

All together, reported The American Prospect, the lawmakers represent 971,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who could be affected by a work requirement amendment that would go into effect at the end of 2026 and other provisions.

"Millions of Americans will see their healthcare, food, and education costs skyrocket, all so House Republicans can hand themselves and their wealthiest donors a huge tax break," said Accountable. "The only 'winners' in this bill are the billionaires that paid for it."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

WATCH: Trump Nominee Says It's 'Very Based' To Think Women Shouldn't Vote

WATCH: Trump Nominee Says It's 'Very Based' To Think Women Shouldn't Vote

On May 29, President Donald Trump “nominated Paul Ingrassia, a former far-right podcast host now serving as the White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, to a new important role: head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent corruption-fighting agency that safeguards federal whistle-blowers and enforces some ethics laws,” as reported by The New York Times.

ALAN JACOBY (HOST): I don't want a woman as a vice president. My wife – I am married to the biggest misogynist this side of the Mississippi, by the way.

My wife literally thinks women should not vote. I tend to agree with her a lot –

PAUL INGRASSIA (GUEST): She’s very based.

JACOBY: Unless of course you’re voting for Donald Trump.

And Nikki Haley, forget about it. Forget Nikki Haley birdbrain, warmonger. It's – There's no way. I'd have to agree with Tucker Carlson. I'd have a hard time if that was the VP choice because she'll be just eyeing for 2028 or whatever the case is if they could somehow take Trump out, and I just I could not, I couldn't see it.

INGRASSIA: She's so terrible. She's so incompetent. I mean, it's amazing that she even had that position as ambassador to the United Nations. I mean, I can't believe this woman made it so far in her professional political career given how dumb she just sounds on the campaign trail. And the fact that she is so, I mean, she's pretty decently financially supported. I mean, you really just question the sanity of the people who are behind her. I mean, this woman sounds like a child.

She shouldn't even, you know, she shouldn't, she should be stripped of all of her titles. She should be deported if you were to ask me, you know, to tell you the truth, even though I realize she's — I guess she was born here.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Tulsi Gabbard

McConnell Votes No, But GOP Senate Confirms 'Putin's Girlfriend' As Intel Chief

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) to serve as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence. Republican senators almost unanimously voted for Gabbard despite unified Democratic opposition, with a final vote tally of 52-48.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who was the Senate Republican leader for nearly two decades and a former member of the "Gang of Six" that gets classified intelligence briefings, was the lone dissenter among his party. After casting his "no" vote with Democrats, McConnell ripped Gabbard over her "history of alarming lapses in judgment."

"The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is a key participant in the process that informs every major national security decision the President makes. The ODNI wields significant authority over how the intelligence community allocates its resources, conducts its collection and analysis, and manages the classification and declassification of our nation's most sensitive secrets," he stated. "In my assessment, Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust."

Multiple Democratic elected officials also tore into their GOP colleagues over their decision to be a rubber stamp for Trump. On Bluesky, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) wrote that Gabbard amplified "propaganda" for Russian President Vladimir Putin and deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for years. Anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project tweeted that Russia refers to Gabbard as "Putin's girlfriend." And Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) slammed Republicans as "worse than useless" for confirming "Tulsi F—ing Gabbard."

"Confirming her as DNI serves only to tell Trump that Senate Rs would rather lick his boots than do a single damn thing to protect our national security," he tweeted. "They are worse than useless. And they are putting every American at risk."

Around the same time Gabbard was confirmed, Fox News liberal host Jessica Tarlov tweeted a video of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (also one of her former Fox News colleagues) calling for Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula — which Russia has been illegally occupying since 2014 — to be considered Russian territory. Hegseth added that Ukraine shouldn't be considered for membership in the NATO alliance anytime soon.

"Tulsi confirmed at virtually the same time," Tarlov wrote. "A sunny day in Moscow even if's still only 19 degrees out."

Software engineer Alex Cole wrly noted on Bluesky that Gabbard — who was once the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee — has found far greater political success after abandoning the Democratic Party.

"Tulsi Gabbard was once on a government watchlist. Now she’s running U.S. intelligence," Cole wrote. "Moral of the story? If at first you don’t succeed, just switch political parties."

Gabbard's alleged closeness to Russia didn't go unnoticed by MSNBC columnist Brandon Friedman. He recalled a time when social media platform Instagram announced it was going dark in Russia on March 13, 2022. He then posted a screenshot of a March 23, 2022 Fox News interview with Gabbard where the former congresswoman complained that her Instagram video views had dropped from 250,000 to 300,000 to just 15,000, suggesting that Russian Instagram users were the main source of her traffic. Friedman called that complaint "the funniest thing" Gabbard said.

Former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob took a more somber tone, writing: "No foreign country in its right mind will share sensitive intelligence with Tulsi Gabbard. We are now a country that's flying blind in a dangerous world."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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