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"Anything to win": Trump tries to push "beautiful" bill over finish line with outright lies

Trump is no stranger to spreading fibs, but the story he's telling about his spending bill is a whopper

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It’s a beautiful lie, oh oh-oh-oh

Donald Trump and his lackeys in the legislature want nothing more than to enrich their benefactors at the expense of most other Americans. They’ve made it their priority via the president’s “big, beautiful bill,” which would achieve that goal largely by gutting Medicaid.

Picking Americans’ pockets for the sake of the nation’s most ketamine-addicted libertarians doesn’t poll well, however. So, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump have developed a novel strategy to sell their bill: lie about what’s in it.

Trump defended the bill limping its way through the Senate in a post to Truth Social on Monday, saying that the bill would make “no cuts” to Medicare or Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would reduce Medicaid spending by $600 billion over the next decade.

While Trump said “the only ‘cutting’ [the bill] will do is for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse,” analyses find that the act will leave many people who would have been eligible without access to healthcare. More than 10 million people are expected to drop off the rolls under the proposed requirements.

Pushed under the justification of slashing the national debt, the bill is expected to supercharge the deficit to the tune of trillions. Nearly a decade into the era of “alternative facts,” it’s unlikely that Republicans’ magic math will matter much. Expect the next Mike Johnson to point at the national debt his predecessor created and decide something needs to be done (and, surprise, surprise, it’s more tax cuts for the wealthy).

What do you think? Can the GOP lie their way through Trump’s agenda? Will actual budget hawks in the Senate sink the president’s flagship bill? Sound off in the comments.

Make me smarter …

The ugly truth of Trump's America first agenda

Looting America’s coffers isn’t enough for Trump. He’s also dead set on destroying the stores of soft power the country built over decades. Read more.

They said what?

  • “What kind of bull is this?”

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, slamming the Trump administration for reported attempts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.

  • “It’s evil. How can that person be a member of the Republican Party?”

    Tucker Carlson, on Florida Rep. Randy Fine’s suggestion that Gaza be nuked. 

  • What hurricane season?

    While his exact comments are unknown, a recent report suggests that the Trump-picked head of FEMA was unaware that the United States had a hurricane season.

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Before you go …

How progressive critics paved the way for Trump’s attack on judicial supremacy

Trump is a singular figure in American politics, but he didn’t get here alone. Beyond the work of his toadies in the MAGA movement, the president had some help from his harshest critics in his assault on the courts. Read more.

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