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Wednesday, July 2: Democrats' sound and fury strategy wears thin
It's fair to wonder what the Democrats actually do as the Big, Beautiful Bill passes the Senate
Alex Galbraith
July 02, 2025
The news, in brief …
Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” passes Senate
The Medicaid-slashing, tax-cutting, deficit-exploding megabill squeaked through the Senate on a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. Read more.
Israel has agreed to ceasefire conditions, per Trump
Trump announced the beginnings of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on Tuesday. Read more.
Tom Homan waves off death in ICE custody
After a 75-year-old who had lived in the United States since the ‘60s passed away in ICE custody, Trump’s border czar couldn’t even pretend to care. Read more.
Trump threatens to arrest Mamdani if he becomes NYC mayor
Trump escalated his war of words against the New York mayoral candidate, saying he’d arrest the would-be mayor if he refused to cooperate with ICE. Read more.
Make me smarter …
Public health expert: Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will cause misery and death
Experts are predicting the bill’s cuts to public health programs will lead to over 50,000 unnecessary deaths per year. Read more.
Oops, all optics
You have to know how it goes by now.
The Republican Party moves in lockstep to push a wildly unpopular policy through the legislature. The Democrats give a lot of speeches, print out a few pithy posters and frown before reporters in the Rotunda. We are assured that Democrats did everything they could, even when they fold in advance, and leaders tell us to take heart in the fact that the Bill That Kills People will undoubtedly sway far-off elections.
The same was true on Tuesday, with Democratic leaders smirking at “phony moderates” who helped pass the “One Big Beautiful Bill” through the Senate by the slimmest possible margin. DNC Chair Ken Martin said that the bill, which slashes public health funds in service of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, will lead to a future where Democrats and working families vote Republicans out. If that comes, and it’s doubtful, it will be after millions of people have suffered unnecessarily. And all because Democrats have forgotten how to play the game.
Republican minorities in the legislature have spent the last 20 years gumming up the works, exploiting the rules to halt Democratic policies and stuffing the judiciary with sympathetic judges. They know that the optics and campaigning are all in service of wielding power. Democrats seem to believe it’s worthwhile to lose if it means you can run on how terrible everything is in the next election. That’s why we’re all living under the Harris administration after the Supreme Court overturned Roe…
After years’ worth of photo ops, coded messages via clothing choices and assurances of ballot box karma, you have to wonder if Democrats know what politics is. There was seemingly no effort to break the Republicans’ razor-thin majority. Alaska’s GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski just barely convinced herself to vote for the Senate bill. You have to think no threats were made and no pork was promised.
Chuck Schumer has been in the Senate since before the dawn of the millennium. Does he really not know what buttons to push to get his colleagues to break by now? And, if he does, and chooses not to, then what is the point of him or his party?
The so-called opposition is sleepwalking as Trump’s extreme agenda has turned off many notable Republican legislators. The days of horse-trading are long gone. Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries are content to point at the burning barn we’re all stuck in and say the horses that make it out are going to buck something fierce.
What do you think? Are you growing as tired of these pragmatic, realist old Democrats as we are? Would you like to see a little bit more fire in the belly of Democratic leadership? Sound off in the comments.
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Before you go …
“Who’s to say anybody’s vote is safe?”: Trump DOJ targets North Carolina’s voter rolls
Some fear the state election board, under DOJ pressure, will disenfranchise thousands of voters. Read more.
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