Trump ruffles GOP feathers, tax bill runs aground, Qatar woos Trump, watch the military!
The GOP has not been doing well this past week. Not many eyebrows were raised when Trump fired the three Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but when he fired the Acting Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for suggesting that he was wrong to suggest the agency should be shut down and, worse yet, when he fired the Librarian of Congress, a move looked for by the conservative nonprofit, American Accountability Foundation, not only Democrats but Republicans complained. Bad enough to inject politics into nonpolitical institutions, but for the Executive Branch to mess with Congress’s library was just too much.
Having been given some time by Schumer to put together a tax bill, instead of an extension to the end of the fiscal year on September 30, Treasury Secretary Bessent notified Congress that they must act by July to prevent the government from defaulting on its debts. That might not have seemed such bad news after the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means Committee in the House both got their portions out by May 14. However, fiscal conservatives in the House voted against moving the bill out of the Budget Committee, delaying a vote on the House floor even before it faces more problems in the Senate.
The tax bill is a nightmare for the country if it should be passed in any form close to that passed by the two House committees. For Medicaid, it calls for work requirements for able-bodied men between 18 and 55 without dependents (otherwise known as a job-loss penalty) and cost sharing for households earning just over the poverty level for some services at $35 a visit (otherwise known as can’t-share-at-that-cost). The Congressional Budget Office estimates an increase in uninsured of 8.6 million by 2034. For taxes, it’s more of the same. The 2017 tax brackets are made permanent (does anyone remember how they kept the cost of the tax bill low in 2017 by saying it would only be temporary?). The SALT (state and local taxes) deduction is increased from $10,000 to $30,000. These and other goodies would add $5.6 trillion to the deficit, while cuts to renewable energy incentives and presumed increased international tax enforcement (with a decreased IRS budget somehow) will reduce the deficit by $1.9 trillion. So more money for the rich, less for the rest, and the climate gets worse just for kicks.
The GOP had even more to contend with when Qatar offered to give Trump a Boeing 747-8 jet. The replacement for the ageing Air Force One currently in use has been delayed, so Trump said he would be “a fool” not to accept the gift. He apparently is unfamiliar with the emoluments clause of the Constitution that prohibits such gifts without the consent of Congress (one assumes nobody read it to him). Once again, even Republicans in Congress are not happy, especially given the obvious national security concerns and poor optics. Coincidentally, on his tour of the Mideast shortly thereafter, Qatar Airways was said to be ready to announce a deal to purchase 150 aircraft from Boeing. While Republicans grumbled, Chuck Schumer announced that he was placing a hold on all political nominees for the Justice Department in response to Trump’s pending acceptance of the jet.
While we haven’t heard many complaints about the outrageous plan for Trump’s birthday celebration on June 14 with a military parade costing millions, there has been some noise about the Department of Homeland Security’s request for 20,000 National Guard troops from the Pentagon to help with deportation. Tammy Buckworth (D-Ill) put it nicely after saying she was “deeply disturbed by Trump’s “abuse and misuse” of the U.S. military. “No one should believe that he will stop at immigrants if this plan moves forward,” she said.