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SLMontgo's avatar

Oddly, Joni Ernst managed, in one ill-advised throwaway quip, to highlight and undermine the entire MAGA mission. Evoking the Tooth Fairy was simply the cherry on top.

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Michele W Missner's avatar

Everything trump has done will lead to the deaths of many Americans starting with loosening anything having to do with the environment.

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Steve 218's avatar

Now he wants the agency charged with the safety of chemicals scrapped. This reduced regulation will once again be no good for people.

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Kristen's avatar

I don’t know why at this stage, but I am continually stunned by the depth of the contempt well these people keep drawing from.

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Ellie Alive In 25's avatar

Unfortunately, those who vote for them, are not. They appear to be blind to the fact that they, themselves, are objects of contempt to the politicians loyal only to Power, Party, Pelf, and (coming soon thanks to Bobby) Plague.

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Mary Nissen's avatar

I am from Iowa and have never voted for a Republican, I have many, many friends here that are deeply distressed about how Iowa has turned so embarrassingly red. We are working every day to support an agenda that calls for equity, empathy, social support programs and good public education. Not everyone from Iowa continues to vote for madness, I am hoping we turn pruple next election. And the Joni thing-it's just a feather in the cap for the State of Iowa Republican party- they don't care...I am sure they all find it amusing.

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Ellie Alive In 25's avatar

Here's to purple!

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Tim Matchette's avatar

Keep fighting Mary. What you are doing is representing a chink in the maga armor.

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SBwrites's avatar

Good for you Mary! It's inspirational! I just read in the Des Moines Register (although I don't live in Iowa) that the woman who yelled out, "People will die" is "India May, a 33-year-old Democrat from Charles City, who is now running for Iowa House district 58, after sparking a viral moment at the town hall."

Also, instead of issuing a real apology to Iowans, Sen. Ernst has spent her time, hiring a campaign manager for her 2026 election. And, the race has heated up. Ernst already has drawn two Democratic challengers, and one Republican challenger. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/04/joni-ernst-hires-campaign-manager-bryan-kraber-to-run-2026-reelection-bid/84028425007/

FYI...It must be a Republican DNA problem that they are unwilling and unable to genuinely apologize for their wrongdoings. But, finally, there is some real backlash against a senator who beat her democratic opponent by only 6.6 points in 2020, but carried an overwhelming majority of the state's counties including many rural ones. It's too bad that if the reprehensible Republicans pass this draconian and traitorous bill, everything doesn't go into effect in October, the new fiscal year, because then we would definitely have a blue tsunami in 2026. And, given my age, I can't continue waiting for all of them to disappear, so I can spend the rest of my life more peacefully, and happily than I have been.

On the other hand, just maybe, insensitivity, cruelty, and disdain for one's constituents will become a reason for some Republicans and Independents to start voting for qualified Democrats.

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Happy Valley No More's avatar

I too am stunned at the amount of hate living in this country and the GOP administration.

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Wry Banter's avatar

It is bottomless as they race downward. First one there gets to be president for a third term.

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Dana Jae Labrecque's avatar

Nailed it. I feel the same way.

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Alan Richardson's avatar

Yes, she did. Amazing foot in mouth moments. Joni, yes we will all die, but is there anyone who doesn't want to prolong the inevitable and stay as healthy as possible before the end eventually comes? This bill takes away that possibility from millions of Americans.

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SBwrites's avatar

Yes Alan, the bill does take away that possibility of healthcare from millions of Americans, but, not from Ernst and other Congressional Republicans. As a constituent wrote in Letters to the Editor of the Des Moines Register on June 2, "I have been thinking the Democratic Party was at fault this last election for coming off as elitist. You just moved well beyond elitist. Especially for someone who does not need to worry about losing her health insurance. Shame on you. But, then again, the GOP really does not mind calling names and making people feel like they are second class. Iowa deserves better!"

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patricia's avatar

maybe they don't...they're getting what they voted for other people to get

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SBwrites's avatar

Patricia, I understand why you feel that way. I felt the same way for quite some time, and on bad days, still do. But, I finally decided that it wasn't helping me to be so angry. So, I'm trying with all of my determination, to forgive them, or at least, stop hating them. I kind of learned this from watching Bernie Sanders and AOC at their "Fighting Oligarchy" tours, where they welcomed everyone, no matter how they voted in the last election to join them. Anyway, take care!

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patricia's avatar

I don't hate them ..they need to know what their crazy maga bullshit does to people

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SBwrites's avatar

Well then, you’re doing better than I was/am. When my late husband was very sick, they had weaponized COVID, people weren’t wearing masks, he was immunocompromised, and it was difficult for us to go anywhere once the restrictions were lifted. Then, when so many of them got COVID, the pandemic lasted far longer than it would have if they had gotten vaccinated, and hospitals had to keep visiting protocols far longer than they would have, and I couldn’t be in the hospital with him, when he was dying because of it. And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on about all the lies, “woke” shit, stupidity, voting for a rapist, and someone who has spent the last ten years in the spotlight, when he should have been jailed, the destruction of our democracy, and having to listen to morons and religious fanatics for a decade. Yikes. I’ve worked so hard to deal with my anger, and it returns in a flash. Sorry, but it did feel good to rant!

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patricia's avatar

Maybe they need to know what they are voting for

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JA's avatar

Impossible to learn with the UNeducted!

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patricia's avatar

we need to stop giving them a pass

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SBwrites's avatar

I agree with you. I'm well educated, and still don't understand all of the aspects of the budget. The problem is that I believe Republicans are trying to obfuscate it. And, since I'm sure Trump has no idea what's in it, and has counted on others to set it up, so he gives benefits to people that only last for a limited time, and then some things change a lot over the period of ten years etc. etc. Math isn't a strength, but I don't see how people with a limited education, understand it at all.

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patricia's avatar

who can imagine the pain of a mother with a sick child not being able to go to the Dr....

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George's avatar

And what is her position on dieing in utero. That is bad but no need to feed after you are born.

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Kathy Smith's avatar

I’ll bet the tooth fairy screwed Joni and forgot to leave her a quarter.

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Thea's avatar

If the tooth fairy was dressed in a uniform, Joni already has

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patricia's avatar

I got this...however, but wasn't she raped in the military ?

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Thea's avatar

Yup but she doesn't mind if it happens to others! Cold hearted 🥶

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SBwrites's avatar

SLMontgo, I agree that Ernst's response to her constituents at town hall, was an amazing moment, and sadly, an important gift to Democrats. And, I really hope we take advantage of it by running the video over and over again on social media. Senator Ernst definitely said the "quiet part" aloud.

This is the last paragraph I wrote on a long comment yesterday (re: Jen's interview with Neera Tanden) "Maybe Senator Ernst has accomplished what Democrats could not. She has shown GOP voters that she is like all Congressional Republicans, who have willingly voted for Trump's Big Brutal Budget Bill, despite the damage it will do to the lives of their constituents, and the governmental institutions we depend on. Gutting Medicaid, will result in sickness and deaths, and the closure of so many rural hospitals will be a nightmare for rural America; gutting SNAP will make food insecurity so much worse in states already dealing with poverty, and almost every other program Musk destroyed, never was about fraud, waste, and abuse. It was always about Trump (in a Robin Hood reversal role) taking money from the poor (in this case, working and middle classes too) so he could continue huge tax cuts for the richest Americans. And, it's time for Republican voters to say, "NO" to this budget, "NO" to Trump's agenda for an imperial presidency, "NO to Joni Ernst, and "Yes" to a democratic majority.

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Marliss Desens's avatar

Yes, the Big Brutal Bill. The name captures the essence of what the Republicans are doing.

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SBwrites's avatar

Thank you! I appreciate your comment!

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Lois W. Halbert's avatar

Agreed. This is what the Republican Party stands for. Ernst brought the deception to light.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

The BIG news is the Musk/ Trump split on the budget. Musk calls the Trump spending bill a "disgusting abomination."

Both are in denial about whether DOGE has cost the Treasury bigly. 6 Nobel Prize-winning economists warned that Trump’s budget bill would gut Medicaid and food stamps, increase debt by over $3 trillion, and fuel inflation and inequality, despite GOP lies that it would boost growth.

Hope that Musk and Trump will beat up each other, causing outright defeat of the Big Beautiful budget.

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Carole Langston's avatar

The GOP(e) has been saying that " boost the economy" crap since Senile Reagan who started the piddle down economics myth.

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Granny Kate's avatar

The economists actually READ the proposed bill; GOP senators did not have time or inclination to read the entire bill. They just marched to Trump’s orders. Folks who follow and agree with views posted here need to write letters to editors- especially to any small town papers (a few are still out there) get the word out!

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

I monitor a number of newspapers and many are not reporting on Ukraine and the Trump/Musk rift.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

Encourage those 80 senators who have co-sponsored that bill to impose stronger sanctions against Russia. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1241

Picket, sit in against any who won't support it.

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Dana Jae Labrecque's avatar

I suggest we attend their churches. Something ugly is happening on Sundays with this lot. We have the Christian Crusade meets the American Taliban afoot.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

You're right.

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Thomas Wilson's avatar

Musk is only against it because it's going to hurt Tesla.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

This is a gift.

Musk is a great target defendant -- committed virtually every tort. No immunity.

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Happy Valley No More's avatar

No sympathy to be found about that! He has also had ALL the investigations halted on all his businesses…geez, how did that happen?

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Steve 218's avatar

Two toddlers with too much money and ego squabbling, while a Republican-fueled bill is on course to wreck the nation ks hard to stomach.

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Susan Joseph's avatar

Clown play a la Mencken.

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It's Come To This's avatar

And yet -- in the middle of the maelstrom --- "He's a Macho, Macho, Macho Man" Pete Hegseth somehow finds the time to erase Harvey Milk's name from a second-class naval vessel in honor of Pride Month, while the Secretary of the Navy plans to do the same to other ships bearing the names of Harriet Tubman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Thurgood Marshall and Medgar Evers.

The petty and the pissy. The sound of a chicken taco falling on the ground. Words fail me.

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SCS - Michigan's avatar

Petty. The exact word.

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Steve 218's avatar

It probably started with renaming Washington's National Airport for the president who fired the air traffic controllers. It has escalated from there to The Gulf of America and beyond.

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LBS's avatar

70-year old native Washingtonian here. I have never honored the renaming of Washington National Airport. It will always be "Washington National Airport" or DCA to me. And that statue of Ray-gun at the entrance to the airport is downright ugly, a fitting representation of the GOPs cold ugly heart. I have refused to call it by the new name for almost 40 years. Not that I even want to travel by air in this country anymore, but that's a subject for another day.

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Steve 218's avatar

Right with you. I've since moved to Illinois, but spent a lot of time as a kid watching aircraft from the open observation deck at National Airport Both it and I are long gone from the facility. Saw the first commercial jet aircraft land there, Traveling by air has lost its allure for certain, though as you say, that's another subject for another day.

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C C's avatar

Being incompetent, petty, vindictive and self-serving is all Pete Hegseth and the Trump selected Cabinet doofuses can excel at since they don't know and don't care what their jobs actually entail when occupied by serious, dedicated, intelligent people.

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Irena's avatar

While not excusing revisionism from anyone, we should also recall the changing/banning of books that were deemed anti-gender, or racist, or misogynistic [even Dr. Seuss]. There was a period of destroying sculptures and spray painting disliked artwork. Neither left nor right is innocent of revision.

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mary thiel's avatar

Thank you for recognizing that Jeffries is more than his moderate, circumspect appearance. Timing, and tactics.

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John H's avatar

This is the lie politicians and news media tell themselves.

“Because the American people are paying attention, they are smarter than you think, and they know when they are being hurt. They know when their interests are not being served, and they know when they have been lied to and deceived. “

If this was true, Trump and the hate-filled members of the Congress would not be in office. And beneath the supposed intellect of Contrarian.

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LiverpoolFCfan's avatar

I disagree.

Intellectual laziness is at the heart of the MAGA movement.

We need to Make America Think Again.

It's a worthy cause, worth fighting for, because without it we are definitely headed for 3rd-world status.

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Kevin E. McCarthy's avatar

You’re about to be proven wrong.

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Hal's avatar

It was true - that's why the Democrats lost the White House and control of the Senate.

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kasperhauser's avatar

Here's an awesome option: Reverse the 2017 tax cuts and stop using the tax code to get things past a supine useless House.

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Steve 218's avatar

Reverse all of the tax cuts. We cannot cut our way to prosperity.

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Hal's avatar
Jun 4Edited

"We cannot cut our way to prosperity."

We cannot tax and spend our way to prosperity. We can, however, cut both taxes and spending to put more money into our pockets.

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Robot Bender's avatar

Let's go back to 1950s tax rates when we had a thriving economy, the wealthy weren't in as much control, companies weren't people, political donations were curtailed and monitored... The GOP is trying to push in back to the 50s. Shove it down their throats.

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Hal's avatar
Jun 4Edited

Let's fast forward just a few years from the 1950s:

"John F. Kennedy on the Economy and Taxes"

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/john-f-kennedy-on-the-economy-and-taxes

"...the wealthy weren't in as much control, companies weren't people..."

Which is why I advocate for simplifying the tax code and eliminating all those exemptions...

"The GOP is trying to push in back to the 50s"

No, they're just trying to achieve a temporary political advantage. Neither party has any idea as to their Article I responsibilities. They are simply agenda-driven.

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Hal's avatar
Jun 4Edited

"Here's an awesome option..."

Here's an even more awesome option: write and pass a budget that's actually balanced or takes in more money than we spend.

After that, do a serious overhaul (simplification) of the tax code. Eliminate all the exemptions, carve-outs and subsidies.

Get rid of automatic tax withdrawal from paychecks for one year and have people pay their taxes in April. The result should be an awakening among taxpayers as to how much government takes from them every year.

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kasperhauser's avatar

So cut an immense bunch of useful stuff, default on our debts, and make wage earners mad about their taxes? Multiple concussions or lead paint chips - what was in your childhood that made you think of simplistic solutions that won't solve anything but will sound smart and give Grover Norquist a rage boner?

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Hal's avatar

"So cut an immense bunch of useful stuff, default on our debts..."

So continue to spend more than we take in, raising our debt limit to outstrip our GDP by greater percentage every year...of course...

We are $36 trillion in debt. For context, at the end of the Carter administration we still hadn't cracked $1 trillion in debt. Neither party as an institution has a clue.

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kasperhauser's avatar

I don't respect you enough to continue talking to you. Muted.

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Hal's avatar

"I don't respect you enough..."

I don't care.

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Ivan Tufaart's avatar

It's good to see that at least the Democrats in the House have awakened from their slumber.

Now let's see if someone or something can manage to light a fire under Chuck Schumer and his caucus in the Senate.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

The Democrats aren't the problem. We need 4 Republicans to stop the Big Beautiful budget.

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Purobi Phillips's avatar

The bill passed by ONE vote and a handful of OLD, SICK congresspeople (all D) died AFTER the election. Whom are we kidding? We are an integral part of the problem. However, it can be and will be solved. Unlike the other side.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

We are a minority party in more ways than one. The vote is in the senate, where we need 4 votes.

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Susan Joseph's avatar

Those Republicans and Fetterman have too much say. They should be voted out for their unreliability.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

Fetterman is not a problem on the budget issue and he is a co-sponsor of the Ukraine bill.

Concentrate on McCormick.

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Susan Joseph's avatar

Thanks

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Ken C's avatar

Indeed, The GOP is delivering a big, beautiful bag of bullshit. The dust storm of lies, corruption and grandiose delusional double talk is now actualizing consequences from this Trump circus.

As one abomination gets quickly overshadowed by the rapid fire of the next, the public is sitting in paralytic disbelief. The GOP congressional complicity with the MAGA corruption and grand larceny committed against the public and our treasury is happening in broad daylight.

Since congress can not escape the deliberative process, time slows down and outrage grows. Ugliness, cruelty, and corruption is now the face of the current GOP. Optics as well as reality do matter. They can not fool all of the people all of the time. It's reckoning time!

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Carole Langston's avatar

Wait and see. Senate. We're 👀.

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Steve 218's avatar

And we will vote. Legislators may fear a Trump primary challenge, but angry voters may have the last say.

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Science Curmudgeon's avatar

There is exactly zero buyer's remorse in rural Texas. I know at least one person who is eager to get the call from his militia buddies to go protect the boarder and shoot any "invader" seen wading across the river. His only sources of information come from Fox Spews propaganda and messaging from X. We need a counter for those sources of propaganda. Please help PBS and NPR thrive.

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carla janson's avatar

People watching those sources are addicted and brainwashed. These news sources must be sued out of existance, which takes time.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Here in NC, 1.2M rural residents are currently enrolled in Medicaid due the expansion of Medicaid pushed through by Gov. Roy Cooper last year. That accounts for 39% of Medicaid recipients in NC. Because those folks are covered, rural hospitals which serve those areas are reimbursed for providing treatment. Without Medicaid, those people will be uninsured, and rural hospitals won't be able to stay open. Thom Tillis is up for reelection next year, so he's caught in a real bind: vote for the bill and face the wrath of voters, or defy Trump and face a primary challenge.

And let's not forget that republicans are in a jam of their own making. If they weren't insisting on ginormous tax cuts for the uber wealthy, passing a budget would be a helluva lot easier. This is a republican-made problem. Not a single Democrat in the senate should help them fix it. Not. One. It about time for senate Dems to show the same guts their house counterparts did.

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Katherine P Duncan's avatar

That comment should be engraved on Ernst's tombstone.

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Moreen Halmo's avatar

Yay for the House Dems, Hakeem Jeffries, and now we are counting on Senate Dems!

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PJB's avatar

I wonder why there isn't outrage and more publicity against the bill with regard to the provision that essentially removes the judiciary's only enforcement power.This is about the pres getting away with whatever he wants to do.

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carla janson's avatar

Well, scotus ordered the return of garcia weeks ago now and nothing, NOTHING has happened. So no court appears ready to do any sort of enforcement at all.

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PJB's avatar

That may be but it should not be written into law in a budget bill.

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Hal's avatar

"I wonder why there isn't outrage and more publicity against..."

Probably because it was inserted too late for most members to notice. There was no 72-hour window for legislators to review things prior to the vote.

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Happy Valley No More's avatar

And on purpose, too!

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Hal's avatar

I believe the Dems did the exact same thing with The Affordable Care Act.

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Happy Valley No More's avatar

That is but one scary item in the bill among many scary items. I wrote to the extreme court last week, listing all the scary items. Many of the most egregious are thanks to their rulings!

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Michele W Missner's avatar

I called the two Texas senators to relay my objection. Unfortunately I suspect they will follow the gop line, especially slimeball Cruz.

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carla janson's avatar

Don't stop there. Call all 53 , or write. Google maps is your friend.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

Both Cruz and Cornyn cosponsor the Ukraine bill.

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Joseph McPhillips's avatar

Reverse Robin Hood transfer of wealth the wealthiest while exploding the deficit...& the MAGA band(its) play on.

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Diane's avatar

100 again! Thanks for the analysis, Jen.

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Anca Vlasopolos's avatar

My stalwart Senators, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, don't need to be convinced to vote against the "disgusting abomination," as Musk, the disgusting abomination, calls it. But those from red states with red Senators, please, call them every day to express your opposition to the bill.

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