QOTD -- The Pluto-Populist Party's BBB

 

"... You can tell that Republicans know how unpopular the Medicaid cuts in the bill are because they delayed their effectiveness date to minimize their electoral effect, repeatedly denied they are cutting Medicaid—and don’t want to talk at all about how slashing subsidies within the Affordable Care Act would take health coverage away from millions more Americans.

"They are hiding the Medicaid cuts behind 'work requirements' that are really bureaucratic paperwork requirements that would make it much harder for people with every right to coverage to access it. They would make it more difficult for others to maintain continuous coverage. And if these rules were not about 'cutting' Medicaid, the GOP couldn’t claim to be 'cutting' roughly $700 billion in Medicaid spending.

"But the GOP thinks it has a winner in its work argument. It’s a tired but tested replay of a very old (and, yes, offensive) trope about alleged grifters among supposedly 'lazy' poor people. House Speaker Mike Johnson offered a remarkable version of this defense of the “work” provisions: He said they were aimed at 'the young men who need to be out working instead of playing video games all day.' If ever there was a quote that should go viral, this is it. Young men, after all, shifted toward the Republicans in 2024. They should know what the party many of them voted for thinks of them..." -- E.J. Dionne, Jr., writing in The New Republic, about the "Big, Beautiful Bill" (BBB) that Republican MAGAts have passed in the House.  His essay concerns the bigger picture of the Malignant Fascist's party/ cult's false posturing as the "party of the working class."  As Dionne argues, time and time again the Republican Party has shown itself for what it is:  a "pluto- populist" party (populist rhetoric married to plutocratic policies, such as the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy legislation and the latest BBB wealth distributor and economy- tanker).  Taking on the pluto- populist MAGAts on turf they've unwisely chosen (draconian cuts to Medicaid and SNAP) is not only the right thing to do, but, if those angry town halls being held by Republicans are any indication, a political gift that Democrats must make sure pays off for them.