(By Patricia Hoffman, with updates from the blog.)
For the people that didn’t have the time to read the entire bill that Trump just signed..here’s the worst of the worst…
UNTIL IT HITS HOME, TRUMP VOTERS WILL KEEP LOOKING AWAY—
Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t a budget—it’s Project 2025 turned into law. A blueprint for authoritarian rule disguised as fiscal policy.
And the damage? It’s about to hit YOU.
Here’s how it’s coming for YOU:
WHEN THE STORM HITS & NO ONE COMES
Sec. 80307–80309: Slashes climate resilience + FEMA funds
Hurricanes, floods, and wildfires will leave your town in ruins—and there’ll be no help coming. Just ask North Carolina. Recently Trump’s old Press Secretary, now Governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee, called to ask for help for her storm-damaged state. Guess how responsive this administration would be to a blue state?
WHEN YOUR MEDICARE IS GONESec. 44141 + 44122 + 44131: Medicaid work requirements + limits + blue state penalties
Can’t prove you worked enough hours? Say goodbye to coverage. Missed the paperwork? No backpay. Live in a blue state? Tough luck. The goal, according to a NY Times analysis, is to make the paperwork so difficult that it is nearly impossible to claim aid, even when it the applicant needs it and deserves it. “Death by a thousand paper cuts.” WHEN YOUR MEDICARE, MEDICAID, & VETERANS CARE DISAPPEARSections 44141, 44122, 44131, 44125
Work requirements kick seniors off Medicaid. Blue states lose funding for expanded coverage. Gender-affirming care banned—even for veterans who served this country. Retroactive coverage is eliminated—so if you got sick before paperwork cleared, too bad.And veterans? They’ll face longer wait times, fewer providers, and reduced support for mental health, PTSD, and service-related conditions—while Trump brags about giving billions to his golf resorts.
WHEN YOU CAN’T AFFORD A DOCTORSec. 44110 + 44125: Cuts all care for undocumented people + bans gender-affirming care
Your local hospital shuts down because funding dries up. You get in line—and find out your service doesn’t exist anymore.
WHEN YOUR GROCERY BILL DOUBLESTrump tariffs + SNAP (Food Stamp) cuts in Sec. 10008, 10012
Your produce costs more, your gas costs more, and your neighbor just got kicked off food assistance at age 64. RiverBend Food Bank in the Quad Cities is already on record issuing warnings about their concern(s). You’ll have the GOP to thank for not being able to provide food to the needy in the richest country on Earth.
WHEN YOUR PHARMACY, POST OFFICE, OR BANK VANISHESBudget austerity + deregulation (Sec. 50002, 50003)
Demonstrators in Davenport protested both the autocratic behavior of DJT and his ICE raids.
The institutions holding your small town together disappear—and with them, your access to medicine, checks, and mail. During DJT 1.0 there was already an assault on the USPO because of Trump’s appointee to top administrative positions, who had stakes in the private delivery of mail. Good luck on keeping Benjamin Franklin’s legacy to us alive and well. And this doesn’t even factor in the many small businesses that can’t make plans from week to week because of Trump’s on-again/off-again tariff obsession or because they are Latino and can no longer operate their food truck or small business amongst all the chaos that the King of Chaos hath wrought.
WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR JOBSec. 90004–90006: Civil service purge + pension gutting
You’re fired to make room for a Trump loyalist—and your pension just got slashed while you weren’t looking.
WHEN YOUR DAUGHTER’S SCHOOL TEACHES OBEDIENCE, NOT MATHSec. 30061 + DEI bans. This is a technique right out of the most recent “rules” handed down to Russian schools by Vladimir Putin. (See “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” documentary).
A still from Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borestein and Pavel Talankin, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Pavel Talankin
Education turns into indoctrination. The path to college narrows. DEI is gone. If she’s not a legacy or male, she’s left behind. Women’s rights, fought for since the 70s, are already disappearing, as access to abortion has been rescinded and now the GOP evangelical supporters will be focusing on eliminating access to the morning after pill. Your job as a female (J.D. Vance and Elon Musk would approve) is to return to the fifties, when a woman’s place was in the kitchen and popping out babies to raise the country’s birth rate. Back to when the “good” jobs were reserved for males only. I remember that era well. No females need apply to join the ranks of professional occupations. It was fine to be a secretary, a hairdresser, a teacher, a nurse, but don’t apply to medical school, law school or engineering school.
WHEN BOOKS DISAPPEAR FROM YOUR LIBRARY (if they haven’t already)Federal anti-“woke” regulation in play
The books your kid loves? Gone. History? Whitewashed. And no, it’s not up for debate. If DJT says that it’s the Gulf of America, get with the program. If DJT says he really won the election of 2020, be prepared to say “Yes, Sir” or STFU. Rewrite the insurrection at the Capitol as “warriors”for Trump instead of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
January 6th: Trump-inspired invasion of the Capitol. All pardoned, with no cogent plan to separate those who had attacked police officers and headed militia organizations.
WHEN BLACKOUTS HIT & THE GRID FAILSSec. 42108–42301: Repeals environmental safeguards + Clean Air Act
Wildfires, rolling blackouts, and air so dirty your kid needs an inhaler. All so fossil fuel execs can cash out faster. Trump is even attempting to bring back coal, which he remembers from his youth. While China is making progress on their emissions, the U.S. is moving backwards, intentionally. Climate change is just a hoax for the GOP. Don’t worry about the steadily increasing incredible heat or the much-higher-than-normal hurricanes and tornadoes. Just agree with your Dear Leader.
WHEN YOUR 401(K) VANISHESMarket panic from deregulation + chaos economics
Trump’s chaos spooks Wall Street. Your retirement evaporates. No more dream home—just dreams deferred.
Adam Kinzinger.
WHEN YOUR SON IS SENT TO WARSec. 20001: Indo-Pacific military escalation
Trump fans the flames abroad, then demands your kid carry the torch. No plan, no diplomacy—just body bags. If the planning and leadership for armed conflict is as slipshod as the recent Yemen SNAFU (that put the Editor of the ‘Atlantic” in the loop) or DOGE, good luck to us all.
WHEN LGBTQ+ KIDS HAVE NOWHERE LEFT TO GO
Sec. 44125: Strips healthcare + protections. Phone banks for suicidal LGBTQ kids are already gone.
Your gay nephew? Your trans friend? Denied care, expelled from school, forced into the shadows. Gays and women should “learn their place.” This bill makes “Don’t ask; don’t tell” look absolutely progressive.
WHEN BILLIONAIRES GET TAX CUTS, YOU GET THE BILL Trump’s bill eliminates the tanning bed tax, free IRS filing, and expands MAGA-branded savings accounts while cutting food, healthcare, and energy support for working families.
They’re redistributing wealth upward—and branding it as patriotism. Meanwhile, you can’t file your taxes without paying TurboTax.
WHEN PARENTS CAN’T AFFORD CHILDCARE OR PRE-KMissing Now: The bill slashed child tax credits and cut funding for childcare—directly impacting working parents.
You’re expected to work more while getting less—and pay more for someone else to watch your kids. Universal Pre-K? Gone. Raising smart, independent thinkers isn’t part of their plan. The less critical thinking the GOP is capable of doing, the better. Trump chose the Republican party to be his standard bearer (despite years of contributing to Dems) because he knew they’d be easier to con. And he was right.
WHEN YOUR COMMUNITY CENTER CLOSES & PARKS FALL APART OR ARE SOLD OFF
Elon Musk
Sections 41009, 80301–80309: Guts historic preservation, climate justice, national park maintenance, and local community block grants.
No summer rec program. No park repairs. No local arts grants. Small towns and underserved communities will be hollowed out. WHEN THE GOVERNMENT ISN’T WORKING—BECAUSE TRUMP & MUSK FIRED EVERYONESections 90004–90006 (Schedule F): Guts civil service protections and allows mass firings.
RFK, Jr.
Experienced public health experts, FEMA coordinators, and environmental scientists—replaced by political loyalists who will say “yes” to anything. Non-medical Health & Human Services leader Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is already sowing distrust of the medical experts. During Congressional hearings it was necessary to explain some of the medical terms to the people in charge, because they have no background in medicine or science. Already debunked theories about ADD and ADHD being caused by vaccines that have saved millions of lives now cause things like the recent measles epidemic that began in Texas. Do you remember the polio vaccine? The Department’s advice and public pronouncements about vaccines (etc.) are so unreliable and off-the-mark that one of the nation’s leading experts in the field, Dr. Michael Osterholm, has formed a group to put out knowledgeable advice to the unsuspecting public. Sowing distrust in public institutions is perfect for a leader who may well be a Russian asset, as it cuts deep. We become the laughingstock of the educated science-based world as we stumble from crisis to crisis led by erroneous and/or prejudiced information distributed by the very agency that should be guiding our medical choices. The experts in those agencies are already resigning in protest and are being recruited by countries who recognize that vaccines have saved millions of lives over the years. So, in addition to dying because of misinformation, we face a brain drain in any scientific area you can name (and it’s already happening.)
It’s not about draining the swamp—it’s about drowning it in sycophancy. DJT’s vulnerability to flattery was recognized by Russia way back in the eighties, and they certainly are getting their money’s worth for their support. (And they don’t even have to stop bombing Ukrainian citizens, but are actually stepping up their attacks. (So much for ending the war in one day!)
WHEN TECH GIANTS RULE—AND YOUR STATE CAN’T STOP THEMSection 44001: Blocks states from regulating AI, education tech, or privacy standards for 10 years.
Even if your state wants to protect your kids from unregulated AI or TikTok-style data mining—it can’t. Even Margery Taylor Greene, the laughingstock of the bunch for her antics and lack of knowledge admitted she didn’t know about this AI regulation and doesn’t like it. (Comes under the category of “Even a blind pig….”) Trump’s bill hands the future of technology to unaccountable megacorporations. Read the Peter Thiel piece on this blog; consult Substack for more on the topic.
WHEN THERE’S NO ONE LEFT TO WATCH THE POWERFUL
Sections 50002, 50003, 80121(h): Guts the CFPB, PCAOB, and court oversight of fossil fuel permits.
Corporate fraud? Unsafe consumer products? Toxic pollution? Nobody’s checking. Nobody’s stopping it. After all, you can peddle Bibles and gold tennis shoes and Bitcoin (known to be preferred by the criminal element) and perfume and everything else under the sun. There is not one murmur of protest from the GOP in power about this indiscriminate feathering of the Trump nest and this blatant disregard for the emoluments clause of the Constitution, check your conscience at the door!To understand the Emoluments Clause and its implications for Trump, consider the following points:- The Emoluments Clause is found in Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution.
- It prohibits federal officials from receiving gifts or payments from foreign states without congressional consent.
- The clause aims to prevent corruption and foreign influence in U.S. governance.
- Trump faced lawsuits alleging violations due to his business interests receiving payments from foreign entities.
- Next, Trump will be attempting to change the emoluments clause via the courts he has stacked,because, after all, perhaps he can pick up the gift of another free luxury airplane if he just asks.
The powerful will act with impunity—because Trump removed the referees.
WHEN BLUE STATES PAY THE PRICE FOR CARINGSection 44131: Penalizes states that expanded Medicaid (i.e., most blue states)
If your state worked hard to give people healthcare, it now gets less federal funding. Why? Because this bill rewards cruelty and punishes compassion. (See Steven Miller and Tom Holman for examples of cruelty and lack of compassion in living form.)
Trump said it himself: “I have the right to do whatever I want.”This bill gives him that power—with your tax dollars.
This is not a warning.
This is happening.
It’s theft wrapped in a flag.
It’s censorship, cruelty, control—and collapse.
.Joni Ernst
If you live in Iowa, remember that one of your Senators is over 90 and the other one, Joni Ernst’s response, at a town hall meeting that pointed out how many citizens could die because of Medicaid cuts, responded that “Everybody dies” and then traveled to a cemetery to film a sarcastic response that also involved mentioning the Tooth Fairy and looking to God for help. This same female Senator, who served in the Armed Forces, voted to confirm a totally unqualified individual to become Secretary of Defense.
If you’ve been silent, speak up and vote the GOP out in the mid-terms, before they destroy our democracy and the trust of the citizens in nearly every once-trustworthy institution (if that hasn’t already happened). Even Elon Musk, the Godfather of DOGE, recognized what a terrible bill Trump’s bill was and how much it will add to our national debt. The Republican party was afraid to go after Medicare to fund tax cuts for the richest Americans, so they went after Medicaid and the poor instead, all the while hiding behind the patiotic notion of expelling illegal aliens (primarily Latinos). While they promised to focus on the most dangerous criminal element, the records show that many of the “illegal aliens” are not criminal elements at all. Remember: those in this country illegally who have been working picking our crops, cleaning our houses, working at our slaughtering houses, have paid into Social Security but can never derive any benefits from the money they paid in. Just as there was no pre-planning or selectivity when all of the January 6th rioters were turned loose (some straight from prison), there has been no true careful planning of the campaign to deport illegal aliens. The entire game plan has been to “blame Biden” at every turn, even though much of the “blaming” is lying. There is never any accountability for a malignant narcissist who would stack every government organization with only Trump loyalists to the point that we have become a kakistrocracy (look it up).Knowledge is power.
Please share this information and educate fellow Americans.
We can only hope and pray that, with help from Russia and computer hackers and access to networks like StarLink, with computer experts like those on the DOGE task force, the GOP hasn’t already fixed our previously fair election process beyond repair. There are some indications that this may have occurred; it appears that there is nothing DJT won’t authorize if it allows him retain power and make money. That’s the kind of leader Donald J. Trump (and his cronies) is. It’s been quite clear from the outset, since past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
Trump is a convicted felon, a businessman who bankrupted his own companies multiple times (6?) and seems hell-bent, with this bill, on bankrupting the USA. Perhaps that is what the money from Russia that bailed Trump out numerous times is demanding as payback for their longstanding (nearly 40 years) support. Jeffrey Epstein described him as “my best friend” and then died, somewhat mysteriously. We were warned early on what might happen if DJT were to regain power. And now it has.
The mid-terms, like winter, are coming. Make them count. Make those responsible for this travesty pay. Vote them out.
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas – he explains that they’re just “animals” – and you say, “Well, OK then.” (
