Today in Politics, Bulletin 164. 7/3/25

… House Republicans adopted the Senate’s budget bill today after a marathon voting and debate session that concluded with a record-long speech from Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. A couple dozen members claimed that the Senate version was “horrible” and they were going to make significant changes. But they made zero changes to it and surrendered to their cult leader’s wishes. Two Republicans voted against it: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

… House Freedom Caucus members went through their usual performative exercise, ranting and raving on social media for days about how terrible the original bill was, and how the Senate made things even worse by creating their own bill, then vowing to make significant changes to it (as Lisa Murkowski begged them to do when she voted for it). Then Trump summoned them as a group to the Oval Office, and they emerged dutifully agreeing to vote on the Senate bill they said was “horrible” without a single change.

… NYT reported on their meeting with Trump: “A conga line of angsty Republican lawmakers filed through the West Wing, hemming and hawing about the big domestic policy bill that Trump wants them to pass by Friday. They walked out with signed merchandise and photos in the Oval Office. One WH official said Trump had a line he used on many of his phone calls and meetings with wobbly Republicans: ‘Don’t give the Democrats a win. Don’t play into their hands.’”

… Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) posted a video as he was leaving the WH: “The president was wonderful, as always. Informative, funny, he told me he likes seeing me on TV, which was kind of cool.” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) then asked Burchett on the video: “Did you show them what he signed for you?” Burchett beaming with pride: “Yeah, he signed a bunch of stuff. It’s cool.”

… “Burchett told NYT later that his name was misspelled on the placard placed in front of his chair for the Cabinet Room meeting (it was missing an “r”) so the president scribbled in the letter, signed both sides of the card and gave it to him as a souvenir. Burchett said the president also loaded up the son of Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) with souvenirs.”

… Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA): “What is the price for a Republican congressman to sell out their constituents? A red hat made in China signed by a felon.”

… CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “Are Republicans getting behind this bill now because of pressure from President Trump or because it's best for Americans? Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI): “I think both.”

… Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) told Punchbowl he was upset that people were suggesting they were afraid of Trump: “The president of the United States didn't give us an assignment. We're not a bunch of little bitches around here, okay? I'm a member of Congress. I represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinnites.”

… They definitely are little bitches. I cover them every day.

… Van Orden later posted that he was happy 17 million people were going to get kicked off Medicaid. He deleted the tweet about an hour later.

… Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA): “Dear Hill reporters, on the ‘GOP holdouts’. I’ve been doing this for 13 years. Let me save you time and I’ll write your Big Bullshit Bill headline: ‘Cult Members Support Cult Leader Over Constituents’. There you go. Go see your families. There’s no courage here.”

… Former Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good: “Why would the House just surrender to the Senate and eat the crap sandwich they sent back?”

… Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC): “As I just walked across Independence Avenue to vote on the one big beautiful bill, a male Democrat called me a ‘motherfucker.’”

… I don’t think he meant that literally, he meant that to provide a vividly accurate description of a malevolent, terrible and hateful person. Where’s the lie?

… Marge Greene’s boyfriend and Real America’s Voice host Brian Glenn: “A NO vote right now is political suicide. Go ahead and add your name to the list.” Glenn then threatened to run against Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) after he voted against the rule to advance the bill to the floor. Self later switched his vote.

… Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz was threatening Republican holdouts on Fox: “I dare you to vote against the president on this! Because your political career will just be bye bye.”

… Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries made a speech against the bill which lasted all night and into Thurs afternoon, breaking the record for longest floor speech in the history of the House. He concluded it: "You got some people in this town who go to church and pray on Sunday, and then they come to Congress and prey on the American people. I'm not down with that kind of faith. That's not the faith that comes out of the Gospel. If you're gonna sell the Bible, you should know the Bible."

… Rep. Don Beyer’s (D-VA) speech: “I was hungry, you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was sick and you visited. This bill takes food and drink from the mouths of the poor and health care from the sick. A vote for this bill betrays these gospel teachings and in our heart, all of us know it.”

… Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA): “For a party that's talked about fiscal responsibility, which I've heard all my years here, taking up all these pursuits in fiscal rectitude - they're borrowing $5 trillion additional to pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest among us. $5 trillion is being added to the debt. I call attention to that because they're taking away health insurance from poor people, hospitals will suffer, medicare will be cut and the child credit will leave out the poorest.”

… A new report from conservative Cato Institute: “As written, the bill will add nearly $4 trillion to the debt. But under realistic assumptions about economic growth, congressional extensions of tax giveaways or delays to spending reform, and the fiscal impact of mass deportations, the bill’s cost could soar past $6 trillion.”

… Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY): “Don’t tell me you give a shit about the middle class when all you’re doing is shitting on the middle class.”

… Rep. Riley later to WKTV: “I was born in the early ’80s. You look at what happened in the ’80s— all the greed and excess on Wall Street. In the ’90s, we got bad trade deals that shipped jobs overseas. Wall Street kept getting rich. The top 1% now have more wealth than the entire middle class combined, while towns like the Triple Cities and Utica saw jobs lost and communities hollowed out. Then you get into the 2000s—a bunch of politicians lying to us, getting us into endless war, and the banks getting bailed out while the middle class got screwed.”

… Riley: “And all of that brings us to today, where the landmark bill being put in front of us would add trillions of dollars to the deficit—and all of it is going to tax breaks for people who don’t need them. And it’s doing it at the expense of rural hospitals, manufacturing jobs, and healthcare for kids. It’s just not acceptable.”

… Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-KY): “I don't ever want to hear a Republican say they care about rural America or the debt ever again if they vote for this bill. A budget is a series of choices and theirs are indefensible.”

… Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA): “Here we are again, debating this bill in the middle of the night. This has been the worst process of the worst bill I've ever seen in my decade in congress. And while the process stinks, the substance is even worse. The bill kicks 17 million Americans off their health care, record cuts to Medicaid, record cuts to the ACA, record cuts to Medicare. But that's not all - 4.5 million kicked off nutrition assistance, mostly seniors and children.”

… Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA): “The Louisiana state legislature passed a resolution condemning this bill because of the impact on Medicaid. In Speaker Johnson's district, 40% of Louisianans are on Medicaid. LA’s legislature is supermajority Republican. This is not easy to write off, as some ‘woke institution’ that they don't believe in. They are telling us what the American people are telling us, that this is not the right thing to do.”

… Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted this blatant lie on social media when the fake pressure campaign was happening against the fake holdouts: “Anyone who votes AGAINST the One Big Beautiful Bill is voting AGAINST: No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, No Tax on Social Security.”

… Her post was hit with a Community Note fact check: “The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ does not fully eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, or Social Security as claimed; it offers limited deductions with caps (e.g., $25,000 for tips, $12,500 for overtime) and excludes higher earners, with no provision to remove taxes on Social Security.”

… Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) on why he voted for it: “Imagine you're an older person who's dependent on social security, and you don't want to pay taxes on what you earned for your whole life. But the most important thing is we all committed to support President Trump.”

… Again, there are no tax cuts on Social Security in this bill. Reprehensible Randy is just lying and culting again.

… Republican Rep. David Valadao, who is in a CA swing district that Democrats are targeting, voted yes despite the fact that over 60% of the people in his district are on Medicaid, which is being cut dramatically.

… CA Gov Gavin Newsom: “Bookmark this. 64% of Congressman Valadao’s district relies on Medicaid.”

… Neera Tanden, former Senior Advisor to Biden: “Listen up friends as I tell you about Rep. Mike Lawler. I was on CNN 2 months ago with Lawler and during the commercial break he said he wouldn't support more than $500 billion in Medicaid cuts. With lots of bravado he said more than $500 billion in cuts wouldn't happen because he wouldn't support it. He said it to all of us. Then a few short weeks later he voted for $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid. And now he seems about to vote for $1 trillion which will devastate health care in NY and his district. Gotta say - not a lot of honor in this guy who talks big and then caves to his cult king.”

… Politico reported that Republicans were disgusted when Trump deployed Dr. Oz to meet with and lecture them that they shouldn’t worry about Medicaid cuts hurting them in the next election. One House Republican: “Dr. Oz is hurting the White House. No one wants to take political advice from a guy that lost a race to John Fetterman."

… The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put out of list of Republicans in swing districts that they are targeting in 2026 to take back the House.

… Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told CNBC that he decided to vote for the bill after Trump told him privately that he would get rid of some things he didn’t like after the bill became law by using executive orders: “He's gonna have accountability. You'll see some executive orders coming down the pike.”

… Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) told Fox that the Medicaid cuts were justified: "They shouldn't be going to a 29-year-old guy who's living in his mom's basement choosing not to work."

… Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) responded to Hinson’s comment: “166,513 people are on Medicaid (also known in Iowa as IA Health Link) in her district. This includes 80,718 children under the age of 19 and 13,000 seniors over 65.”

… Hinson then got her reward. She probably shouldn’t leave her drink alone on the flight.

… House Budget Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO): “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill eliminates the IRS Direct File Program, keeping the IRS from being Americans's tax preparer, filer, and auditor.”

… Polls show the IRS Direct File Program is like the most popular government program in the history of the US with 88% approval. This is Republicans helping out the tax preparer services’ corporate lobby since they have lost of lot of business after this went online enabling millions with basic returns to do it themselves.

… Elon Musk responded on X to a new poll that showed a solid percentage of Americans are in favor of him starting the 3rd party that he promised if the Republican budget passed: “Encouraging.” He then called for the Jeffrey Epstein files to be released again.

… WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov: “The Pentagon cut off ammo for Ukraine without even the courtesy of informing Kyiv or NATO allies. Just 4 days after Trump’s triumph at the NATO summit, his warm meeting with Zelensky and his public promise to look into more Patriots for Kyiv. The move completely undermines everything Trump achieved in The Hague. It shows him as being not in control of his own admin if this was done without his knowledge.”

… Trofimov: “This removes his key leverage over Russia. There are legitimate reasons for the DOD to evaluate weapons stocks, especially after the wasteful and inconclusive campaign against the Houthis. But look at the timing and the fashion in which decision happened.”

… Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) was asked on Fox what he thought was going to happen after Trump's call with Putin today: "I believe the president will support Ukraine. I think he understands who the good guys are."

… Trump was asked about the call with Putin later in the day: “We talked about the war with Ukraine and I’m not happy. I didn’t make any progress with him today at all.”

… He said during the campaign that he “knew exactly what to say to Putin” to get him to end the war and he would do that his first day in office. He said “it won’t even be that hard” to get Putin to end the war in 24 hours.

… Rep. Marge Greene: “Joe Biden’s crooked census counted millions of illegals who should’ve never been here and should’ve never been counted. Blue states got rewarded. Red states got shortchanged. My bill does 3 simple things: Orders a new census counting only American citizens. Directs states to redraw House district lines based on that citizen-only count. Ensures only American citizens can vote in fed elections. President Trump supports my bill, and so do governors across the country. Let’s Make American Elections Great Again!”

… First of all, Donald Trump was the president during the last census, not Joe Biden. Second, this would be subject to the filibuster rule if it ever passed the House, so don’t get too stressed out about it. It does show how much they are already plotting and scheming about the midterms because they are worried about losing the House.

There will be no Bulletin tomorrow because of the holiday. I planned to wear my new MeidasTouch Network shirt out to the big fireworks show in Portland, Maine to represent, but Jordy put them on the Pony Express last week so I will probably get it in about two weeks.

Next Bulletin will recap the weekend on Sunday night. If you missed the last one, you can find it here.

… Democracy Now: “In an effort to fulfill the Trump admin’s daily immigration arrest quotas, fed agents and deputized local law enforcement are racially profiling and snatching people off the streets without due process. These arrests, carried out by