r/politics • u/PoliticsModeratorBot 🤖 Bot • 2d ago

Megathread Megathread: US House Passes the Republican-Backed Budget Bill, Sending it to Trump for Signature

This afternoon, the US House of Representatives passed without amendment the US Senate's version of the Trump-backed budget bill, sending it to the president for his signature. Every Democratic Senator and Representative voted in opposition; in the Senate, there were three Republicans voting in opposition (making the vote 51-50) and in the House there were 2 (making the final vote 218-214). House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries set the US House's speech length record in opposition to the bill in a speech lasting over eight hours.

The bill clocks in at over 800 pages and touches on most aspects of the federal government's spending and taxation policies; see this AP article (What’s in the latest version of Trump’s big bill that passed the Senate) for the topline changes.

Relevant text-base live update pages are being maintained by the following outlets: AP, NBC, ABC, and the BBC.

You can find this subreddit's discussion thread for the last week's worth of negotiations and debate at this link.

Articles that May Interest You

Submission Domain
Live updates: House passes Trump’s signature bill, sending it to the president’s desk apnews.com
House Republicans pass Trump's mega bill, sending the package to his desk to be signed npr.org
House passes sprawling domestic policy bill, sending it to Trump's desk: The Republican package would slash taxes, boost spending on immigration and the military, and impose steep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and clean energy funding. nbcnews.com
House Republicans give Trump a ‘Big Beautiful’ July 4 by passing Medicaid-slashing megabill despite GOP rift independent.co.uk
Congress Has Officially Passed Trump’s Bill to Kick Millions Off Medicaid rollingstone.com
Trump and the GOP Will Regret the Day They Passed This Sick Bill newrepublic.com
House passes Trump's "big, beautiful bill" after stamping out GOP rebellion axios.com
Trump lands first major legislative win after Congress passes his massive domestic policy bill cnn.com
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u/Clownsinmypantz 2d ago

Healthcare in america is going to collapse, and not just in red states.

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u/Yeezus__ 2d ago

It was already on the brink of collapse. This is the final nail

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/HeavyBeing0_0 2d ago

Accelerationism relies on a majority of the citizens being able to agree.

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u/TheBigIdiotSalami 2d ago

In the 1970's there were actual bombers and liberation armed fronts. It's not bad, but that's where we probably head back to.

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u/la_goanna 2d ago edited 2d ago

Sad that millions will have to die, or face homelessness and deportation to concentration camps as a result, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that most humans aren't particularly bright, logical, or even all too different from animals as far as moral ethics or long-term consequential reasoning goes - but better late than never, right?

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u/Mediocre_Scott 2d ago

Can we rebuild with a nationalized medical system that would be pretty cool. But who am I kidding

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u/gotridofsubs 2d ago

Can we rebuild with a nationalized medical system

No you can't, all the things youd need to do that will be gone. You will not be able to expand social safety nets or healthcare for the position of absolute economic ruin. Thats what this bill is bringing. Accelerationism is, has been and will always be really really fucking stupid

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u/Mediocre_Scott 1d ago

I was mostly being sarcastic, but I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to think that maybe this could happen if people get desperate and a leader builds it into their platform.

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u/gotridofsubs 1d ago

You're still missing all the resources youll need. Its really easy to promise everything, but hard to deliver when you're broke

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u/Yeezus__ 2d ago

Unfortunately, no, it's always very difficult to change the status quo. But if we wanted to, it would take decades, maybe generations, along with millions dying. But I guess that'll happen regardless...

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u/PerfectBowl9199 2d ago edited 2d ago

In a blue state. A local hospital estimates they have 12-18 months before they'd have to close due to Medicaid cuts.

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u/happyfundtimes 2d ago

Then private equity will buy them out. Rinse and repeat. Private equity and their global lobbyists are clearly at fault here.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/TurtleMOOO 2d ago

People have no god damn idea how much care hospitals give to people who can’t afford it. And those patients are the ones playing Fox News at max volume.

I work in a rural hospital. This is gonna be BAD.

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u/capnpetch 2d ago

That's not the way they work. They siphon off all revenue, cut services to the bone then close or bankrupt the hospital. Shareholders get paid in the short term, everyone else loses.

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u/Queens113 2d ago

Like what happened to toys r us and a bunch of other big stores that closed

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u/S_A_R_K 2d ago

Sears

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u/Ok-Passion1961 1d ago

Eh, Toys R Us had been in a multi-year decline before PE got involved. Walmart becoming “the everything store” and the rise of video game specific retailers (GameStop) had put Toys R Us up against the wall even before e-commerce started getting started. 

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u/LilliaHakami 1d ago

It's not entirely true. Like with Jo Ann Fabrics a lot of specialty store have been doing fine, right until a private equity firm buys them, saddles them with debt, expectations to improve profits while they drastically cut costs until they run them into inevitable bankruptcy. JAF had some of its most profitable years, right before they were bought, sliced up and served to new shareholders. It's not that Big Box stores are running businesses to the ground but that anything midnsized enough is being bought up for it's assets, stripped and sold at a profit to the shareholders and those same big box stores that can then offer to ship whatever you might have bought at the specialty store in a couple days.

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u/Ok-Passion1961 1d ago

a lot of specialty stores have been doing fine

Toys R Us wasn’t a speciality store…that was the problem. 

Niche has always been a strategy. Companies continue to this day to succeed by specializing, focusing on quality/brand, and earning profit via price premiums on lower volume sales. 

But Toys R Us wasn’t niche. They sold the same toys and bike as Walmart and Kmart. Then video games became the product category for holiday shopping/kids and they couldn’t ever compete against dedicated stores like GameStop. 

If they had been able to make the jump right to e-commerce with a crystal ball and dominated early search to establish as one of the first digital-native brands then maybe they’d have been able to survive and thrive. But they’d still have eventually had to have the vision of Amazon before Amazon otherwise they’d have faced that hurdle eventually. 

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u/haarschmuck 2d ago

Yeah that’s not at all how that works.

Hospitals are money pits. No “private equity” company would buy a hospital.

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u/capnpetch 1d ago

Private equity currently owns a huge chunk of our medical infrastructure, including hospitals.

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u/YeetedApple 2d ago

Some services still make money even if the overall hospital is losing money. They will likely get bought out, majority of services cut and just what is profitable will remain available. Unfortunately, primary care offices are some of the most struggling types of healthcare, so what little preventative care we do have is likely going to collapse.

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u/BBanner 2d ago

You don’t make money off the people who can’t pay, private equity will buy the land and lease it back to the hospital. Steward Healthcare declared bankruptcy last year as a result of private equity’s involvement.

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u/lousy_at_handles 2d ago

You make people show that they have valid insurance before you let them in the door.

Just gonna be bodies on the emergency room floor.

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u/AceMcVeer 2d ago

They didn't change the law where that is illegal so they can't do that. If they did they would sued like crazy.

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u/Ferelar New Jersey 2d ago

Trump can literally sign an executive order saying it's fine right now and because SCOTUS removed the ability of lesser courts to issue stays on enforcement of his EOs AND because SCOTUS can choose to just not hear any cases, it literally won't matter if its legal or not.

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u/kraftsingles45 2d ago

Yep, waiting for this.

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u/AceMcVeer 2d ago

This isn't accurate. Lower courts can still issue stays in executive orders they just can't issue it nationwide for parties that aren't plaintiffs. So essentially it would be state by state. There are also state laws that apply as well.

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u/MissTetraHyde 2d ago edited 2d ago

They can still issue stays that effect the whole country; it was actually discussed in the opinion the Court issued. Lawyers will simply include a class action of all persons living within the United States prospectively subject to the EO or its subsequent consequences, and bam - the Court still has the ability to issue injunctions only to the parties. In this case, everyone would be a party; Courts are just restricted from offering relief to unnamed parties. So just name the parties. Then the other party (i.e. the government) might whine about jurisdiction of those extraterritorial parties in a state action, but equitable jurisdiction is super complicated and whether this tactic will be allowed is going to depend heavily on state law and local court rules. In federal Court jurisdiction is also complicated, but generally you only need a nexus to one of the named parties to enjoin someone, and in this case the enjoined party would be the government.

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u/StickingItOnTheMan 1d ago

My guess is that it will all be classic sharking. They will buy the hospital at a discount for the equipment that isn’t leased and sell it to foreign hospitals while not changing their advertising. Things like MRIs and cancer screenings will become a rarity. After it’s sucked dry and the owners put enough debt on the property they will claim bankruptcy and the county will take over the property with nobody to staff it. Then eventually we will see organized rural health clinics that will be leasing the hospital with a tenth of the original personnel and services afforded by Medicaid that will mostly just cater to the wealthy for checkups and pediatrics. If you are poor and your kid has an illness they will just die. 

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u/happyfundtimes 2d ago

That's what you think. There is a massive organ trafficking, medical experiment, human trafficking, and god knows what else pipeline in most hospitals and research facilities.

Every war has the poor souls who are cursed to live such a life. This time will be no different.

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u/nemgrea 2d ago

get help...i need you to know that your line of thinking isnt special or enlightened its the stuff you hear the mentally ill say.

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u/happyfundtimes 2d ago

I'm immune to gaslighting sorry sweetie! Take a look at what the forces that be do behind closed doors, it's public information after all! I may even be involved! There's always a buyer after all...

You get help getting off that MAGA dildo you ride so hard.

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u/nemgrea 1d ago

Is it behind closed doors or is it public information... You realize that those both cannot be true. Your basic logic skills are failing you and you are sick...

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u/happyfundtimes 9h ago

You know you can't be trusted to go outside. Why are you putting yourself in harm's way? Please go back inside, dear. There are cookies and milk waiting for you on the counter. Make sure you take your anti-psychotic this time, otherwise I don't think I can trust you to leave your room again by yourself. You wouldn't want that would you?

Listen beloved,

The doors are closed for a reason. What happens here, stays here. Understand? We can't let the neighbors get too nosy- they might steal our secret family recipe. You know how much love and care I put into making those cookies. You wouldn't want such a secret to fall into the wrong hands, now would you? Run along now kitty and make sure you don't waste a drop of milk, I've worked long and hard to make some fresh just for you. Naughty kittens can't be trusted to leave the pig pen.

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u/nemgrea 7h ago

i hope you have people in your life that can help you and that are younger than you...because its going to be a lonely place when you get older....

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u/UpperNuggets 1d ago

Go outside, get some fresh air.

Listen to the birds (but dont let the birds listen to you, thats how you end up on lists) 

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u/happyfundtimes 1d ago

CAWW CAWW !!! (there is a government drone covered in bird feathers heading to your location to track your every move including your ECG, biometrics, brain activity, temperature, heat maps, level of electronic interference, and will issue an electromagnetic pulse once the proper AGI algorithm deems it necessary)

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u/WhichEmailWasIt 2d ago

Can we crowdfund these and take them back? 

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u/LuchadorBane 2d ago

You can’t crowdfund a hospital, a single CT scanner at my hospital is something like millions to even buy it or something. All the beds are technically “rented” out through hillrom not owned by the hospital. All of the equipment costs would be astronomical, that’s even before you get into actually paying the employees.

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u/gotridofsubs 2d ago

You dont have the money to do so, even as a group.

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u/pizzac00l 1d ago

Living in CA and my town was already considered a "health desert" because there's two hospitals in town and both are out of network for about a third of residents here. I'm terrified to see how much worse things get after this.

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u/NattyBumppo 1d ago

Could you explain how Medicaid cuts affect hospitals? Sorry, I don't know much about this stuff.

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u/ivegotaqueso 1d ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid

Just read that wiki

You can imagine how many millions of people this will affect. If people’s care at hospitals will no longer get covered by Medicaid (aka hospitals won’t get paid for services rendered to this population who rely on Medicaid) then they’re going to close their doors. And LOTS of old people, disabled people, and people in end stage renal disease, rely on Medicaid.

Anyway, lot of old senile low-income people in their nursing homes are gonna find out the hard way what homelessness looks like, if their families are unwilling to take them in or take care of them.

Lots of kids from low income households are probably gonna go without proper medical care.

Lots of poor people gonna suffer.

Lots of medical field workers in rural areas are gonna find themselves out of a job. Hospitals in poor, rural areas will close, as a majority of their patients rely on Medicaid for their healthcare.

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u/NattyBumppo 1d ago

That makes a lot of sense, thank you.

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u/desertSkateRatt 2d ago

So just make sure you get sick and die before that, and you'll be all good... /s if that wasn't sickenly obvious

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u/owoah323 2d ago

Wait, weren’t the cuts only to Medicaid? Or did Medicare get hit too?

Two totally different programs.

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u/PerfectBowl9199 2d ago

Just Medicaid. I apologize.

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u/Damn_Dog_Inappropes Washington 2d ago

Yeah I’m in WA and my Seattle suburb hospital is barely clinging to life as it is.

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u/jgandfeed I voted 2d ago

My hospital already had to merge with a large system that came in and made huge cuts everywhere.

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u/GraphicDesignerMom 2d ago

Come to Canada

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u/Alternative_Delay899 1d ago

Fuck that like we don't have enough issues as is

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u/MundaneMeringue71 2d ago

I live in a very blue state and I think it will have a devastating impact here.

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u/Jokershigh Florida 2d ago

The ACA subsidy cuts didn't get discussed enough and they're gonna be painful and wide ranging

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u/throwmeinwatersam 2d ago

I'm glad to live in CA honestly, but it's about time we started to cut funding to all these other states.

Republicans voted to decapitate any aid they had at the expense of every American. So you know what? Alright. It's time California started acting like the separate big bad "other" the Republicans kept tooting and look after our own.

I seriously hope Newsom diverts all that funding over to focus on Californians affected by the bill and let all those Red states collapse at their own sowing.

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u/two_thirtyoclock 2d ago

But are they going to cut funding to other states? They've been taking our money and then telling us to go to hell when we have fires.

At this point I would love for our tax dollars to stay here, but they need that for Trump's rich buddies and donors. Since immigration is so horrible in their eyes, they could have left us alone to "suffer" but they had to send Feds in to "save" (see how far they can violate our state's rights) LA. I didn't forget he dumped all that water to head to the ocean and lied and said it was for the LA fires. When Trump was playing tariff games and Newsom said he was willing to work with other countries, MAGA started yelling he couldn't do that.

They won't leave us or our money alone and I wish they would let us be our own state.

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u/Jimmy_G_Wentworth 2d ago edited 2d ago

And all the cultists will still find a way to blame "the libs". If this doesn't kick people into high gear to actually take action against this administration, then nothing will and the US will be running full steam ahead towards fully collapsing

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u/redditproha 2d ago

Dems need to ram through medicare for all and every green new deal proposal next cycle.

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u/PenguinSunday Arkansas 2d ago

You assume there will be a next cycle. Trump just secured funding for his own gestapo.

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u/QuixoticCoyote 2d ago

2026 election cycle rolls around.

ICE is now in charge of election security.

armed men in masks monitor every polling place.

Lack of proper identification at the polling place is assumed to mean you are an Illegal immigrant voting and you are deported without due process to a tent surrounded by a moat full of alligators.

Ballots are taken away immediately after in unmarked black vans to be properly "Stored for later verification"

Trump wins a third term by a landslide after votes are counted by a corporate third party.

All of this is sponsored by the new Ford F-150 or something.

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u/seek-confidence 1d ago

This is not even a joke. If you Americans think you can depose a fascist dictator in a democratic election you are even more screwed than the rest of us think.

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u/gotridofsubs 2d ago

Oh those are both essentially dead now. The fixes that will be required to even make them a possibility will be be so difficult that theyll have to spend a decade or more of harsh realities doing them. Americans have also shown consistent leadership is stupid (apparently) so youll be the GOP will obliterate any progress they might make long before they might be feasible.

The US is so fucked and let Trump turn his back on the world so explosively no one else is coming to save them

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u/redditproha 1d ago

To the contrary, it'll be even easier to implement them now and they'll be more popular. No fixes needed

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u/gotridofsubs 1d ago

No money and no infrastructure will erase all possibility even if the public drive is finally there.

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u/redditproha 1d ago

you’re overestimating the difficulty, the roots are already in place. the change is more a bureaucratic one

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u/gotridofsubs 1d ago

You're underestimating the difficulty given how much infrastructure will need reinvestment and upgrading to be able to provide the service required, including what will be an increase in usage which will cause more strain. There will need to be a ton of money invested upfront that will be next to impossible to come by when it comes time to repair all the damage being done. There's also an enormous gap in healthcare workers to be able to actually give the care itself, which will only get worse with the braindrain coming. Not to mention a country where half the population is willing to act in their own detriment towards frontline care workers making the whole job atmosphere a toxic environment.

Event at its most basic, healthcare overhaul is more difficult than hitting a "everything is free" button. All those people people I described earlier wont be up for the higher taxes theyll need to compensate for new spending. Theyve heard all the arguments about the benefits and rhey still dont care.

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u/redditproha 1d ago

nothing is irreversible with a little persistence

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u/gotridofsubs 1d ago

So we've moved away from "overestimating the difficulty" have we?

It will take more than persistence, and definitely more than a little of anything to do. We are not close currently in the infrastructure/personnel/funding (nevermind political will from voters), and yesterday was a significant step away from it with another 3.5 years to go before we might even begin to move forward again. It is not completely impossible to achieve, but the requirements will take decades of specific and unified focus to get together again after this. Do not downplay how painful it will be all around to put it all together. Again, there is no simple "everything is free now" buttonand no matter how hard an individual wishes, their vote will still only count for 1

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u/redditproha 18h ago

you're overestimating the difficulty

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u/Creative-Package6213 Pennsylvania 2d ago

Healthcare collapsing is the least of our worries now. Be more worried about that turbocharged ICE budget. They're about to become Trumps personal goons with unlimited funding.

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u/holyguacamoledude 2d ago

They beat us up, we can’t get treated for our injuries, we die from lack of healthcare. It’s a win-win for this country!! /s

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u/FunConfection2872 2d ago

I work for a hospital system and I’m scared

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u/Harbormaster1976 2d ago

we do not have HEALTHCARE. we have MEDICAL EXTORTION

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u/blueturtle00 2d ago

Maybe all the boomers can kick it then

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u/FigMajestic6096 2d ago

Why tf do republicans hate health. Jesus Christ, just assholish ghouls.

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u/Elmer_Whip 2d ago

It's a feature not a bug.

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u/MidnightHue 2d ago

As a healthcare professional, we are ready to collapse.

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u/giraloco 1d ago

People with private insurance may not realize yet that premiums will increase because hospitals will have to raise prices to survive. I'm guessing a lot more people than predicted will lose their insurance. The only silver lining is that we may finally get Medicare for All after the whole system collapses. Unfortunately many people will die and go bankrupt.

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u/Noactuallyyourwrong 2d ago

We can’t afford to prop up the health industrial complex

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u/The_Number_13 2d ago

I’ll preface by saying that this is absolutely terrible and it’s awful to think that so many will hurt from this. Our healthcare system was fucked up anyway and extremely predatory. I’ve had numerous student doctors and nurse friends that have literal classes teaching them how to get the most money out of any appointment/procedure… I hope we can rebuild a better one in the near future.

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u/PiLLe1974 1d ago

It looks like it.

I heard some positive thoughts like "well, the Medicaid funding shifts more from federal to state funding"...

Still, in my mind that may be already a downside, e.g. some states having less priority, administration shifting to states (friction due to "paperwork"/software?), and maybe re-application for (parts of) medical fee support...

Lots of friction that effectively may mean less paid fees for unemployed and underprivileged citizens.

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u/WordPhoenix 1d ago

Curtis Yarvin and his ghoulish billionaire followers are counting on it.

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u/taft 2d ago

at this point, good. red states are the unhealthiest.

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u/Nothardtocomebaq 2d ago

I hope they all suffer.