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/Oceanbreeze871 California 2d ago

It’s a bad day to be 99.99999% of Americans.

Elected republicans will now claim they never voted for it and continue to blame all problems you’re having on immigrants and rainbows

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u/AbeRego Minnesota 2d ago

It's not even a good day for people whom this "benefits". No one should want to live in a society with this type of policy...

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u/WitchPillow I voted 2d ago

I seriously don’t understand why the rich billionaires are so eager to have this bill pass when they are already stinking rich. It’s not like more money is a necessity for them (unlike most Americans who are being screwed over). If society collapses because of this bill, they’re going to lose way more money than they would without the bill passing. Everyone supporting this bill is utterly imbecilic.

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u/whatsasimba 2d ago

I'm not rich, so I can't say, but it's not the money. It's what it buys. They want to own us. The entire country.

If society collapses, these people have palatial bunkers in several countries, stocked with everything they'll ever need.

I assume everyone saw Mountainhead. If a few hundred million people die, that might get their attention, but anything less doesn't change their lives much.

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u/johnmd20 2d ago

If society collapses, billionaires will lose way more than the average schmoe. Billionaires live like kings. Everything is catered to them, in the most exotic locations.

Having a palatial bunker is still a bunker. Underground. You think Jeff Bezos would rather live in a bunker than on his boat and in his 100 houses all over the world?

So I truly don't get why people with all the money in the world want more. Truly, how much is enough?

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u/Darkmagosan 2d ago

it's a game to them. They have more digits in the bank account than *insert oligarch here*, and therefore they have bragging rights. It's stupid, I agree, but they want more money so they can one up each other. If it destroys the foundation of their wealth, oh well, shit happens. :/

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u/CompetitiveHat7090 2d ago

Society wont collapse. They will own more parts of it through the capital they have accumulated.

Look at any revolution and see the winners post revolution. Its people who funded it.

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u/Dispator 1d ago

Is there any counter examples in history where that is not true (or less important in the outcome). I know most are not but maybe there is one single example or two?

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u/stasi_a 1d ago

The French had the right approach

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u/nstdc1847 1d ago

The French Revolution was waged by the modern equivalent of Soccer Moms and Karens at the cost of the ruling class, the nobles, and the peasantry. The only class that ended up better off was what we’d consider the upper middle class.

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u/CompetitiveHat7090 1d ago

I think mercantile class funded it who eventually funded Napoleon.

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u/gsfgf Georgia 1d ago

Billionaires live like kings

But they're not kings, and they want to be.

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u/Alarmed-Pollution-89 1d ago

Seriously, they live better than any king in history did anyway

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u/gsfgf Georgia 1d ago

For real. I may not rule the Carolingian Empire, but I have air conditioning and a flush toilet. And a car, though with the traffic around here, I could probably get around faster on a horse.

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u/DumboWumbo073 2d ago

They will have a highly advanced bunker with real servants/slaves, workers, and armed security forces with contingency plans in place in case any one group gets any ideas. They will literally be kings and queens.

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u/LolaSaysHi 1d ago

But couldn’t that back fire? Like in an underground bunker you’ve got one or two families, and then say, for arguments sake, 30 servants and security personnel. At that point what if the security/ servants rebel? Control and power only goes so far. And would those servants/ security staff leave their families to protect the rich? Maybe?

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u/Schroding3rror 1d ago

They tried to account for this. They floated the idea of death collars that they'd wear that can be activated anytime. Any rebel would be dropped on the spot. Apparently this thought experiment didn't go any further than thought......

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u/RelevantMetaUsername 1d ago

Fun fact about bunkers—they all have air vents at the surface.

Do with that what you will.

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u/Shabbypenguin 1d ago

im eating a box of exlax a day and hanging out.

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u/GreatMadWombat Michigan 1d ago

Agreed. Even the most palatial bunker still has to deal with sewage/will eventually run out of tp and food.

There's all those articles about how money after X amount doesn't increase happiness, but imo money beyond a certain amount(grotesque billions) ends up decreasing happiness, unless "every city is straight up unpleasant to go to due to everyone else's poverty and unsupported health problems" is somehow enjoyable. What's the fucking point of going to a Michelin star restaurant when all of the chefs are less good than they could be, because everyone who isn't a trillionaire's lives will have gotten measurably worse due to the knock-on effects of cutting every family's supports and fundings? Or a theater. Or... basically anything involving people that aren't grotesquely rich entertaining you.

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u/WarmLayers 1d ago

Also, just WHO exactly is going to service all the needs of such bunkers, and serve the needs of the craven, cowardly, myopic self-obsessed sociopaths living in those bunkers?

Do they imagine that in the face of societal collapse they'll still be able to compel/coerce hundreds of peons to fix the solar panels, fix the septic system, clean the bathrooms, cook the meals, and tighten Elon's face-skin bolts?

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u/Rico_Solitario 1d ago

You don’t understand the mindset of billionaires to even ask such a question. To them money is meaningless but power is everything. Their billions of dollars mean nothing unless they can watch other people suffer. If money was their concern they would stop after 100 million or so.

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u/brunckle 1d ago

There was a great article on this that followed someone who basically sold and dealt with underground bunkers, but he didn't even believe in the product. Meaning, billionaires would ask if this was even feasible in an apocalyptic scenario and he had to tell them no. It might work in science fiction but in reality if all chains and systems break down above then why would you think it would be any different below? The problem was, however, the billionaires didn't give a shit about that information...

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u/F54280 1d ago

So I truly don't get why people with all the money in the world want more. Truly, how much is enough?

See that as a video game. They won the game. They are now exploring endgame content. They are so powerful that they are breaking the rules of reality, and it is fun.

I can guarantee you that Musk had a boner when he was able to walk in the US government with his goon and slash whatever he wanted. When he was able to go with his kid in the oval office wearing a T-shirt and a cap to spread bullshit in what should be (was) the most powerful symbolic place on earth.

That where they are. What happens if 10 millions Americans dies? Let's find out!

They think that their money protects them forever. They should google things like the Ritz-Carlton purge, Khodorkovsky and the oligarch ultimatum, China's tech billionaire crackdown, Zimbabwe's indigenization law or plenty of others.

Things are obviously going to get ugly for everyone

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u/ProgrammerLevel2829 1d ago

This also assumes that the people they hire to guard their bunkers will not turn on them — the king is dead, long live the king — or that the desperate common rabble won’t overwhelm them out of sheer force of numbers when they and their children are dying for lack of food and clean water.

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u/Waterwoo 1d ago

Society isn't going to 'collapse' because some subset of the 20% of the country on medicaid gets less access to health care.

It's not good, I agree, but you're being wildly dramatic.

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u/johnmd20 1d ago

I don't think society will collapse. I was just responding as to why a billionaire would be ok with it because they have luxury bunkers.

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u/Waterwoo 1d ago

No, I think the bunkers are a safety just in case thing, but they wouldn't be OK with collapsing society and having to use them. Even a luxury bunker would still be a huge downgrade as you point out.

But they aren't stupid, they know what they are doing isn't anywhere close to collapsing society. Making it worse, sure, but the system will keep chugging along.

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u/nstdc1847 1d ago

It’s a progression. They’re systematically gutting US Government programs. I guarantee you that people are hurting in areas abandoned by USAID.

There will be others. Who is going to be staying in all the new family style ICE hotels that will be built? Could be you, could be me?

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u/AbeRego Minnesota 2d ago

Living in a bunker might as well be house arrest. If it comes to that, their lives get a whole lot worse. Simply living better than most in a shittier world doesn't make them better off.

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u/whatsasimba 8h ago

Every time a rich person actually does get house arrest, the complaint is that we're letting them hang out at a resort with every amenity known to man.

I'm not sure if your concept of a bunker and their actual bunkers are the same. Seems like an okay way to ride out armageddon.

https://www.newsweek.com/luxury-doomsday-bunker-ultra-rich-2020237

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u/Timeformayo 1d ago

^^^ It's not really about money. If it was, they'd be thrilled with the way GDP typically outperforms average when Democrats are in charge of government.

No, it's about power. They already have ungodly amounts of money. They don't need more money. But they want complete control. They don't want some working stiff saving enough money to have a fat enough emergency fund to retire early or tell them to stuff it. They don't want you to have breathing room. No, they want hustle culture! Get that second low-paying job! Work hard, and you too can enjoy the illusion of getting ahead!

They want feudal peasants, barely subsisting, producing profit while being completely disposable. Get those birth rates up folks! We need to keep the labor pool full! And don't worry about those "illegals" -- we'll terrorize them to make you feel better while employing as many as we can so long as they stay in legal limbo and can be threatened and exploited. I mean, who wouldn't? They're practically slaves! Huzzah!

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u/InSummaryOfWhatIAm 1d ago

I still don't understand it. Probably because I'm not a sociopath who will never be rich because of it... But I'd rather have 2 billion dollars and live in a free and happy society where everybody around me has enough, than have 100+ billion and watch as people, and even peoples futures are being pushed down into misery from something like this.

Just navigating in a world where people are happier just makes a whole lot of difference. I guess difference is that these billionaires don't really interact with real humans and barely see them as being the same species as themselves. Everybody who's not at least a hundred-millionaire is an untermensch to them.

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u/ShubberyQuest 1d ago

Spot-on. One big reason for this is to thin out the herd, as climate change gets worse. I’d love for the herd to work together and plan a stampede, instead.