Friends,
The old professor in me thinks
the best way to convey to you how utterly awful the so-called “one big
beautiful bill” passed by the House last night actually is would be to give you
this short 10-question exam. (Answers are in parentheses, but first try to
answer without looking at them.)
1. Does the House’s “one big
beautiful bill” cut Medicare? (Answer: Yes, by an estimated $500
billion.)
2. Because the bill cuts
Medicaid, how many Americans are expected to lose Medicaid coverage? (At
least 8.6
million.)
3. Will the tax cut in the bill
benefit the rich, the poor, or everyone? (Overwhelmingly, the
rich.)
4. How much will the top 0.1
percent of earners stand to gain from it? (Nearly $390,000 per
year.)
5. If you figure in the benefit
cuts and the tax cuts, will Americans making between about
$17,000 and $51,000 gain or lose? (They’ll lose about $700 a
year.)
6. How about Americans with
incomes less than $17,000? (They’ll lose more than $1,000 per
year on average.)
7. How much will the bill add to
the federal debt? ($3.8
trillion over 10 years.)
8. Who will pay the interest on
this extra debt? (All of us, in both our tax payments and higher interest rates
for mortgages, car loans, and all other longer-term borrowing.)
9. Who collects this interest?
(People who lend to the U.S. government, 70 percent of whom are American and
most of whom are wealthy.)
10. Bonus question: Is the $400
million airplane from Qatar a gift to the United States for every future
president to use, or a gift to Trump for his own personal use? (It’s a personal
gift, because he’ll get to use it after he leaves the presidency.)
Most Americans are strongly
opposed to all of these things, according to polls. But if you knew the answers
to these 10 questions, you’re likely to be in a very tiny minority. That’s
because of (1) distortions and cover-ups emanating from Trump and magnified by
Fox News and other rightwing outlets; (2) a public that’s overwhelmed with the
blitzkrieg of everything Trump is doing and can’t focus on this; (3) outright
silencing of many in the media who fear retaliation from the Trump regime if
they reveal things that Trump doesn’t want revealed.
-Robert Reich
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