There is unprecedented ugliness in what Republicans call their Big Beautiful Bill. The budget bill smashes healthcare, imperils rural hospitals, crushes America’s badly needed energy infrastructure, lavishes funding on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to raise a private army and set up detention camps, balloons the deficit, and dispenses tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, exacerbating extreme inequality. If budgets are moral documents, this is a work of cruelty.
The bill is wildly unpopular, even among Republicans. This is as it should be: even though Republicans have traded their voters from wealthier, more socially liberal suburbanites to more downscale exurban and rural voters, their determination to immiserate the poorest Americans remains unabated. Millions of MAGA voters are on the Medicaid rolls that the Republican budget would devastate. Even many Republican voters aren’t on board with mass deportations of nannies and hairdressers, to say nothing of most independents and Democrats. Punishing solar and wind generation will devastate energy grids in Texas and other red states. And, of course, Republicans have always paid lip service to caring about deficits, even though in practice they have been profligate since Ronald Reagan.
Perverse incentives have led MAGA Republicans to this point. Yes, the movement is primarily about “owning the libs,” Making America White Again, and cruelty against the marginalized. Vibes and culture wars have overtaken materialism as the key drivers of American politics.
Incumbents suffer when their constituents feel material pain. And this Big Ugly Bill will deliver incredible pain not just to blue states, city dwellers, minorities, but it will also devastate the lives of millions of Trump voters who rely on rural hospitals, Medicaid, affordable energy, and SNAP benefits .
Yet most Republican pols don’t appear to fear the looming rage. Senator Josh Hawley, the Missouri Republican, has hemmed and hawed with some protestations about the cuts, but finally bent the knee and supports the bill. Alaska Senator Lisa is still trying to wrangle special carveouts for her state, but those remain uncertain. Susan Collins of Maine made the usual timid objections to appear moderate before allowing the bill to move toward a vote. Collins and Murkowski have yet to say how they’ll vote on the final bill. Ironically, the most vigorous opposition has come from the right, where ideologues are making at least feigning opposition to the BBB’s deficit increase. Some House Republicans will balk at the even larger deficit the Senate has dug for the nation, but there can be little doubt that they will fall in line.
Indeed, the only voter accountability Republicans fear is from the right. The Democrats’ best hope for a Senate pickup in 2026 lies in North Carolina. One might think that Trump and the GOP would have allowed Senator Thom Tillis leeway to protect his precarious seat. After all, Republicans can afford three Senate defections. But, no, when Tillis objected to the BBB’s Medicaid cuts, Trump mocked and threatened to primary him, after which Tillis announced he would not run again next year. Without an incumbent, the seat becomes much harder for Republicans to hold. But saving Tillis and the Senate was of little concern to Trump and his MAGA.
This should be raising alarms for Democrats, too. One of two things is true. One is that Trump and wealthy Republicans have abandoned concern for their re-elections, entered a manic state, and want to pull off a shameless heist of public resources without care for the morrow.
But more ominous is that they feel immune to political consequences. They may think their control of the information environment is so complete that they can deflect blame with lies once the severe pain hits. Or they may simply be counting on future elections being delayed or canceled.
There is not much that Democrats can do for now. Their best option is to mobilize constituents to pressure the few vulnerable Republicans who might still feel shame—or electoral consequences—into softening the bill’s most damaging provisions.
Moneyed liberals ought to invest in reshaping the media landscape, especially in rural and exurban areas that have become informational deserts. It would not take an outlandish investment to create local news sources that also told the truth about national events. Localized social media channels could also perform similar roles. And, of course, Democrats must constantly sound the alarm about Republican plans to interfere in free and fair elections going forward.
Somehow, Republican legislators must be made to fear electoral consequences. Otherwise, they won’t hesitate to loot the Treasury on behalf of their friends.
