They call this "reconciliation?"

Well, my friends, it seems we are through the looking glass with regard to a directional turn our United States Congress has taken, moving further into authoritarian territory than many of us ever thought possible.

If you've been paying attention to the news you likely know as much as I do about this spending bill that just passed the House and therefore the Congress.  It is a mish-mash of a lot of programs that will be affected one way or another.  Bottom line is that the wealthy will receive more tax cuts, middle class people not so much, and less fortunate people will suffer deep cuts in social safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP benefits.

But never fear, the Republicans have thought of most everything, as the cuts take effect in 2027, so the GOP can blame Democrats for these program cuts, as they so often do.

Worth remembering that the President said more than once, and several times on camera, that he would veto any bill that contained cuts in Medicaid funding.  Let's see if he is as good as his word.

He apparently forgot or flat-out did not know that Medicaid cuts were the centerpiece of reductions that this bill called for, as it came out during a White House arm-twisting session that he either forgot or didn't know when confronted by a Republican who was being persuaded (I use that term loosely) to vote for this travesty.

One wonders what other programs are either in the works or underway that he knows nothing about....

Kudos to Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Minority Leader of the House.  He knew the assignment and undertook it well, spelling out the cruelty of this bill and the broad negative impact it will have on swaths of our population.

But, hey, there's a tax break for purchasing SILENCERS for the firearms you own!  And they have seen to it that the University of Pennsylvania will no longer have biological males competing as women. So important is that.

Yesterday I wrote a polite message for my Congressman, a fellow named Andy Barr who is completely in the tank for the current administration and all of its positions.  I mentioned to Mr. Barr that we had met once when we were dining with our respective families at a restaurant some years ago.  He and his wife (who died young a few years after this occasion) were charming and approachable and wonderful with their children, who interacted a bit with our grandchildren on that occasion.

Anyway, I suggested that he search his conscience about the negative impact of this bill and how it will disadvantage many of our Kentucky neighbors who do not have the means to access the healthcare system without Medicaid.  I ended by asking him to vote NO.

He didn't.  There was one Congressman from Kentucky, Thomas Massie, who voted against it, but that was a symbolic gesture that did not change the vote's outcome and maintained his record of grandstanding whenever possible.

So all we have left is hope.  The midterm elections are about a little more than a year away.  Lots of time to better educate the masses who get their news from TikTok and the like and help them understand what they are in for.