July 4, 2025, the Darkest Day in the Modern Era (USA)
Today, Trump's Big Beautiful Bill has formally passed both houses and will be signed into law tomorrow. To me, this will be the darkest day in our history short of the civil war. I say this because of the cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the tax supports to what we Americans commonly know as Obama Care. Over $1 trillion will be cut from Medicaid and Medicare. Proponents claim it is aimed to cut fraud, waste and abuse; but, in the end, it will throw close to 12 million people off insurance rolls. With them losing their insurance, I fear it will mean many will end up dying. On top of this, the subsidies that paid for Obama Care insurance will end. People will find their insurance rates increase as much as 75%. I think it will cause many people to drop their insurance all together putting them and their families at great risk.
How will it affect my local area? I drive elderly people to their doctor appointments. I can see many of them losing programs they need to live. I am thinking of one couple. Both are strong Trump supporters. Anytime I pick them up, the husband tries to engage me in a political discussion. Up to now, I avoid it. His wife is severely disabled. We pick them up at least twice a week for her to go to physical therapy. I also believe they depend on SNAP food assistance. This too is being cut. How will they be able to survive? I hate to think what could happen.
There are two hospitals in my county. Four professional nursing homes. A number of family living facilities. The one hospital came close to eliminating its birthing center last year, but county residents convinced them to keep it going. The other hospital supports Washington State University and a growing elderly population because people like to retire near a university. It will likely survive, but I can see them reducing their services. The nursing homes will be severely impacted. Many nursing home residents depend on Medicaid to pay for services. What are they going to do when the funds are cut?
Tomorrow will be the beginning of a nightmare.
Up to tomorrow, I have proudly displayed my American Flag on the Fourth--We Americans do tend to go overboard on this. Tomorrow, though, I am going to keep it in the closet.
How are other Americans reacting to this?
How will it affect my local area? I drive elderly people to their doctor appointments. I can see many of them losing programs they need to live. I am thinking of one couple. Both are strong Trump supporters. Anytime I pick them up, the husband tries to engage me in a political discussion. Up to now, I avoid it. His wife is severely disabled. We pick them up at least twice a week for her to go to physical therapy. I also believe they depend on SNAP food assistance. This too is being cut. How will they be able to survive? I hate to think what could happen.
There are two hospitals in my county. Four professional nursing homes. A number of family living facilities. The one hospital came close to eliminating its birthing center last year, but county residents convinced them to keep it going. The other hospital supports Washington State University and a growing elderly population because people like to retire near a university. It will likely survive, but I can see them reducing their services. The nursing homes will be severely impacted. Many nursing home residents depend on Medicaid to pay for services. What are they going to do when the funds are cut?
Tomorrow will be the beginning of a nightmare.
Up to tomorrow, I have proudly displayed my American Flag on the Fourth--We Americans do tend to go overboard on this. Tomorrow, though, I am going to keep it in the closet.
How are other Americans reacting to this?
Comments
Practically speaking, my hope is in 1) God and 2) the court system to tie this up in red tape to the point where we can survive. Please, God...
My personal forecast is that I will have an increased amount of shitty paperwork as our vulnerable people get thrown out of various programs (why yes, this DOES happen without reason, and it takes roughly 40 hours per family to get them reinstated just because somebody somewhere was trying to reach a quota of de-enrollments when they're actually still eligible!). Guess who has to do the 40 hours? Grrrrrrrrrr.
I also forecast that those for whom we CANNOT secure re-enrollment will seek emergency help from the church--which is why we maintain a pastor's emergency fund stocked by those who feel their hearts leading them that way, and who believe the pastor will handle the money (pitifully little of it!) appropriately. Two of those who contribute do it by working extra jobs, or parts of jobs. So far it's been used to buy dentures for someone who couldn't eat well without them, and since the free/cheap dental clinic closed in the pandemic, there's been no affordable alternative for the poor. There IS a food pantry, so that's at least partially handled--but we had a man a while back who got 700 dollars in assistance monthly and was expected on that amount to handle rent of 500 monthly plus utilities (probably 300) plus food, plus all other necessities... You see why the fund is necessary. And pitifully inadequate.
Still, we can't lay down and die. So we pray. And we work on.
Vote Republican again.
Not if they are dead.
Yeah, I know. I was more commenting on the imperviousness of certain segments of the US electorate to the reality of Trump's policies. And riffing on a joke I used to hear occassionally back in Edmonton...
A: Votes Conservative again.
But to take the point in a more serious direction, I have wondered to what extent the sometimes opaque nature of the connection between Trump's cuts and their baleful effects has insulated him from criticism. If eg. a given nursing home stays open but suffers staff shortages, that might not be something that people notice in the same way that they would notice an outright closure.
My understanding is that during the DOGE cuts, Trump and Musk deliberately avoided slashing direct payments to individuals, presumably because people would feel that directly.
But surely trump told us that the dead people voted Democratic last time?
Especially if they were in Chicago.
From the POV of exploiting all this for partisan gain against the Republicans, the opposition needs to just blame all the austerity going forward on Trump directly. Most of it will be, and a good chunk of the state-level stuff will be carried out by Republican governors who agree with Trump's overall economic philosophy.
You might very well be right. Depends on how much they're eager and how much they're evil/smart. Some of my more pessimistic friends are expecting an explosion of Dem wins in the midterms and then not much in the way of the predicted disaster. Dems will then avert as much of the disaster as possible. The lack of disaster is then predicted to make people vote Red. I hope not.
I don't admire Republicans for much, but their proven ability to manipulate people to vote against their own self interest is really impressive.
I will observe that, so far, many of the maximalist disaster scenarios predicted by Democrats have failed to materialize, eg. DOGE causing plane crashes and nuclear hazards; tariffs creating Weimar 2 by early summer, Iran bombing raising the price oil etc.
But are your pessimistic friends skeptical about a forthcoming "disaster" because they think the victorious Dems of 2026 will be smart enough to prevent one, or just because a disaster like that was never gonna happen anyway?
That said, kinda like climate change, it's already happening if you're the sort to pay close attention to the small things. We've had some kids die of measles in America because of lax vaccination even under current practices. RFK says he'll make it worse. It'll get worse. Just takes time.
Though...what's 1/1000? Some will catch measles, and a few will die, predictably. It's probably not your problem, no? Just someone else's kid. And some parents can be persuaded that it's God's will when a random catastrophe happens. Nothing to be done. Easier than accepting personal responsibility.
I know this because I also grew up in the kind of place where an awful lot of people get cancer and nobody wonders why. Pray and hope and figure it's God's will.
So maybe it'll be like that. Immigrants just disappear into concentration camps and...well, they just disappear, and if they're not your people, then it's not your problem, right? Everyone looks to their own house and maybe their literal next door neighbor's. Maybe. If they suffer, they must've deserved it for some vague reason that nobody wants to think too hard about, just look down and pray.
Frogs don't really boil like the saying says they do, but I think that the metaphor does apply to human politics.
FWIW, I'm a Christian and I pray, pardon my caricaturing of some theological types. I'm not thinking of anyone here. And I'm definitely being a bit mean about it.
I was assuming that the cuts would play themselves out differently from state to state or even district to district(eg. layoffs here, total closures there), thus varying the responses of the opposition groups in the respective jurisdictions. If you're saying otherwise, I'm happy to concede that the results of the cuts may be more uniform and more ironclad than I had been foretelling.
I will observe that the aforementioned Van Orden(see my hidden text
above) seems to think it's possible to push policies at the state level that could ameliorate the impact of the OBBB in Wisconsin. Though I'll admit it's possible he knows his voters are totally doomed and is now like the arsonist's henchman trying to look like he's putting out the fire.