Official 2025 Inaugural Portrait of Donald Trump by Daniel Torok (Public Domain)

The One Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans managed to get through the House without a single vote from the Democrats performed two services for the American people, and that’s what makes it cute.

First, it extends the Trump tax cuts, and therefore may have avoided some super-tough times for those of us who don’t make school superintendent salaries.  Second, it points out in no uncertain terms that cutting government programs is nearly impossible.  The only thing Democrats ever wanted to cut was Trump’s border enforcement.

Republicans at least talk about cuts, but only in Washington terms.  Actually cutting anything tends to alienate whatever group of voters that program was important to – and we can’t have that. So, we will kill off the penny, but we will keep printing dollars and our National Debt will continue to grow.

AUDIO:  Random Samplings of a Logical Mind

The One Big Cute Bill is anything but beautiful.

Yes, it pushes forward Donald Trump’s agenda with money for the border, reimbursing Texas for the money it spent to enforce the border under the insipid Biden administration, adds some new work requirements for welfare, and it may advance the idea of a Golden Dome missile defense system – a goal of the Ronald Reagan administration.  That’s a great idea – to take what we helped Israel accomplish with the Iron Dome system they have.  Maybe Canada will help with that, and Mexico ought to, but we’ll see.

RELATED:  Our Poor Pitiful Underpaid Congress 

The problem rarely is that what government spends doesn’t help somebody, or go for some good cause.  The problem is that we have too many good causes.  Biden was able to find dumb ways to spend money –such as what the Right refers to as the Green New Scam which wastes a ton of money on useless climate change schemes.  California allocated healthcare dollars for illegal immigrants, and the national government paid for a lot of their care as well since hospitals can’t turn away sick people.  But where are we supposed to get all this money?

Video:  A hero of the Congress – Austin’s Chip Roy, one of the few that sees the fiscal train-wreck that is coming and actually wants to do something about it.

The One Big Cute Bill doesn’t address that, nor do Democrats.  All empty suits like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer can do is accuse Republicans of tax cuts for the rich and whine about people like Elon Musk paying their fair share.  That’s all Democrats seem to offer, and it’s why the party is in the doldrums.  Over his four-year term, Biden had zero good ideas, while Trump goes a mile-a-minute and most of his ideas are actually worthwhile.

Video: This is what we mean by “empty suits.”  Austin Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who is the polar opposite of his Austin counterpart, Chip Roy.

What could the Democrats do that might actually help save their moribund party?

I feel bad about telling them, but not really.  They won’t listen.  They never do.  But while Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts actually point out waste, fraud, and abuse, the Democrats simply deny that anything like that exists.  What if they were to come up with a plan to actually cut the scope of government, rein in the spending, and get the budget balanced?  What if they offered up a plan to actually make payments on the National Debt?

RELATED:  Trump’s move to stop taxpayer funding of PBS and NPR is long overdue

LOL!  ROTFL!  That will never happen!  Democrats exist to spend and to tax the hell out of the people to redistribute wealth except for the wealth that is theirs.  They always keep that.  But since Democrats are totally hopeless, and Republicans reluctant to offend the voting public, what do we do?  There’s always an answer.

Video:   Empty suit Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has no clue what is coming to America if we can’t stop the drunken spending.

Let’s redefine the world “cut” and then let’s do it in a way that people won’t get hurt.

Note that if we simply revert to pre-pandemic spending, we’d be in far better shape, but there’s no serious effort in Congress to do that.  And Congress hates to cut.  “Cut” in Washington-ese is the idea of proposing much larger budget for a program or an agency, and then “cutting” back the proposal so the actual rise in spending is less that the original proposal.  That’s not a cut and they know it, but it’s how they fool us.

So, what about the Penny Plan? 

Once we’ve DOGE-ed to the point when we can’t DOGE anymore, let’s lop a penny or two off every federal dollar spent across the board.  A penny isn’t much.  But in the scope of trillions of dollars spent, pennies mount up fast.

After, say, a decade of the Penny Plan, we might all be surprised at how fiscally better off we’d be.  Pennies would not matter much to a household budget, but at the national level, they would.

RELATED: Trump and Musk are Doing What Congress Refuses to Do

Now imagine a Nickel Plan. 

The money saved would really begin to matter, and still, it’s just five cents out of a dollar, leaving the feds $0.95 to spend.  Inflation would fall to far lower levels, and consumer prices would go down.  With a 5-cent per dollar cut, no one would feel a lot of pain.  We could have a mandatory line-item budget plan to pay down the National Debt.

We’d start saving billions in interest payments over the years.  Eventually, after a few budgets, we could level out, and the cutting would not be necessary to continue each year so long as Congress becomes responsible.

The OMB and the CBO could score it and we could put together a plan that would really work, and could save the country from collapsing under massive debt!

There is a major flaw in this plan, however.  Congress will never do it.

Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter.  Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us. 

Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley. 

Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site.  Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.

One!  Big!  Beautiful!  Book!

The post Trump’s Big Bill may be Cute but it’s Not Beautiful appeared first on WB Daily.

Congressman Carter’s newsletter, December 2023, Page 1. In line 5, he claims to be “fighting” to cut spending. (Scan: WBDaily)

On page one of this four-page, four-color newsletter printed and mailed at taxpayer expense, he bragged about “fighting” to cut spending.  On page three, he touted more than $73 million dollars that he apparently “fought” for to bring back to his district that includes Bell and Williamson counties.

Page 3 of the newsletter is devoted to how much Carter has brought back to his district in pork-barrel spending. (Scan: WBDaily)

Some of the cash will go to Fort Cavazos.  The rest goes to cities and counties for stuff such as a pedestrian bridge, wastewater plant expansion, road development and other items that ought to be none of the federal government’s business.

This is what we call “pork,” and the unfortunate thing is that Carter isn’t the only one who brings it home.

Random Samplings is brought to you by the Texas Public Policy Foundation at TexasPolicy.com.

Congressman Carter serves District 31, a six-county area that butts up to Fort Cavazos (that most people in the Killeen area still refer to as Fort Hood). 

The Congressman obviously enjoys getting the credit for funding projects at the Post, even though as a major cog in the nation’s military preparedness efforts, Cavazos/Hood would be getting the money regardless of who represents the area.  Any local congressman who didn’t support the Post would draw the ire of local powers-that-be.

As for the other cities and counties on Carter’s pork-list, they enjoy getting stuff from Washington too.  And U.S. Representative John Rice Carter is happy to step up the plate and bring home the bacon.  That’s why, at 82 years old (a year older than Joe Biden), Carter has served in Congress since 2003, is in his 11^th term, and is running again.

Wikipedia

Carter is in good company. 

Joe Biden has been living off the taxpayer dime for virtually all his adult life, and wants yet another term.  Power is addictive, and most members of the U.S. House and the Senate hang in as long as they can, even to the bitter end.  Robert Byrd, Edward M. Kennedy, and Dianne Feinstein all died while in office.

Spending appears to be what keeps them in power.

If a member of Congress brings home federal money to a city, you can bet the local establishment is all for keeping him.  You may remember when Republicans fought against so-called “earmarks,” but that went down the drain.

Nowadays, they all do it, but some do it more than others.  Nancy Pelosi is famous for wasting taxpayer money on local projects that are worthless to the rest of the country.  But that’s what helps them stay in office so they do it.  But then they brag about “fighting” to cut spending.  Please.

Note Carter’s newsletter that you paid for:

 On page 1, he literally brags about fighting to cut spending.  Page 3 is dedicated to the $73 million he claims he brought back to the district.  If all 435 members of the U.S. House are doing this – at least to some extent – then are they two-faced when they fire a speaker over failing to worm spending cuts out of the Democrats?

In the same newsletter, Congressman Carter mentions his vote against $4 trillion in new debt. (Scan: WBDaily)

Mike Johnson became Speaker over this issue.  And although most people would claim that government debt doesn’t affect their personal lives, they’re starting to see it happen.

Joe Biden is a major spendthrift, and as our national debt passes the $34 trillion mark, we’re seeing massive inflation, rising home prices, consumer goods costing more and more.  Our dollar is worth only a fraction of what it was before Joe Biden assumed office.

It’s an old trope that Democrats exist to tax and spend, but Republicans do it too.  How can we ever expect to cut useless federal agencies like the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce and so on, if we can’t stop the feds from funding a pedestrian bridge in Burnet?

At the very least, please stop telling us you’re “fighting” to cut spending, while also bragging about how much you have spent.

Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter.  Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us.  Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley.  Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site.  Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.

You could spend less than $20 and buy a copy of this book.

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