OPINION: The Fog Of Wars Abroad And At Home

Our country’s surprise(?) attack on Iran’s nuclear sites has raised a lot of questions, notably about the end result.

Were they “obliterated,” as Donald Trump insisted? Or did they sustain “extremely severe damage,” as his joint chiefs of staff chairman said? Or was it just a setback of a few months, as an early intelligence report said?

And why did Trump — or whoever’s running this administration — attack a country that didn’t pose an immediate threat to us?

Was he angling for a fix of public adulation after his much-ridiculed 79^th birthday parade? Did he want to one-up Benjamin Netanyahu’s attack on Israel’s longtime enemy (which admittedly has funded terrorist groups throughout the Middle East)?

Or did Trump and his Project 2025 compadres think that if they nudge our country closer to World War III, we Americans will stop fretting about the stealth war they’re waging at home against the 98%, who include many of their unwitting supporters?

Their latest weapon came with all the controversy, chaos and head-spinning twists and turns that are hallmarks of the Trump playbook.

Even so, Congress appeared poised on Saturday to meet the July 4 deadline Trump set for himself to sign House Resolution 1, which he’d unironically named “The One Big Beautiful Bill.”  

More recently, he termed H.R. 1 “the ultimate codification” of the MAGA agenda, although you could argue that it’s more about his administration’s.

Either way, it’s massive, wide-ranging and chock-full of Trumpy wish-list items like slashing Medicaid and food stamps, rolling back support for clean energy, building the border wall and — above all — extending and increasing tax cuts for the already wealthy.

A 1,016-page version passed the House by one vote and along party lines, although some GOP members later admitted that they said “yea” without knowing how bad it was.

Marjorie Taylor Greene said she hadn’t been aware that it would ban states from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years, and Mike Flood said he hadn’t known about a provision to hamstring courts from enforcing orders against the federal government.

The version the Senate released on Friday night and was planning to vote on this weekend is slightly thinner at 940 pages. Thanks to Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, some of the ugliest parts are gone because budget bills like this monstrosity are only filibuster-proof if each item affects … the budget.

She struck the provision that would cripple the courts. States would be able to regulate AI, but doing so would cost them their share of $500 million in AI infrastructure funding provided in the bill.

GOP senators screamed loudest when MacDonough rejected certain Medicaid restrictions that they were counting on to cut costs. A few called for her firing, and Roger Marshall of Kansas said he’d go a step further by introducing a bill to term-limit the position, which she has held since 2012.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he wouldn’t overrule the parliamentarian, but the bill remains subject to change.

Democrats are staunchly opposed, and even some in the GOP who see beauty in this beast think the budget cuts are misplaced or too deep. Others say they aren’t deep enough as they express concern about adding trillions of dollars to the national debt.

Of course, one way to pay down debt is to increase revenue, although that seems to be a third rail for the GOP.

Trump did make an empty gesture last month when he briefly floated the idea of raising taxes on the fortunate few whose annual income exceeds $2.5 million, but he falsely claimed Democrats would fight it. (Kamala Harris had run on increasing taxes for people making more than a measly $400,000.)   

With all the revisions and uncertainty about H.R. 1, it’s hard to assess its final outcome and its consequences.

But it seems short-sighted at best to push a vote on a 940-page piece of legislation so soon after senators receive it just so Trump can sign it by our nation’s birthday.

As CNN senior reporter Stephen Collinson noted, it just goes to show “how power works in a broken political system in which (Trump’s) the single greatest force.”

Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.

Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.

Want to be a columnist with Coal Region Canary? Contact us at newscanary@gmail.com.

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