Something is "off" to me about the sequence of events the past month.

[OrlandoDem2]

The reconciliation bill was passed in late May. It is extremely unpopular. Elon was critical. Americans were showing up to express displeasure at town halls.

Then all of a sudden Trump baited LA protesters. Trump ordered mass deportations. The attention of the world was turned away from the bill.

As No Kings and the stupid birthday parade are now behind us, the whole world is talking about Iran.

But you know what’s out there? The bill. What is happening with that? I don’t trust these corrupt MAGA GOP people at all! What are they crafting behind closed doors with the media’s attention on Iran? Makes me very nervous.

[some_of_us_are_sane]

1. OrlandoDem2, I wondered about the same thing

Trump is a master of slight of hand. He's done it his whole life. I F*CKING HATE that snake oil sleazebag!

[UpInArms]

2. My sign for the protest read

America
Will be
Trump’s
7th bankruptcy

[CareyOn]

5. Excellent!

With your permission I will use this for the next protest

[UpInArms]

7. I think I stole it from someone

Not certain I am that clever 🤣

Use liberally

[calimary]

14. All I could think of, for mine, was "NO, DONALD!"

Wishful thinking, that SOMEBODY would have told him “NO!” a long time ago. Like when he was little, and it might have made a difference.

[UpInArms]

15. I just wish there was

No Donald

[calimary]

34. "No, donald!" A command, and a statement of reality.

Both are true.

[jmowreader]

11. It should be his eighth

He's the one who caused the United States Football League to go bankrupt.

[ananda]

3. New doctrine: Constant Shock and Chaos

There is no one truly bad, horrible thing to focus on
when there are so many all at once.

[allegorical oracle]

10. The shell game...just at a way higher level. DJT probably started when he was a kid...

The shell game is notorious for its use by confidence tricksters who will typically rig the game using sleight of hand to move or hide the ball during play and replace it as required.

Fraudulent shell games are also known for the use of psychological tricks to convince potential players of the legitimacy of the game – for example, by using shills or by allowing a player to win a few times before beginning the scam.
-- Wikipedia

[unblock]

4. Pretty much all the power struggle about the bill is between the shitheads and the bigger shitheads

They're blowing a massive hole in the deficit to extend tax breaks for the ultra rich who don't need them and won't do anything differently based on the tax gifts to them.

That part is not up for debate. The only arguments they are having revolve around how much helpful and essential government services can they slash, and how deeply, to partially pay for their grossly irresponsible looting of the treasury.

It will be a complete disaster no matter what. The only question is will it be a cat 5 disaster, or do we need to roll out the cat 6 designation?

[Jerry2144]

8. I thought the struggle was between the

Shitheads and the shit-for-brains. Are you sure you got the struggle correct?

[unblock]

9. You may be right

Either way, they sure have a knack for picking the worst of the worst....

[slightlv]

21. We're gonna need a Cat 7 if they raise the Fed Deficit

by 5 trillion dollars. Where'd the desire for the extra trillion come from? Who is trump paying off... or is planning on skimming that for himself from the bill?

I do know that mandatory cuts in Medicare kick in at a certain level... maybe the 4 trillion didn't get us there, but the 5 trillion will?

The problem with trump is that just getting him out from where he can do harm is a mere pittance of the problem. There's a whole huge line of people behind him ready to take up the gun to kill us... metaphorically and literally. Heritage Foundation, Judicial Review, a crap load of "conservative" think tanks that want all the money. When evil surrounds you from all sides, who do you concentrate on first?!

[unblock]

22. We'll never get much headway if the media remains as biased as it is.

Every slight democratic stumble is a major career-threatening scandal worth revisiting for years from every angle, whereas there's literally nothing Donnie can do that's bad enough to qualify for the scandal treatment.

How can we possibly convince America democrats are good and republicans are incompetent and evil when the media is parroting their issues, their logic, their lies, their word choices, their frames, etc., non-stop?

[soldierant]

24. According to anemail from Bowers News Media today -

"There are even deeper cuts to Medicaid in the Senate version of the Republican megabill than in the House version."

and

"Yesterday, Senate Republicans released the first draft of their version of the megabill that contains Donald Trump's legislative agenda. Disturbingly, this proposal actually cuts Medicaid by even more than the version passed by the House last month–and that version was projected to cause 10.9 million low income Americans to lose their health insurance."

[chouchou]

6. The GOP has been squawking like a pack of male monkeys with their balls caught in a vice....

..for 50 years...then they want the deficit to explode like the proverbial hand grenade.
They just can't get their shit together, regarding running the country....reminds me like "The Gong Show"

[Wiz Imp]

13. The Senate was in recess between May 23 & June 2.

The House passed in on May 22. So for effectively the next 2 weeks after that the Senate was not in session to do anything on it. Since they came back, various Senators have been meeting and discussing with each other changes to the bill which are necessary to get the bill passed by the Senate. The Senate Republicans finally unveiled a draft of portions of the bill within the past 24 hours but it still has a long way to go. It has to pass several committees before coming to the floor for a vote, and based on what has been reported, there is almost no way the bill in its current draft form will get the necessary 50 votes so more changes are definitely coming.

Republicans are not being secretive - the text of the bill is out there. And No Democrats are going to vote for it regardless, so it ultimately comes down to what changes they have to make to get 50 Senators on board - and then it still must go back to the House so they have to keep it acceptable to them as well.

The only thing all Republicans agree on is the tax cuts. Everything else has lots of disagreement amongst different Republicans. I think it's really gonna be hard for them to come up with a compromise that will pass. At this point, I expect them to pass a bill with just the tax cuts because that's the only thing everyone agrees on - and that will EXPLODE the deficit!

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5352650-senate-republicans-trump-agenda-taxes-medicaid-green-energy/

Senate releases Trump tax and Medicaid blueprint

https://nypost.com/2025/06/16/us-news/ny-reps-warn-senate-version-of-big-beautiful-bill-will-be-dead-on-arrival-if-salt-cap-lowered-to-10k/

NY reps warn Senate version of ‘big, beautiful’ bill will be ‘dead on arrival’ if SALT cap lowered to $10K

[DENVERPOPS]

16. The Republicans have become masters

at smoke, mirrors, diversions and distractions.......and the massive Republican owned/operated Media, assists them incredibly.......

[Beck23]

17. Yes, and bombing Iran is

A distraction from the poopy birthday party

[Attilatheblond]

25. Not to mention the millions of people who took to the streets last Saturday

He makes a mess to divert attention from the last mess he made. Messes keep getting bigger and bigger as he has to distract from ever growing messes. He has NO solutions, never did in his entire life, only one catastrophe after another.

[aggiesal]

18. This is what's happening. ...

From this morning.

U.S. Senate GOP wants to hike debt limit by $5 trillion in mega-bill


U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., right, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., hold a press conference on the Republican budget bill at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/06/16/repub/u-s-senate-gop-wants-to-hike-debt-limit-by-5-trillion-in-mega-bill/

[Akakoji]

19. It is The Way.

It’s how to wear down the patience and protests of citizens. Classic fascist tactic. Make no one believe anything but what someone tells them to. In frustration and anger at the chaos itself. Trump will keep saying the Democrats did this. We become the only, the easiest, the immutable target of their rage.

[William769]

20. Good point.

[Javaman]

23. you miss the part where rand paul, said he was against it but then said he's now open to it.

he's just another opportunist sycophant.

just another paid actor by the American public to placate to the orange asshole.

[SergeStorms]

26. It's Trump's go-to move when things aren't going his way.

Whenever he needs to change the narrative from one of his countless failures, "Look! Brown people in caravans! Brown people demonstrating! Brown people "invading" the U.S.!"

It gets his cult to look away from Donny's failures and gets them looking at Brown people, who they absolutely HATE with every fiber of their being.

Brown people are Trump's shiny object he uses to hypnotize his MAGA cult.

[vapor2]

27. JUST heard that the Senate wants even more cuts to Medicaid. Congress no longer relevant

[Nasruddin]

28. Floater

Yep - they're going to take advantage of turbulence and distraction & try to float this turd on by us

[doc03]

29. Bibi attacked Iran to derail nuclear talks. The Taco

man name has forced Trump into a corner to show he is a tough guy. Before we started the two gulf wars we had a half million troops in the middle east. I heard we only have 40k troops in the ME at this time. Trump pulled thousands of troops out of western Europe in his previous administration. Meanwhile our troops are sitting ducks.

[spanone]

30. He's the ultimate distractor.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. "The bill. What is happening with that?"

The Senate version of "the bill" is DIFFERENT from the House version so one of 2 things need to happen -

1.) If the Senate version passes and goes to the House for a vote, it could very well die right there and then get modified again and so on and so on, back and forth

-OR-

2.) The 2 chambers end up setting up a "Joint Conference Committee", with members from both chambers, to try to work out ONE BILL for both chambers to vote on. That's generally what has to happen with these big reconciliation bills.

They have a ridiculous "July 4th" deadline when even their first 2017 tax cuts for the rich (which is what they are trying to extend with this effort) didn't get over the finish line until the end of the 2017 calendar year.

And back in 2017, the House split was 193 (D) - 239 (R) with 3 vacancies, so they had lots of wiggle room. The Senate was similar to now except by a split of 48 (D)/(I) - 52 (R).

[I_UndergroundPanther]

32. If the bill passes

I am as good as dead if I cannot get my medication therapy and visits to my doctors.

Remember this evil bill will murder people

[Hekate]

33. Well-spotted

[yellow dahlia]

35. Yes. There is always a well timed distraction.

Look at the shiny object over there.