Repeal The Steal July 2, 2025 Jesus would have voted NO (60 seconds). “We Christians are called to do more than charity,” preaches James Talarico. “We are called to challenge the systems that make charity necessary.” Senator Chris Murphy: Within minutes of the bill passing, Lisa Murkowski told reporters, “My hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” All reporting indicates that she was the final holdout that Republicans had to flip to yes, and now, she is saying that she doesn’t want this version of the bill to become law. That’s bullshit. Her vote could’ve stopped this. They will all live forever with the horror of this bill. (“I guess they convinced Lisa Murkowski that this bill is good for the country by offering to exempt her state from what’s in it.” — Michael B., ‘ashamed former Alaskan’) In case you don’t know how bad it is . . . An Ignominious Bill Passed By an Inglorious Body The legislation Senate Republicans passed on Tuesday is probably going to kill a lot of people. . . . And death doesn’t even capture the full impact of the bill, which thanks to Tuesday’s vote seems likely to become law. . . . In trying so hard to shield the bill’s true nature from the public, Republican leaders may have also succeeded in hiding parts from their own members, who might not appreciate just how much some features of the bill undercut supposedly cherished MAGA goals like lowering the cost of living and making U.S. industry more competitive. And that’s to say nothing about the disproportionate effects some elements of the bill will have on their own constituents. . . . But killing a lot of low-income people is not an overriding MAGA concern. Witness their shutting down USAID (and the 80 years’ accumulated soft power it earned us across the world). Bush, Obama — and singer Bono — fault Trump’s gutting of USAID on agency’s last day. WASHINGTON — Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration — and singer Bono recited a poem — in an emotional video farewell Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Obama called the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID “a colossal mistake.” . . . He credited USAID with not only saving lives, but being a main factor in global economic growth that has turned some aid-receiving countries into U.S. markets and trade partners. . . . One of you wrote yesterday to suggest we should all be out protesting the Republicans’ awful bill with STOP THE STEAL signs — “stealing” trillions from poor and middle-class folks and giving it to the rich. Reverse-Robin Hood on steroids. When I said I wished he’d come up with that sooner, in time for us to maybe do it, he pivoted to REPEAL THE STEAL. If the bill does get signed into law before we can stop the steal, that should be an outcry that carries all the way through to November 3, 2026: REPEAL THE STEAL. (Thanks, Peter.)