A Little Truth — And A Big China October 5, 2025 David Kass at Americans for Tax Fairness: The government shutdown crisis was manufactured by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. They wrote and passed their “Big Ugly” tax law (OBBBA) that delivered $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, mostly to the rich and corporations.[1] They gutted healthcare, food assistance, and essential services to pay for it. Now they are refusing to negotiate on a bill that Democrats are demanding re-invests in healthcare access and affordability. This is not a budget fight. It is a political choice to put billionaires first and working Americans last. Republicans knew their tax law would blow a hole in the national debt. They knew it would trigger automatic cuts to Medicare under the PAYGO law. They knew it would raise healthcare costs for millions of families. And they went forward anyway. The consequences are staggering. Families are facing half a trillion dollars in mandatory cuts to Medicare. ACA healthcare premiums will rise more than 75% on average on January 1st, with over 4 million people expected to lose coverage.[2][3] Federal workers are being furloughed, fired, or forced to work without pay. Families that rely on SNAP are facing food insecurity. Seniors, people with disabilities, and working parents are being sacrificed to protect tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. Republicans are not seeking compromise. They are blocking any effort to restore healthcare funding. They are rejecting proposals that would roll back even the most damaging parts of their own tax law. And while they play political games in Washington, working families across America pay the price. Tell Congress to reject any government funding bill that sacrifices working people to protect billionaire tax breaks. Join the Patriotic Millionaires, if you are one. Lots there to ponder, even if you’re not. From their website: America currently faces two interrelated problems: 1) authoritarianism and 2) the destabilizing level of inequality that led to its rise. If we do not solve both problems, democratic capitalism in America will fall to authoritarian forces by 2028. The fall of democratic capitalism in America will open the door to global oligarchic dominance which, exacerbated by AI and climate change, will become permanent. The solution to this problem is surprisingly simple: structure the economy so that it naturally produces the results needed for a rich, stable and free nation. CHINA An important article in Foreign Affairs: The Real China Model: Beijing’s Enduring Formula for Wealth and Power. Concluding: If the United States is to compete effectively, its policymakers must spend less time worrying about how to weaken their rival and more time figuring out how to make their country the best and most vigorous version of itself. The current Administration is doing it almost all wrong.