953: Good Chart on a Bad Bill
This GOP budget bill, woof.
Now, a good guy with a chart can’t stop bad guys who control the federal government. But it can help show just how bad it is, and this from John Arnold deserves attention:1
Why don’t we hear more about how insanely bad the One Big Beautiful Bill is?
has a compelling theory for why the bill has not captured the nation’s attention: Democrats agree on it.It really is incredible how Republicans through this whole turd of a bill together involving trillions of dollars of new debt and spending cuts without it ever being the focus of sustained political attention. The black fly in the Chardonnay is that because Democrats *all agree* that this legislation sucks, commentary on it gets much less engagement than stuff about other more divisive tactics.
While the budget is not dominating the discourse, it is still hugely unpopular:
And there is a clear electoral angle on both fronts, as the Blue Dog pointed out today:
if you're preparing to launch your campaign for Congress in a red to blue seat next month please make your announcement about the impacts of the Big Bad Bill on your community instead of a video montage of you agreeing with the greatest hits on Bluesky from the last 6 months
492 days until those candidates can flip a seat in the midterms, and 953 days until the first presidential primary.
The chart was originally created by Donald Schneider using data from the Congressional Budget Office.