Shock and Awful?

“Shock and Awe” was the G. W. Bush term for his attack on Iraq in 2003. Trump’s Big Ugly Billionaire Bailout Bill (BUBBB) is a shock and awe attack against our own people. Perhaps this should be called “Shock and Awful.”

The bill adds $3 trillion to the U.S. debt – almost all from tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans – and serves no useful economic purpose. There is no such thing as “supply side economics.” It was just a made-up term by the Reagan administration to justify handouts to wealthy donors. Economies are driven from the bottom up by those who do real work and those who spend money on real needs.

“From the needy to the greedy” was Reaganomics and it was an utter economic failure. But a great success for political corruption. Bankrupting government is their intention.

The biggest assault on the needy in the BUBBB? The attack on Medicaid. Throwing perhaps 17 million Americans off basic healthcare. Vice President Vance outrageously called this “minutiae” and ”immaterial.” The carnage is cleverly delayed until after the 2026 election.

A few token crumbs are thrown to a few working people. Notably, no taxes on tips. Great for a few restaurant workers, but no help to those who flip burgers or toil as dishwashers.

Then there is ICE. Just before the 2024 election 60 Minutes went out with ICE on a raid. The raid was actually at Glenmont Shopping Center, next to my Maryland high school. They caught a felon and let the other “illegals” go who were not criminals. The ICE officer explained that their mission was public safety, not arresting law abiding immigrants.

They also interviewed former ICE director Tom Homan. Homan said there would not be “sweeps” or “concentration camps.” Guess what? BUBBB is all about sweeps and concentration camps. The sweeps already are netting mostly law-abiding immigrants. The ICE officer said it would take “Department of Defense levels of financing” to go after everyone. Guess what? BUBBB increases ICE spending by a factor of about 20 – a higher level than the military budgets of most global powers, including Italy, Brazil and Israel.

For what purpose? Clearly not for public safety. Undocumented Americans commit crimes at a far lower rate than documented Americans.

Trump has made it clear what it is really about. He said he would target cities controlled by democrats, while sparing Trump-supporting farm country. When Musk challenged the BUBBB, Trump suggested he might “denaturalize” Musk and deport him, along with New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

I do not say this lightly. But Trump’s ICE looks more like Trump’s personal Gestapo than like a law enforcement agency. The Gestapo didn’t start by killing people. They started by rounding up “illegal aliens.” Jews were declared illegal aliens even though many families had lived in Germany for generations. And many Germans accepted that illegal aliens should go away. At first, they went “away” to detention centers. The killing came later.

My wife grew up under martial law. She says this is exactly how it begins. Fake emergencies are created. When people protest, that becomes further justification for crackdowns and suppression of rights and due process.

And all to what end? Trump has no principles or ideals. The BUBBB is about shifting the “Overton Window” of what is considered normal. Not so much about ideology. It is more about loyalty to one man.

But in other ways it is the normal Republican plan: a shift of power and wealth to the top. How do millions of Americans not see this? Because they get nothing but fake news pushed out through social media, while calling real news the fake news. Half of Americans didn’t know about BUBBB. Only 8% knew about the Medicaid cuts.

BUBBB notably destroys Biden’s massive investments in sustainable energy jobs, which were mostly in red states. The climate crisis doesn’t care about politics. We must shift the Overton Window back to sanity. But first we need to break through the disinformation wall. Air America Radio did this 20 years ago. We must reach our natural allies who support Trump now, but who will suffer most under BUBBB.