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Congressional Republicans are the absolute worst, for many reasons, but this time, it has to do with the “big” and “beautiful” tax bill that’s working its way toward Donald Trump’s desk—Republicans, despite holding both houses, as well as the Oval Office, are set to retain hundreds of billions of dollars in Green New Deal provisions, if they get their way. Here’s the context, from Adam N. Michel and Joshua Loucks at the Cato Institute:
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was pitched as a climate solution. In practice, it turned the tax code into a multi-trillion-dollar energy entitlement program, creating subsidies without caps, sunsets, or accountability. The recently passed House Ways and Means Committee tax bill repeals eight of the IRA credits, phases out five, and keeps or expands several others.
Mike Johnson, like the serpent he is, craftily he touted the “$500 billion” in cuts, but ignored the hundreds of billions he and his cohorts retained or worse, expanded:
.@SpeakerJohnson highlights the many wins included in the One Big Beautiful Bill: "We're repealing and rolling back over $500B in funding for the radical 'Green New Deal' policies... We're banning Medicaid dollars from going to transgender surgeries for minors." pic.twitter.com/KV0N2mO7qq
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 20, 2025
According to Michel and Loucks, “conservative estimates” of the costs of the Green New Deal subsidies, provided by “government scorekeepers,” come with an $852 billion price tag for taxpayers—but that’s just between 2026 and 2035. As they note, “That’s up dramatically from the original 10-year cost projection of $270 billion.” But the Cato Institute ran the numbers themselves, suggesting the real cost in the trillions:
A recent Cato Institute paper confirms that the IRA’s energy credits are far more expensive than initially projected. Thanks to provisions like direct pay (cash payments in lieu of tax benefits), tax credit transferability, and emission level phase-out triggers, many of these subsidies now function like open-ended automatic entitlements. And that’s why over the next 25 years, the IRA credits are expected to cost up to $4.7 trillion.
That works out to be 188,000,000,000 (yes, that’s billions) dollars every year, just in Green New Deal tax entitlements. Oh, and there’s more:
A Republican majority is about to lock in the Obamacare Medicaid expansion and AOC’s Green New Deal. Stupefying.
— Matt Kibbe (@mkibbe) May 20, 2025
Congressional Republicans suck, yet Donald Trump isn’t much better.
It goes without saying that the alternative, Kamala Harris, was unimaginable—but my disappointment with the Trump Administration 2.0 cannot be overstated.
He appointed Pam Bondi who is just a Jeff Sessions in drag, going after low-level druggies when there are serious fish to fry.
He appointed Kash Patel and Don Bongino who sure talked tough, with Patel boasting about how he’d turn the FBI headquarters into a “museum” for the Deep State if given the chance—but now they’re expanding the agency and doing an about-face, assuring us that Epstein definitely killed himself. Quite the change in tune.
And, he keeps touting a “big” and “beautiful” tax bill that doesn’t do what he promised: it doesn’t remove tax on tips, and it still taxes social security benefits. Pure fecklessness. (See also a blog I wrote last week titled, “Kevin O’Leary sounds the alarm on tyrannical new provisions in Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill”.)
It’s not an exaggeration to say that conservative Americans have no representation in Washington—remind me why I voted for him?
