What the Fight Over the BBB Actually Reveals...and It's Not Pretty

The hesitancy of some in Congress to not vote for the BBB shows how ensnared our nation is to government money, and how unwilling we are to sacrifice now for a better future.

As President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) makes it way through Congress, details about it and resistance to it are bubbling to the surface. Sometimes, subtly, as when certain members of Congress say, “Yeah, maybe next time I won’t vote for it.” Or, not so subtly, as when Elon declares the bill to be disgusting trash that will doom humanity to hell. Or something like that.

Yes, this bill is, for all intents and purposes, an omnibus that crams all of President Trump’s agenda into one place, so it will necessarily have a lot to dislike. Deficit hawks feel betrayed that the bill will explode the debt. The deep state is still largely funded. DOGE’s hard work was more or less ignored. And while a permanent solution to the border would be nice, unless the deficit is brought to heel, we won’t have a country much longer to defend.

The reason, though, that all of these policies are being lumped into one bill is the unfortunate reality that none of its constituent parts would be able to get past a filibuster in the Senate on their own. As a consequence, this bill must be passed through the convoluted reconciliation process, which allows the Senate to approve the bill with a simple fifty-one-vote (including VP JD’s tiebreaker) majority. So, basically, it’s now or never.

And that is really quite terrifying, because almost everything in the bill, sans all the spending, is what Trump ran on and what the people voted for including:

- The Trump Tax Cuts made permanent

- Border security

- Modest, but real, spending cuts to discretionary programs

- Work requirements for those on Medicaid

- Closing the Department of Education

- FAA/infrastructure upgrades

But Wait, There’s More!

Once again, the will of the people is thwarted because the system is utterly broken. Forget fifty-one votes in the Senate, the BBB might not even pass the House a second time around. With every day that goes by, the pressure of failure looms ever larger. For all intents and purposes, it is possible that the Trump presidency might effectively come to an end well before the midterms; his Executive Orders will not be codified, the American dollar will continue to be devalued, and without domestic wins, Trump will appear weaker on the international stage.

Here is what concerns me the most. First, the fact that we can’t find sixty senators to support these positions is mind-blowing. And second, the spending in this bill reflects how utterly dependent on government most Americans have become.

I realize that today’s partisanship is such that a Democrat can’t support Donald Trump. And yet, this crippling stance means that Democrats are now for higher taxes, an open border, more government debt, endless welfare, and against law and order. Are there not enough voters in blue or purple states that can’t see how deranged this is?

We are probably at the point where if Trump needs sixty votes to pass a bill that declares “water is wet,” it won’t pass. Which means our nation is beyond political gridlock and is entering some weird stage of political civil war. When one party so opposes a sealed border that it will filibuster a bill that seals it, we do not share common national interests at the most fundamental level. Once again, even after Trump’s modern landslide, our divided nature reveals itself.

Second, no member of Congress (save Thomas Massie) is willing to be the one who fails to “bring home the pork” for his/her district. So, under the cover of “everyone else is doing it,” they all vote in lockstep for endless debts that, one day, will have to be paid off. We are all aware of how the interest alone is killing us, so the impending doom loop looks inescapable.

But this is because the American people have become weak. Sorry, I know we aren’t supposed to say things like that. But so long as no single American will sacrifice for the good of the nation, the nation will continue to spend itself into oblivion.

A Nation in Need of Sacrifice

We face, then, a spiritual crisis. I never would have guessed that going from a $7 trillion budget to a $5 trillion budget would be considered a significant national sacrifice…but here we are. That simple sacrifice would necessarily help us to become a great and strong nation again. But even with that sacrifice, no one is willing to pay so that our nation can be preserved. America, what have we become?

Trump has a lot of wins under his belt. But unless he personally insists on his BBB bringing us to a balanced budget soon (and not based simply on hopes and dreams of growth and not later in the outlay years), his presidency is in peril. It is unfortunate for him that his legacy hangs on delusional Democrats who are as deranged as those in the 1850s South, as well as on an American public that has its mouth at the trough; but he knew what he was getting into. He needs to fight for fiscal sanity now and give all of his base what they voted for. Because this may very well be our nation’s last chance for real reform.

Photo Credit: ABC News On the Go.