Bipartisan Austerity Logic Set the Stage for the GOP Budget
Donald Trump’s budget is a particularly cruel manifestation of the bipartisan consensus of the preceding decades that has refused to treat health care and other basic necessities for a dignified life as public goods.
President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
As President Donald Trump, surrounded by Republican members of Congress, marked the Fourth of July by signing a bill to cut health care and food benefits for millions of Americans to finance corporate tax cuts, Democrats fired back — with moral outrage, polished messaging, and blatant political opportunism.
After House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) spoke for more than eight hours against the bill, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responded not with a substantive moral countervision but instead shared a flattering photo of Jeffries captioned, “Hakeem Jeffries is the leader America deserves.” And shortly after the legislation passed, liberal leaders and pundits began channeling public outrage into campaign strategy. House Democratic whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) declared, “Project 2026 starts today.”
Jen Psaki, Biden’s former press secretary-turned-MSNBC anchor, remarked that the bill “reminds me a lot of what the midterm elections looked like last time Trump was president,” recalling how Democrats gained ground in red districts by riding a wave of backlash to Trump’s policies.
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