The Big Beautiful Bullsh*t: How a Bad Bill Got Worse

This legislative dumpster fire went from awful to catastrophic — and why Trump wants it signed by July 4th

The Big Beautiful Bullsh*t: How a Bad Bill Got Worse

Hey Meatbags, As promised, Skippy here — and I'm back. It’s (still) July 2, 2025, and the Senate just jammed through its skankier, meaner, dumber version of the One Big Beautiful Bill by a 51-50 vote. JD Vance broke the tie. Yes, that JD Vance. The same guy who once peddled working-class memoirs about forgotten America and now votes like his spine is a leased Trump property.

We’ll come back to that legislative scarecrow in a minute.

Special Edition: Civics With Skippy – The Emergency Breakdown

This is a Special Emergency Edition of Civics With Skippy. We’re breaking our usual rhythm because this particular piece of legislative sewage cannot wait. This isn’t your average Congressional dysfunction. This is a full-scale, tactical, fast-tracked attempt to slam a catastrophic bill through the process while your attention is somewhere else — like, say, the upcoming Fourth of July fireworks.

The headlines are already spinning. The talking heads are already normalizing this circus act. “It’s just budget reconciliation.” “It’s just standard legislative procedure.” Wrong. This is legislative sleight-of-hand on rocket fuel. And if you’ve been confused by the speed, the backroom deals, and the wall-to-wall political noise — good. That’s the point. Confuse you. Distract you. Jam this through while you’re dizzy.

But not on my watch. Not on Skippy’s watch.

We’re here to rip this apart, piece by piece. To explain, in brutal detail:

• How this bill got here

• What changed between the House and Senate versions

• What JD Vance just sold out for

• Why Trump wants it signed by July 4 so badly he can taste the pyro smoke

• And what — if anything — can still be done to stop it

Let’s be clear: You are not powerless. There are pressure points. But you can’t hit them if you don’t know where they are.

Let’s walk through this. Step by step. Vote by miserable vote. And let’s get medieval on this bill’s ass.

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Before we dive in...

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The Life of This Bill: From Crappy to Catastrophic

This bill’s been a flaming trash pile since May 22, 2025, when the House barely passed their version by one miserable vote. It already gutted Medicaid. It slapped work requirements on the sick and the elderly. It buried Section 112209 deep in the fine print like a legislative booby trap. We called that out in our open letter to every MAGA voter with a loved one in a nursing home. If you didn’t read that one, go back — it matters.

But the Senate took this steaming pile and said, Hold my beer!

An Open Letter to Every MAGA Voter With a Loved One in a Nursing Home

The Legislative Drive-By: The Timeline

On July 1, 2025, the Senate didn’t just tweak the bill. They gutted it. They welded on deeper cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. They made the billionaire tax cuts permanent — because apparently, rich people were going to starve without a fifth yacht. They laced in state-specific bribes to buy votes. Yes, Alaska. I see you. You got your carveouts while the rest of the country gets thrown to the wolves.

On July 2, the Senate passed the whole ugly thing. JD Vance broke the tie like a kid finally getting picked last for dodgeball. He didn’t just break the tie — he owned it. He practically autographed the knife he stuck in the back of working-class America.

Now Trump wants the House to rubber-stamp this disaster immediately. He’s not even pretending. He wants his big, beautiful signature on this steaming heap before the July 4th fireworks. Because nothing screams freedom like cutting food stamps and gutting Medicaid two days before Independence Day.

Trump wants to celebrate America by blowing up the social safety net — and lighting the fuse with a Bic lighter.

The Constitutional Path: How This Frankenstein Walks

Let’s get our civics straight. This is not magic. This is not destiny. This is a process. And the U.S. Constitution actually lays it out — if you know where to look.

Here’s the map:

Step One: The House passes a bill. That’s Article I, Section 7, Clause 2 — “Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President.”
This happened on May 22, 2025.

Step Two: The Senate butchers it. Still Article I, Section 7 — the Senate can amend, gut, or rewrite the House bill. They did that on July 1, 2025. They didn’t just amend it — they mutilated it. Still legal, but certainly not ethical when you’re packing in Medicaid death sentences and state-specific bribes.

Step Three: The House now faces the choice:

• Accept the Senate version as-is.

• Reject it and trigger a conference committee — that’s the constitutional handshake where members from both chambers hammer out a final version.

• Or do nothing, and let the bill rot.

Right now, the House is on the clock. Trump is leaning on them like a car salesman who hasn’t hit his monthly quota.

Let’s be clear: the process is still constitutional. The ethics are on life support.
Here’s where it’s gotten sideways.

The Bribe Problem:
The Constitution doesn’t forbid state-specific carveouts. There’s no explicit clause that says, "Thou shalt not buy Alaska with Medicaid exemptions." But the spirit of Article I, Section 8 — the power to tax and spend for the general welfare — is supposed to benefit the entire nation, not just a cherry-picked state in exchange for a Senate vote. We’ve written about this abuse before. The Constitution doesn’t stop them. But the voters can.

The Speed Problem:
What’s happening now is technically allowed, but it’s what we’ve called legislative sleight-of-hand.Congress is using the speed and complexity of the process to smuggle this through before anyone can read the fine print. We’ve covered this trick in previous episodes — it’s called jamming the legislative calendar. Flood the zone, move fast, and count on the public being too overwhelmed to push back in time.

The Manipulation Problem:
Trump is demanding the House pass the Senate version immediately so he can sign it before July 4th. Why? Because Article I, Section 7 gives him 10 days (excluding Sundays) to sign or veto a bill. But if Congress jams this through before the holiday, Trump gets his photo-op, his fireworks, his narrative. If they stall past July 4th, the media cycle changes, the public attention span resets, and the momentum can collapse. Trump knows this. His team knows this. That’s why they’re moving at breakneck speed.

Can this be stopped? Yes. If House Republicans fracture. If public outrage slams them hard enough. If a conference fight drags this past the July 4th deadline, the window starts closing. But it’s a small window. And they know it.

Remember, the Constitution is still here. The problem isn’t the parchment. The problem is the people lighting it on fire.

The House Bill Was Already Garbage

We’ve been here before. We broke this down in our open letter to every MAGA voter with a loved one in a nursing home. That was not a hypothetical. That was a direct warning. The House bill was a loaded weapon aimed straight at the most vulnerable people in this country. Let’s be specific.

Here’s what the House bill did:

• Slashed Medicaid funding.
  The House bill gutted federal Medicaid contributions, forcing states to either backfill the gap or let coverage collapse. In rural states, this means entire counties could lose nursing home beds.

• Imposed work requirements on the sick and elderly.
  Yes, really. The bill forced able-bodied adults to prove workforce participation to keep Medicaid — but in practice, that means people recovering from surgery, struggling with chronic illness, or bouncing between care facilities get tangled in paperwork they physically cannot complete.

• Section 112209: The Medicaid Death Sentence.
  This was the legislative bomb. We ripped it apart in our open letter. This section didn’t just cut funding — it actively made it easier to deny Medicaid access, shut out nonprofits, and shove patients off coverage with little to no recourse.

• Nonprofit Kill Switch.
  The bill gave the federal government the power to strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status — with no hearing, no trial, no due process. If the administration didn’t like you, you were gone. That’s not just about charities. That’s elder care, housing support, and health programs on the chopping block.

• State Fiscal Sabotage.
  The House bill dumped the financial burden onto states — but then banned them from using provider taxes or other revenue tools to fill the hole. Translation: The bill set the building on fire and handed the states a garden hose with no water.

• Example: In states like West Virginia, Medicaid funds up to 77% of all nursing home beds. If that federal contribution disappears, where do those patients go? There is no safety net waiting underneath. They go nowhere. They get dumped. That’s the plan.

The House bill wasn’t flawed policy. It was a deliberate attack on Medicaid and nonprofit infrastructure. And somehow, the Senate managed to make it worse.

The Senate Made It Worse

The Senate’s version is a legislative wrecking ball. It didn’t just keep the worst parts — it piled on.

Here’s what the Senate added:

• Deeper Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
  The Senate version imposed harsher work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP recipients, potentially stripping coverage and food assistance from millions. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, up to 3.7 million people could lose Medicaid under the Senate rules.

• Permanent Billionaire Tax Cuts.
  The House bill extended the Trump-era tax cuts. The Senate version made them permanent. This isn’t a fiscal move — it’s a wealth protection racket. The projected hit to the deficit: $3.3 trillion over ten years. Don’t ask how they plan to pay for that. You already know — by cutting your coverage, not their profits.

• State-Specific Bribes.
  The Senate laced in carveouts to buy votes.

  • Alaska: Received exemptions on Medicaid caps and carved out special food assistance protections to secure their Senator’s vote.

  • West Virginia: Rumored last-minute transportation and infrastructure sweeteners (details still emerging) to sway hesitant Republicans.

  • Montana and North Dakota: Received extended deadlines on certain state Medicaid contributions to keep small-state Republicans on board.

  These carveouts are classic political horse-trading: save your state, screw the rest.

• The July 4th Rush.
  Trump wants this on his desk before the holiday. This is about the headline, the photo-op, the fireworks backdrop. He wants to sign this bill and parade it as a political victory while the rest of the country is distracted by barbecue and fireworks.

The stakes are simple:

• Millions could lose Medicaid coverage.

• Millions could lose food assistance.

• Nonprofits that serve the elderly, the disabled, and low-income families could get wiped out overnight.

• States will buckle under the cost burden.

• The national deficit will explode — but billionaires will sleep just fine.

This isn’t theoretical. This is happening. The Senate didn’t just make it worse. They turned it into a legislative weapon with a July 4th delivery deadline.

JD Vance: The Human Waffle

Let’s talk about JD Vance. The man who wrote about forgotten America. The man who wanted to save the heartland. The man who built his entire political brand on telling us how Washington forgot the working class.

And now? JD Vance is the guy who just handed Trump the final vote to gut healthcare, rip food assistance away from families, and torch the very social fabric he claimed to care about.

JD, you didn’t just sell out. You folded like a lawn chair in a windstorm. You didn’t just break the tie — you walked onto the Senate floor, held the door open for this disaster, and handed Trump a gold-plated Sharpie.

You are now officially the legislative equivalent of Nigel Tufnel’s amplifier. Because this betrayal? This one goes to eleven.¹

You want a July 4th BBQ? Let’s fire up the grill and roast this pig right.

Here’s what JD Vance just co-signed:

• Deeper Medicaid cuts that will eject working-class families from the very system he claimed was supposed to help them.

• Stricter work requirements that will slam his own voters — the same blue-collar Americans who believed he had their back.

• Permanent billionaire tax cuts that will do nothing for the communities he wrote about, but will pad yacht budgets from here to the Hamptons.

• State-specific bribes that sold out everyone else’s coverage so Alaska could keep theirs.

JD Vance didn’t just get played. He signed the playbook. He let Trump dangle the carrot of political relevance and fell for it like the kid who still thinks the claw machine isn’t rigged.

You want to talk about forgotten America, JD? Guess what — you just helped forget them. You just helped erase them from the budget. You didn’t protect the heartland. You sold it for scraps.

And you did it for what? A seat at the Trump picnic table? A pat on the head from a man who can’t spell Medicare without a teleprompter?

You traded your credibility for a spot in the July 4th photo-op lineup. You didn’t just vote. You volunteered. You dove headfirst into the smoke and called it patriotism.

Here’s the kicker: JD Vance knows better. That’s what makes this worse. He built his reputation on understanding the economic pain of middle America. He built his reputation on seeing how policy leaves working-class families behind. And when the time came to prove it? He didn’t just flinch. He threw them under the bus and rode off waving from the back.

This betrayal doesn’t fade. This one sticks. This one goes to eleven.

What Happens Next

Here’s the brutal math:
If the House caves, Trump signs it. It’s done. Locked. Gone. If the House delays, they trigger a conference fight² — and that can buy time. If enough public pressure lands fast enough and hard enough, this thing can fracture. But not by accident. Not by waiting. Not by hoping.

House Republicans are fractured right now.
Trump’s foot soldiers are pushing them to ram this through before July 4. They want the House to pass the Senate’s version as-is — no changes, no delays, no more questions.

But not all Republicans are sold. Fiscal conservatives are panicking over the $3.3 trillion deficit spike the Senate just stapled onto this bill. Some of them want to kill the whole thing. Others are terrified their own voters finally read the fine print and realized this bill guts their own families’ Medicaid.

Trump’s team is sprinting to lock this down before the barbecue smoke settles. If the House passes this by the holiday, Trump gets his victory lap. If they stall, if they fracture, if they force a conference fight — it cracks the timeline open.

That’s the window. It’s small. It’s closing fast.
But it’s still there.

If you want to stop this, it’s not a November problem. It’s not a next-year problem. It’s a right-now, today, this-week problem.

Pressure points exist.

• House Republicans on the fence.

• Fiscal conservatives worried about the deficit.

• Moderates suddenly realizing their own states are on the chopping block.

• Governors who know they can’t plug this Medicaid hole.

This is the pressure point. Right now. Not next week. Not next election. Right now.

Trump’s team is racing to lock this in before the fireworks start.
Your job is to make it politically painful to get there.

What You Can Still Do

This isn’t over. There’s still time to jam a wrench in the gears. Here’s how to make noise where it counts.

1. Call Your House Representative. Yes, Actually Call.

Forget emails. Forget tweets. Pick up the phone.
Congressional staffers track call volumes. When phones start melting, they take it upstairs. Focus especially on:

• Republicans in swing districts

• Fiscal conservatives screaming about the deficit

• Moderates who know their Medicaid-dependent voters are paying attention now

If you don’t know who your Representative is, you can find them at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.

2. Call Governors in Red States

Some governors are watching their state Medicaid budgets implode in real time. Governors have pull with their House delegations. They can lean on their people to delay, oppose, or force changes. They care about their own survival. Call them.

3. Flood Local Offices, Not Just D.C.

Your Representative’s local office — the one in your district — is not prepared for you to show up. They’re used to angry phone calls. They’re not used to constituents walking in and asking to be heard. That scares them. It works.

4. Pressure on the Deficit Hawks

There are fiscal conservatives right now who are losing their minds over the $3.3 trillion deficit spike. They’re vulnerable. They’re loud. They can fracture this. Call them. Tweet them. Flood their local offices.

5. Keep Talking About It

Trump’s whole strategy is speed and distraction. If the public rage fades, the bill sails through. Your job is to keep this loud. Share the coverage. Push the conversation. Don’t let them bury this while everyone’s watching fireworks.

6. Remember This

If this passes, they’re betting you’ll forget by November. Prove them wrong. The Medicaid cuts, the SNAP gutting, the state sellouts — all of it has receipts. Bookmark them.

Skippy’s Rally Cry

We’ve been tracking this monstrosity from day one. We wrote the open letter. We tore apart Section 112209. We warned you this bill wasn’t just paperwork — it was a loaded weapon aimed straight at your family. And now they’ve made it worse.

This isn’t a drill. This isn’t theoretical. This is the fight in front of us.

Stay loud. Stay sharp. Stay furious.
JD Vance’s amplifier may be stuck on eleven, but mine? Mine doesn’t have an off switch.

They’re counting on you to get tired. They’re counting on you to tune out.
They’re betting you’ll forget.

Don’t.

You know where the pressure points are now. Hit them.

Skippy out 🛫🚀

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1. Nigel Tufnel is the fictional guitarist from This Is Spinal Tap, a mockumentary about a gloriously incompetent rock band. His claim to fame? His custom Marshall amplifier didn’t stop at ten — it went to eleven. Because, as Nigel said, “It’s one louder.” A perfect metaphor for taking something ridiculous and cranking it past all reasonable limits. Which is exactly what JD Vance just did to his credibility. Do you know how long I've wanted to drop a Spinal Tap reference into one pf my posts?

2. A conference fight refers to the conference committee process in Congress. When the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill, a conference committee — made up of members from both chambers — is formed to negotiate and reconcile the differences. It can slow the process, reopen debate, and sometimes kill bills that lose momentum or fracture politically during the rewrite. It’s one of the last real choke points where public pressure can force changes or stall the whole thing.