One agenda — stealing from the poor and giving to the rich

Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported that Robert F Kennedy Jr. has been confirmed to be the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s bad. Emily Singer of Kos discussed Musk’s claim about DOGE being transparent in what it does. He says all their actions are on DOGE’s feed on X and on the DOGE website. And he says, “I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.” First the logic check – none more transparent than DOGE? That means all could equally be quite opaque and that statement would be true. Then the truth check – until he was called out the DOGE website did not describe what it does. Singer calls his transparency “a flat-out lie.” And after he was called out some stuff was added, but the important stuff, the stuff people want to know about what he’s doing to their government and why, still isn’t there. And several lies are. The important stuff that’s still missing: The people being laid off – what jobs were they doing in what departments? Were they doing critical things like inspecting drugs for safety? What goal is being achieved by laying off these people and not those? Why are these regulations being targeted? So far the reason seems to be the text of the regulation has too many words. Singer reported that Hose Republicans have a budget proposal that would “decimate Medicaid and slash food stamp benefits all to pay for tax cuts for the richest Americans.” For Medicaid it would cut $880 billion over ten years. They would add work requirements, which means people lose coverage because the bureaucratic process is too burdensome. Polls show that 78% of voters disapprove of Medicaid cuts and 82% disapprove to making cuts to health care to pay for tax cuts. The plan is to cut $230 billion from food stamps over ten years. But those cuts won’t balance all of the $4.5 trillion tax cuts for the rich. The plan is the rest, at least $3 trillion, will be covered through the improved economy. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Government said that would “would require fantastical levels of sustained economic growth,” ten times larger than any semi-credible estimates. Didn’t Republicans say the same thing when Reagan raised taxes back in 1981? More vigorous growth didn’t cover the deficit then either. Singer added a bit more. Medicaid covers 72 million low-income Americans. Cuts would mean states come up with the money or slash benefits or kick people off. The cut to food stamps is a cut of 20% to a program that helps feed 42 million Americans. West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, all who voted for the nasty guy by wide margins, have some of the highest populations of food stamp recipients. There are some reports that Social Security is also being considered for big cuts. Wrote Singer:

Republicans have admitted that those kinds of cuts will be “painful” for Americans. Ultimately, making these kinds of cuts could be politically disastrous for the GOP.

The cuts will not be “painful” to the people passing these cuts into laws or to the billionaires who will benefit. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said, “They have one agenda — stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.” Oliver Willis of Kos reported:

The Trump administration is trying to hide plans to hand off $400 million in taxpayer funds to Tesla, the electric car company owned by the world’s richest man—Trump supporter Elon Musk. On Wednesday, a document published by the State Department laid out plans for the purchase of “armored electric vehicles” from Tesla during fiscal year 2025. But after reporting on the document emerged, it was edited at 9:12 PM and references to Tesla were removed without explanation.

A contract worth $400 million? Sweet reimbursement for spending $250 million to get the nasty guy elected.

Musk claims that he and Trump are working to create a more efficient and transparent federal government. Instead the two have lied and smeared for weeks. Yet Musk stands to make a lot of money thanks to the politician he bankrolled. That would be classic corruption.

Einenkel reported the nasty guy replaced the board of The Kennedy Center. The names of the new board members were not released. Then this new board elected him chair. He said he will make The Kennedy Center special and exciting. I do not want to know what he means by that. This is the first time a president has removed board members appointed by a predecessor and the first time a president has been the chair. Deborah Rutter, who has been the Kennedy Center president (I assume a job appointed by the board) since 2024 has announced he is leaving. Ben Folds, artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra which performs at the Kennedy Center, resigned as has the entire NSO staff. Soprano Renee Fleming, artistic advisor to the Center, also resigned. This afternoon Mary Louise Kelly of NPR interviewed Rutter. Rutter explained why it matters:

So the Kennedy Center is absolutely the local performing arts center for the people who live in the region and who visit. But it is, by congressional mandate, the National Cultural Center. And we have a mandate from 1958 that calls for it to be the National Performing Arts Center and the National Advocate for Arts Education. In 1964, they added the Living Memorial to John F. Kennedy. So this is more than just the local performing arts center. It represents America to the world, and it invites the world to our nation's capital to be a showcase for all of the arts. ... The Kennedy Center is meant to be a beacon for the arts in all of America across the country. And we have worked so hard and accomplished so much over this last decade to really broaden the programming, to invite all manner of arts and artists to our stages. And we've expanded our audience as a result. I pray that that can be sustained. But that's my biggest concern.

Issa Rae canceled a show for next month that is supposedly sold out. Kelly asked if other artists should cancel. Rutter replied if “they know that the environment is safe for them to express their ideas and their art” they should perform. That sounds like a big if. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted David Weigel and Kadia Goba of Semafor. I’ll summarize. Yes, Democrats created a plan to resist the nasty guy’s destruction of the government, even though it appears they didn’t. Much of that plan appears to be taking those executive orders to court. They are debating which cases are the strongest and which risk an adverse precedent if they get to the Supreme Court. Some of their efforts have worked. Down in the comments exlrrp posted a meme. The caption says, “There’s a reason why they aren’t touching DEI in sports.” A young black guy says, “You ever seen the record of a high school team with no Black players?” Popitics tweeted about the notable people who have left the Kennedy Center. As mentioned above are Issa Rae, Renee Fleming, and Ben Folds. Shonda Rhimes, treasurer of the board, also resigned. Lisa Needham of Kos is puzzled.

In the last three weeks, Donald Trump has wreaked havoc on the American constitutional order. His actions have encroached on Congress' domain, and his administration is ignoring court orders. When the executive branch usurps the powers of the other two branches, that violates the separation of powers and creates the most stark constitutional crisis imaginable. So why won’t anyone say it? Neither the mainstream media nor Democratic elected officials seem capable of calling this what it is. Instead, we have the surreal occurrence of media outlets accurately describing how the administration’s actions violate the Constitution, followed by vague hand-waving about how maybe that means a constitutional crisis will happen at some as-yet-undefined point in the future.

Needham has examples by NBC and the Washington Post, both had framed a story exactly that way. She also lists several things the nasty guy and Musk are doing that really are a violation of the Constitution and should be called a constitutional crisis. They continue to freeze funding after two court orders say the money should be released. This is money that Congress has specified should be spent. They are usurping the powers of both of the other branches. WaPo talked about the hypothetical of should they defy court orders that would be a crisis. But they are defying court orders. And they are refusing to spend money as Congress specified. Republicans have always complained about unelected bureaucrats. Yet they are quite happy to let Musk, the ultimate unelected bureaucrat, determine what money gets spent. Needham also called out Democrats who describe the illegality of what the nasty guy is doing, yet also don’t call it a constitutional crisis. These Democrats include Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Andy Kim, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The constitutional crisis we’re facing isn’t just about Trump running roughshod over separation of powers. It’s also about the fact that the courts lack adequate enforcement mechanisms when the president refuses to follow the law.

Yeah, the court could hold a person in contempt. I’m not sure what punishment that would mean. Besides, the Supremes just gave the nasty guy a big dose of immunity.

The constitutional crisis isn’t around the corner. It isn’t barreling toward us. It’s right here, right now, and no one with a microphone or power seems equipped to handle it.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary. A couple examples:

“Who wouldn’t trade our current environment for our 1870’s tariff-driven, be-candled, tuberculosis-laden, pre-industrial heyday? Quick point of order, though: to the extent that we were at our richest from 1870 to 1913, it wasn’t so much ‘we’ as, like, four guys—and we called them robber barons, as a sign of affection. … Meanwhile, for the rest of America the leading cause of death was falling into a vat at work.” —Jon Stewart “[W]hile his team attempts to fix his Gaza plan, Trump has already moved on. Because he’s basically the Norovirus. Every day he spews executive orders all over the place and while we struggle to clean up all the puke, he comes out the other end with something even worse.” —The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic