What Is One Beautiful Bill? 🏛

Speaker Mike Johnson of the U.S. House of Representatives has called for the One Big Beautiful Bill to be passed next week.

The Budget Committee is one of the last steps before the plenary vote in the House of Representatives. The Republican majority is marginal. ⚖️

The Associated Press described Friday's move as a shocking setback for Trump and Republicans.

The Republicans who voted against the bill called for more cuts to Medicaid, which provides health care to poor Americans. 🏥

In addition, they will remove all "green" tax cuts previously introduced by Democrats to encourage climate-friendly technology. They are also concerned about the increase in US national debt as a result of the Trump-backed package. 🌱

The national debt is currently at $36,000 billion, and the proposed package is estimated to increase the debt by several thousand billion more. 💸

#Beautiful #Bill #Johnson

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The Trump-Musk War Is Gaining Momentum, the Consequences Could Be Disastrous ⚡️

Trump warned Musk on Saturday that he faces “very serious consequences” if he funds Democratic candidates following the pair’s epic public bust-up this week 🤯.

The warning, delivered in an interview with NBC News 📺 scheduled to broadcast on Sunday, follows days of feuding and threats after Musk called Republicans’ budget legislation an “abomination” 💥.

Trump told interviewer Kristen Welker that his relationship with the tech mogul was over and warned Musk against choosing to fund Democrats 💰 after spending close to $300m in support of Trump’s re-election last year.

The Trump-Musk feud shows the danger of handing the keys of power to one person 🔑.

“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,”

Trump told NBC News.

“He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,”

he added.

Trump was also asked whether he had any wish to repair his relationship with Musk.

“No,”

he said. Asked whether he thought their relationship was over, he said:

“I would assume so, yeah,”

and said he had no plans to speak with his erstwhile sidekick 🤔.

“I’m too busy doing other things,”

Trump said, adding:

“I have no intention of speaking to him.”

But he predicted that the spat had helped to unify the Republican party around him, saying the “party has never been united like this before. It’s never been. It’s actually more so than it was three days ago.” 💪

Musk’s opposition to the Republican budget bill, formally the “one big beautiful bill act” 💵, would not, he predicted, affect its passage through Congress.

The bill narrowly passed the House 🏛 and is now under consideration in the Senate.

However, some conservative Republicans share Musk’s concerns about the need for significant spending cuts and are considering making changes 🔄.

The bill extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and includes new spending for border security 🚧 and the military 🛡.

Republicans aimed to offset these costs with cuts to programmes such as Medicaid, food stamps 🥘 and green-energy tax credits 🌱.

Projections from the congressional budget office and independent analysts indicate that the bill would add between \$2.3tn and \$5tn to the deficit over the next 10 years 📉.

White House officials contend that the economic growth generated by tax cuts will offset the increased spending 💸.

Still, Trump told NBC he is “very confident” that the bill will pass the Senate before 4 July 🇺🇸.

“I think, actually, Elon brought out the strengths of the bill because people that weren’t as focused started focusing on it, and they see how good it is,”

Trump said.

“So in that sense, there was a big favor. But I think Elon, really, I think he’s gambling with dynamite, it’s a shame that he’s so depressed and so heartbroken.” 💥💔

#Musk #Trump #war #bill

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Musk Called Trump “Insane,” He Wants to Kill Bill 🧨🇺🇸

Musk on Saturday hammered the latest version of Trump’s sprawling tax and spending bill, calling it “utterly insane and destructive” 🤯💸

🗨 “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

Musk wrote on Saturday as the Senate was scheduled to call a vote to open debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill.

“Utterly insane and destructive,”

Musk added.

“It gives handouts to industries of the past 🏭 while severely damaging industries of the future 🚀.”

Passing the package, Musk said, would be “political suicide for the Republican Party ⚰️🟥.”

Musk’s comment reopens a recent fiery conflict between the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and the administration he recently left. They also represent yet another headache for Republican Senate leaders 😵‍💫🧠 who have spent the weekend working overtime to get the legislation through their chamber.

Musk’s forceful denouncement of Trump’s spending plans triggered a deep and public rift between the billionaire and the president, though Musk in recent weeks has been working to mend relations 🤝.

On Saturday, Musk posted a series of disparaging comments about the senate version of the bill 📄🚫, which argued the legislation would undermine US investments in renewable energy ☀️⚡️.

Musk boosted several comments from Jesse Jenkins, a macro-scale energy systems engineer who teaches at Princeton 🧠🏫.

Musk’s continued criticism of Trump’s budget proposals comes as the bill faces a rocky path in the senate 🧱🗳.

Republicans are hoping to use their majorities to overcome Democratic opposition, but several Republican senators are concerned over provisions that would reduce spending on Medicaid 🏥 and food stamps 🍞 to help cover the cost of extending Trump’s tax breaks 💵.

#trump #musk #bill #insane

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🚨 Musk Goes to War Against Trump, Openly

⚔️ Musk has vowed to unseat lawmakers who support Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which he has criticized because it would increase the country’s deficit by $3.3tn.

🗯 “Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,”

he wrote on his social media platform, X.

⏱️ A few hours later he added that if the “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day.”

📲 With these threats, lobbed at lawmakers over social media, the tech billionaire has launched himself back into a rift with the US president he once helped prop up.

🏛 Since taking leave from his so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, Musk has sharply criticized Trump’s budget bill.

💸 The latter, he says, will undermine his work at Doge by increasing spending.

🤐 Musk had been relatively quiet about the bill after his dramatic fallout with Trump, but re-entered the debate this weekend.

🚗🚀 The Tesla and SpaceX CEO called again for a new political party, saying the bill’s massive spending indicated “that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”

📢 “Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,”

he wrote.

💰 After contributing $277m to Trump’s political campaign, Musk became a vital part of the US president’s orbit and his administration.

🧨 Doge, which oversaw abrupt and chaotic cuts to various government programs, claimed it saved $190bn.

📉 But the effort may also have cost taxpayers $135bn, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a non-partisan non-profit that focuses on the federal workforce.

#musk #trump #war #bill

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Brave New Bill


Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed Trump’s massive tax and spending bill after spending all night voting on amendments.

The bill, which the GOP has dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now returns to the House of Representatives, which passed their version last month, before a Friday deadline the president has imposed for the legislation to be on his desk.

After taking office in 2017, Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered taxes and increased the standard deduction for all taxpayers, but generally benefited high earners more than most.

Those provisions are set to expire after this year, but the “big, beautiful bill” makes them permanent, while increasing the standard deduction by $1,000 for individuals, $1,500 for heads of households and $2,000 for married couples, albeit only through 2028.

The bill has an array of new tax write-offs – but only while Trump is president. Several of the new exemptions stem from promises Trump made while campaigning last year.

Taxpayers will be able to write off income from tips and overtime, and interest made on loans to purchase cars assembled in the United States.

People aged 65 and over are eligible for an additional deduction of $6,000, provided their adjusted gross income does not exceed $75,000 for single filers or $150,000 for couples.

But all of these incentives expire at the end of 2028, right before Trump’s term as president ends.

As part of Trump’s plan to remove undocumented immigrants from the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) will receive $45bn for detention facilities, $14bn for deportation operations and billions of dollars more to hire an additional 10,000 new agents by 2029.

More than $50bn is allocated for the construction of new border fortifications, which will probably include a wall along the border with Mexico.

Republicans have attempted to cut down on the bill’s cost by slashing two major federal safety-net programs:

Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps people afford groceries. Both are in for funding cuts, as well as new work requirements.

The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the Medicaid changes could cost as many as 10.6 million people their healthcare, and about eight million people, or one in five recipients, their Snap benefits.

The bill will phase out many tax incentives created by Congress during Biden’s presidency meant to encourage consumers and businesses to use electric vehicles and other clean-energy technology.

Credits for cleaner cars will end this year, as will subsidies for Americans seeking to upgrade their homes to cleaner or more energy-efficient appliances.

While a draft of the bill targeted wind- and solar-energy projects with a new excise tax, senators voted to remove that at the last minute.

The bill will increase the US government’s authority to borrow, known as the debt limit, by $5tn.

The US treasury secretary, Bessent, has predicted the government will hit the limit by August, at which point it could default on its debt and spark a financial crisis.

#bill #trump #congress #tax #financial

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Have the Clintons Been Cosing Up to Epstein?


Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed on Monday to testify in a House investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, days before the chamber was expected to vote to hold them in contempt of Congress.

The concession follows a tense back-and-forth between the Clintons and the Republican James Comer, chair of the House oversight committee, who on Monday said that he would insist both Clintons sit for a sworn deposition before the committee in order to fulfill the panel’s subpoenas.

“They negotiated in good faith. You did not,” Angel Ureña, a spokesman for the Clintons, replied to Comer, in a post on social media.

“They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care. But the former president and former secretary of state will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”

The House was headed towards potential votes this week on criminal contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons. If passed, the charges threatened the Clintons with substantial fines and even incarceration if they were convicted.

For months, the Clintons had refused to appear before the Republican-led panel, arguing that the subpoenas were legally “invalid” and “unenforceable” and accusing Comer of targeting them as part of Trump’s retribution campaign against his political enemies.

A committee letter to the Clintons’ attorneys indicates the pair had offered for Bill Clinton to conduct a transcribed interview on “matters related to the investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein” and for Hillary Clinton to submit a sworn declaration.

The demand for testimony “runs afoul of the clearly defined limitations on Congress’s investigative power propounded by the supreme court of the United States”, they wrote, adding:

“It is clear the subpoenas themselves – and any subsequent attempt to enforce them – are nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed.”

Nine of the committee’s 21 Democrats joined Republicans in support of the charges against Bill Clinton as they argued for full transparency in the Epstein investigation. Three Democrats also supported the charges against Hillary Clinton.

Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein has re-emerged as a focal point for Republicans amid the push for a reckoning over Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York jail cell as he faced sex-trafficking charges.

Clinton, like a bevy of other high-powered men, including Trump, had a well-documented social relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.

On Friday, more than 3m files related to Epstein were released by the Department of Justice, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

The files included a series of emails between Musk and Epstein, indicating a friendlier relationship than was previously known.

Following the drop of the latest batch of files, Democrats have promised to fight what they are calling a “full-blown cover-up” of the Epstein files after the Trump administration on Sunday effectively declared its investigation into the disgraced late financier and sex trafficker was closed.

After Bill and Hillary Clinton were subpoenaed in August by the House oversight committee, their attorney had tried to argue against the validity of the subpoena.

However, as Comer threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings, they started negotiating towards a compromise.

#clintons #hilary #bill #epstein #trump #republicans #sex

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Bill Gates Is Terrified of AI — and Says We’re Not Ready for What’s Coming

🔠🅰️🔠🔠1️⃣

Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, is loudly warning that artificial intelligence poses a grave threat to jobs and human life, and that urgently addressing the risks should be “the world’s top priority.”

In an hourlong interview with The New York Times last week, Gates said the tech industry was knowingly downplaying those threats because there was too much money on the line.

“In private, people who understand how good this stuff is, and how much better it’s getting, they’re very worried,” he said. But few tech executives, Gates said, are willing to publicly admit that. “They’re now saying to each other: ‘Hey, man, don’t say that. It’s bad for us — the next trillion dollars we’re trying to raise.’”

On Wednesday, Gates published a nearly 6,000-word essay on his personal website laying out his concerns about A.I. and offering solutions, such as new taxes and bans. He said he was motivated to speak now because recent improvements in A.I. had far surpassed his expectations and because the industry had ignored technology milestones — like A.I.’s escaping the control of its creators or making recipes for bioweapons — that it once said would warrant more caution.

Gates had to pull out of an A.I. conference in February, and testified for six hours in June before a House committee. Disclosures of his infidelity, combined with his 2021 divorce, have also badly damaged his reputation. He acknowledged that they were all “mistakes” of his own doing.

He appears more willing to step back into the spotlight after answering every question from the House Oversight Committee. “I think people understand what I did do, what I didn’t do and that I learn when I make mistakes,” he said in the interview.

Gates conceded that he also might be a flawed messenger simply because of his vast wealth and history as Microsoft’s aggressive chief executive. In a landmark federal case, Microsoft was found in 2000 to have repeatedly abused its monopoly during his watch.

While Gates avoided criticizing Microsoft or other companies by name, he argued that he was uniquely positioned to work on the A.I. issue. He is a technologist and industry insider who is no longer driven by the profit incentives of running a company, and he has spent decades addressing inequality through his philanthropic foundation.

“The irony of ‘innovation lover is scared and says we’re not ready and we’re crossing thresholds,’ maybe it’s even more poignant,” he said.

#bill #gates #AI #microsoft #anthropic

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🔠🅰️🔠🔠2️⃣

Gates said technological advances had truly stunned him three times: In 1980 when he first saw a graphical user interface, which led to the modern personal computer. In 2022 when the leaders of OpenAI came to his house to demonstrate what would soon become ChatGPT. And this year when he looked closely at the advances being made by Claude Code, Anthropic’s A.I. tool.

Coding, Gates said, is the subject he knows best, and Claude’s abilities shocked him. “The idea that now these things are in a meaningful sense better than I am is like: What the hell?” he said.

The A.I. era is “utterly, absolutely, completely, totally different,” he said. He acknowledged that this unpopular opinion (in tech circles) was “a hell of a claim, and I’m staking everything I know — everything — saying, ‘Are you kidding?’”

He said mass job losses, if not addressed, were inevitable because A.I. would spread across the economy and leave little room for one industry to absorb the refugees from another. The biggest tech companies in the world, including Microsoft, are racing to help corporate customers adopt A.I., which could replace many workers.

Gates said that companies were just responding to market incentives, but that those incentives might conflict with what was best for society.

He proposed a new tax on A.I. use, known as a “token tax,” to make it more expensive to replace people and provide money to help those who do lose work. A token is a basic unit of A.I. computing. The idea of taxing it has gained some traction, including on Wall Street, as a way to increase the cost of using machines instead of human labor.

Some jobs, Gates said, should be prohibited from being replaced by A.I. — an idea he called “Human Reserved” — because the role is deeply personal, like a caregiver, or the people in those jobs are unlikely to find new employment.

He argued for new international agreements to set clear criteria to monitor and restrict extreme risks like bioterrorism. He said it could take only a few people with access to advanced A.I. to develop new pathogens.

He said he would happily debate anyone who argued against mandatory reviews of any A.I. system that could be weaponized to make new molecules and unleash a pandemic. Gates added that he was dumbfounded by the kind of voluntary measures that the White House and industry leaders were developing.

Along with global health issues, Gates vowed to make his A.I. concern part of every conversation he had with world leaders. “I only have two issues where I’m going to say, ‘Please think more about this, please care more about this,’” he said.

Gates acknowledged that he was in an odd spot: He has arguably done as much as anyone in the world to evangelize for and shape the modern computer industry. But now he is warning that the technology it is creating presents global risks.

“I don’t like bringing bad news to people, and I don’t like saying that innovation may be a net negative,” he said. “But that’s where we are.”

#bill #gates #AI #microsoft #anthropic

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