The budget hoax that nearly sank Trump’s biggest win (so far)



Conservatives are celebrating a once-in-a-generation legislative triumph with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4 by President Trump. But the victory almost didn’t happen — thanks to what can only be described as the “budget hawk hoax,” a long-standing tactic used by phony conservatives to block meaningful reforms from becoming law.

The heart of this hoax is that the overriding problem facing America is “the deficit crisis” — and that nothing else on the conservative agenda can ever be moved forward until we deal with it.

Too many conservatives have fallen for the 'budget hawk hoax' for far too long.

But when the conversation turns to cutting wasteful spending, these same so-called budget hawks introduce a poison pill: the notion that the only serious way to reduce the deficit is by gutting Social Security and Medicare — before touching any other government waste.

They know this is a nonstarter — and we all know it’s a nonstarter — because there is no way voters will ever allow Nana’s Social Security to be cut while we’re still using taxpayer money to fund LGBTQ+ programs in Nepal and Botswana.

The impossible dream?

Even worse, the faux-conservative “budget hawks” have generally dismissed any efforts to cut other wasteful government spending, insisting that it would have been a mere insignificant drop in the bucket. Yet when President Trump tried to secure $5 billion in funding for the border wall in his first term, budget hawks protested that we couldn’t afford it.

When the Trump administration began dismantling corrupt NGOs under USAID, legacy “conservative” media scoffed at the effort because it didn’t yield massive dollar savings. Yet if we don’t eliminate such foundational waste first, long-term entitlement reform has no credible path forward.

The truth is, of course, that Conservatism Inc. was just desperately trying to protect the corrupt status quo, keep left-wing spending in place, and deny any spending that advances the conservative agenda.

The same old playbook was rolled out again with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Critics labeled it “budget-busting,” but that claim was misleading. The bill didn’t increase spending. In fact, it prevented a scheduled tax hike that would have rolled back Trump-era tax cuts and restored pre-2017 rates.

RELATED: The reality behind this week’s One Big Beautiful Bill spectacle

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To be fair to the bill’s critics, the history of omnibus bills is fraught with corruption. Typically, omnibus bills have been legislative horse trades: Republicans secure pork for their districts, and Democrats secure massive expansions of the welfare state. But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is different. It actually slashes major government spending in ways that align with long-standing conservative demands.

For instance, the $7,500 federal incentive for electric vehicle purchases is set to expire almost immediately. Under the old playbook, such a subsidy would have increased in exchange for some infrastructure funding in a red district. Not this time.

By trying to defeat the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, “budget hawks” were actually striving to protect and perpetuate the following left-wing agenda items, all in the name of “fiscal conservatism”:

  • A massive tax increase, restoring Obama-level tax rates.
  • Allowing able-bodied Medicaid recipients to continue taking welfare without being required to work.
  • Maintaining all the federal EV rebates and green energy incentives, which are designed to deny Americans the right to affordable energy and reliable transportation.
  • Blocking border security by denying funding for the border wall, additional detention centers, and additional Border Patrol staffing.

It’s even more obscene when you consider the enormous cost to taxpayers of providing social services for illegal aliens — services the “budget hawks” are trying to save — while also perpetuating open borders because “we can’t afford” measures to seal the border.

Too many conservatives have fallen for the “budget hawk hoax” for far too long, accepting that we cannot have any conservative victories so long as we have a national debt. Perhaps that day has finally ended.

Yes, our country’s fiscal crisis is real, and it will persist. But forsaking any victories over the left because of the deficit is not a matter of high principle. It’s simply surrender.

The “budget hawks” will never be able to fix the deficit. They don’t want to. But given the chance, they would continue to use the issue to prevent real conservatives from ever passing useful legislation.

The hoax failed

They lost this round — and thank heaven for that!

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act stops income tax hikes in their tracks. It strips funding from Planned Parenthood, rogue judges notwithstanding. It shuts down the EV grift. It tightens border security and reins in Medicaid fraud.

This is what winning looks like — and the self-styled “budget hawks” hate it. Why? Because it derails the left’s agenda and puts the public back in charge.

Credit goes to President Trump and Speaker Johnson for delivering this landmark victory. And to Stephen Miller — relentless as ever — for making sure the truth broke through.

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Drug middlemen launch attacks against MAGA allies pushing for health care reforms



Pharmacy benefit managers like CVS are going after President Donald Trump's allies who are seeking meaningful health care reforms for their constituents.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) have become the primary target of PBMs, which are threatened by their push to implement reforms in drug costs. Threatened by MAGA allies, PBMs have now escalated these conflicts to legal disputes.

'These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable.'

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  Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

In April, Huckabee Sanders signed legislation banning PBMs from "engaging in anticompetitive practices" by owning pharmacies. PBMs are tasked with negotiating drug prices between pharmacies and insurance companies, but by buying up pharmacies, they are able to take advantage of the health care system and inflate the cost of pharmaceuticals, pushing competitors out of business, according to Huckabee Sanders' press release.

“For far too long, drug middlemen called PBMs have taken advantage of lax regulations to abuse customers, inflate drug prices, and cut off access to critical medications," Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Not any more. These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable for their anticompetitive actions, but Arkansas has never been afraid to be a conservative leader for America.”

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association promptly retaliated and filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation, calling it a "fundamentally flawed law" that they say "could shutter pharmacies, restrict access to critical medications for patients and families, increase health care costs, and eliminate jobs."

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  Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 

Landry has become involved in his own legal disputes with PBMs. Landry, alongside Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, filed three separate lawsuits against CVS in June for allegedly interfering with legislation that also would have prevented PBMs from owning and simultaneously operating pharmacies.

"PBMs are not health care providers," Landry said. "They are corporate profiteers inserted into the most intimate part of your life and your health."

Although several of Trump's allies have been targeted by PBMs, criticism of the pharmaceutical industry is generally bipartisan.

Mark Cuban recently called out Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for claiming that Big Pharma is responsible for high drug costs when, he says, PBMs are the real culprit.

"It's because PBMs corrupt healthcare," Cuban said in a post on X. "Big Pharma wishes they could set their own pricing. They don't. PBMs control formularies and manipulate prices, in exchange for providing pharma access to patients. It's how they maximize rebate revenue. In fact, 3 PBMs NEGOTIATE MORE THAN 90% OF REBATES for commercial insurance plans. That's your area of expertise, and you have done nothing."

Cuban's criticisms promptly earned the unlikely praise of some of the most prominent voices in MAGA world.

"Didn’t think I’d be RTing Mark for a while, but he’s 100% right on this issue," Donald Trump Jr. replied in a post on X.

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Exclusive: Vance on Mamdani: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’



Vice President JD Vance tore into the Democratic rising star Zohran Mamdani in a Sunday night speech over his apparent ingratitude and disregard for American tradition as he vies to helm the United States' largest city.

During his keynote speech for the Claremont Institute on Sunday, Vance methodically detailed how Mamdani's mayoral candidacy insults the very culture, history, and generosity of the country that allowed him to succeed, according to a transcript exclusively obtained by Blaze News. Mamdani, whose family fled political persecution in Uganda, won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and is shaping up to be the front-runner in the contested race against current NYC Mayor Eric Adams (independent).

"If our victory and President Trump's victory in 2024 was rooted in a broad, working- and middle-class coalition, Mamdani's coalition is almost the inverse of that," Vance said.

'Hatred ... this is the animating principle of the American far left.'

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  Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images

Although he campaigned on progressive policies that are typically targeted toward "underprivileged" and protected classes, Mamdani won high-income, college-educated voters. He also did particularly well in New York City's gentrified neighborhoods, like Ridgewood and Bushwick. At the same time, he struggled among black voters and voters without a college degree.

"That's an interesting coalition," Vance noted. "Maybe it works in the New York Democratic primary. I don't think it works particularly well in the United States at large."

"His victory was the product of a lot of young people who live reasonably comfortable lives but see that their elite degrees aren't really delivering what they expected," Vance added. "And I say that not to criticize them, because I think that we should care about all the people in our country. ... But we have to be honest about where its coalition is. It is not the downtrodden. It's not for Americans. It is not about dispossession. It's about the elite."

Vance describes Mamdani and his supporters' progressive worldview as ultimately paradoxical, uniquely motivated by a disdain for the American tradition.

"How could privileged whites march around with a straight face and decry white privilege?" Vance asked. "How could progressives pretend to love conservative Muslims despite their views on gender and sexuality? The answer is obvious. ... The radicals at the far left, they don't need a unifying ideology of what they're for, because they know very well what they're against."

"What unites Islamists; gender studies majors; socially liberal, white urbanites; and Big Pharma lobbyists? It isn't the ideas of Thomas Jefferson or even Karl Marx," Vance added. "It's hatred ... this is the animating principle of the American far left."

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  Photographer: Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Vance takes issue with the progressives' disregard for American history and, by proxy, for American values. In Mamdani's case, Vance criticizes his ungrateful attitude toward the very country that welcomed him and allowed him to prosper.

"The person who wishes to lead our largest city had, according to multiple media reports, never once publicly mentioned America's independence today in earnest," Vance said. "But when he did so this year, this is what he said, an actual quote: 'America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I am proud of our country, even as we constantly strive to make it better.' There is no gratitude in those words, no sense of owing something to this land and the people who turned its wilderness into the most powerful nation on Earth."

"I wonder, has he ever read the letters from boy soldiers in the Union army to parents and sweethearts that they'd never see again?" Vance asked. "Has he ever visited the grave site of a loved one who gave their life to build the kind of society where his family could escape racial theft and racial violence? Has he ever looked in the mirror and recognized that he might not be alive were it not for the generosity of a country he dares to assault on its most sacred day? Who the hell does he think that he is?"

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Here are the top 3 LEAST patriotic members of Congress



While millions of Americans across the country are gearing up for their Fourth of July festivities, here are three members of Congress who likely won't share their enthusiasm.

3. Jasmine Crockett

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas has had several standout moments during her political career. Like many others in her party, Crockett has had her fair share of criticisms of the Trump administration, and she's even gone so far as to root for other countries over the one she was elected to represent.

'I can go through pretty much the entire South and tell you that they're broke and rely on a lot of welfare from the government.'

During a February interview on "The Breakfast Club," Crockett said she was "rooting for" Canada and Mexico over the United States because they were standing up to the "crazy regime from Mar-a-Lago."

“The fact that I’m rooting for Canada and I’m rooting for Mexico a lot is really wild, but they are really the ones that are speaking truth to power right now," Crockett said.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett says Trump impeachment inquiry 'absolutely' on the table

  Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Crockett has also displayed disdain for Republican constituencies in particular, calling red states "deplorable" for not embracing the radical gender ideology her party touts. On a separate occasion, Crockett called red states "broke," accusing them of being too reliant on "big blue states."

"Down in Alabama, who's broke, down in Louisiana, who's broke — I can go through pretty much the entire South and tell you that they're broke and rely on a lot of welfare from the government," Crockett said. "To be perfectly honest, it is tax dollars from these big blue states. ... We're in the 'find out' phase."

Of course we cannot forget the infamous "hot wheels" comment Crockett made toward Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas back in March, apparently mocking him for his disability. Crockett notably refused to apologize for her remarks.

2. Rashida Tlaib

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan has reliably railed against America, specifically the concept of American sovereignty, throughout the span of her political career.

'Impeach the motherf**ker.'

Tlaib has repeatedly called for ICE to be abolished, claiming its sole purpose is to terrorize illegal aliens even though they broke the law by entering the country illegally. Rather than celebrating the country she represents on the Fourth of July, Tlaib insisted that America consists of "broken systems rooted in racism that allow folks to be harmed and killed."

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  Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Like some of her other Democratic colleagues, the Palestinian-American has also spent much of her career focused on other parts of the globe outside the United States.

Tlaib has become known for her advocacy and support for Palestine over Israel, the country that is regarded to be America's ally in the region. When Tlaib takes a break from calling to "impeach the motherf**ker," referring to Trump, she is likely being censured by the House for "promoting false narratives" about the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7.

1. Ilhan Omar

Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar's political career is a treasure trove of anti-American sentiment. One of the most glaring instances of blatant disregard for Americans is the "some people did something" scandal of 2019.

Omar was speaking at a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations when she downplayed the deadliest terrorist attack ever to take place on American soil.

'We're a country built on stolen land and the backs of slaves.'

"CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties," Omar said at the fundraiser.

Although Omar's comments sparked outrage, the congresswoman doubled down and made the atrocity about herself.

"I think it is really important for us to make sure that we are not forgetting, right, the aftermath of what happened after 9/11," Omar said in an interview following the scandal. "Many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them. And so what I was speaking to was the fact that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating me a suspect."

RELATED: The US is now 'one of the worst countries' because of Trump's actions, says Ilhan Omar

  Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

This wasn't just a one-off Freudian slip for Omar. Rather, the Somali native has a steady track record of spewing anti-American rhetoric. Omar has called Americans she disagrees with "stupid" and even said the United States has "turned into one of the worst countries."

Omar herself admits she grew up in a dictatorship in Somalia, but she still insisted that the recent Army parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding somehow demonstrated that the U.S. is worse than the country she is originally from.

Her bias against the United States and in favor of foreign countries has been a topic of conversation for her entire career, and it can be best demonstrated by comparing her own statements about American independence and Somalian independence.

Omar, a representative for the United States, celebrated Somalian independence in a Tuesday post on X depicting a man waving her native flag.

However, her praise seems to be reserved exclusively for Somalia. Back in 2018, she posted a critical statement to mark America's independence.

"We shouldn't revise history," Omar wrote. "We're a country built on stolen land and the backs of slaves. Independence Day allows us to reflect on how far we've come and how much farther we have to go. Leveraging our voice to fight for justice is as American as it gets. Happy 4th of July."

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