That Big Beautiful Bill

The House finally passed President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” in the early morning hours on Thursday, after weeks of hearings during which Democrats did their best to obstruct, delay, and obfuscate.

One extraordinary example that got my attention — no thanks to the national media, which almost totally ignored it — was the elimination of nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid fraud.

Democrats portrayed the changes as “cuts” to Medicaid that would leave nearly a million Americans with no health coverage. That was too much for HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

In a heated exchange with California Democrat Josh Harder, Kennedy explained patiently that the so-called “cuts” were actually reductions that resulted from eliminating waste and fraud.

“I’ll tell you what that means. It means that because of DOGE, we were able to determine— and it’s about 8 million people who would be affected— that there are a million people who are claiming Medicaid from multiple states. That’s illegal. It’s theft. You’re not allowed to do that. There are another million people who are collecting both under Obamacare and Medicaid.”

HHS also plans to remove more than one million illegal aliens who currently are collecting Medicaid.

Just the day after Kennedy made that announcement, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that his state would stop offering Medicaid to illegals because the feds had stopped paying for it.

Friends, this is a revolution. And it’s about time.

So why are the Democrats so keen on continuing to waste taxpayer dollars?

As a Floridian, I object to citizens of my state being forced to subsidize the bad spending habits of states like New York and California through the increase in the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction.

Florida’s population is roughly 1.5 million greater than that of New York, in part because so many New Yorkers fled to Florida during Covid. And yet, the New York state budget is twice Florida’s — and I don’t hear anyone complaining about not receiving essential services in Florida.

But I also understand political necessities. Sometimes you just can’t get a big result such as this bill, which should unleash 3% to 4% annual growth, without making compromises.

A handful of New York and California Republican Congressmen threatened to vote against the bill without the SALT deduction, so the President came up to Capitol Hill to jawbone the GOP conference and close the deal.

The two GOP holdouts — Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson from Ohio — deserve to be primaried next year. Politics is a team sport. If you can’t play together, you’re off the team.

Democrats were also huffing and puffing this week about the alleged “corruption” of the President, which they claimed was on full display during his recent trip to the Gulf.

MSDNC boychick bloviator Chris Hayes even complained that the President had forced the Qataris to donate a $400 million Boeing for an interim Air Force One, when the President and DoD had actually been in negotiations to purchase the aircraft back in February.

Since when is it bad to relieve the taxpayers of a $400 million bill?

Sure, the Trump Organization, which is run by the president’s sons, plans to franchise a new Trump tower in Riyadh, a billion dollar golf course in Doha, real estate developments in the UAE, and possibly even a $200 million Trump Tower in Damascus.

Will the president benefit from these deals eventually? Undoubtedly. Does that violate the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause, as Democrats claim? I doubt it. The Supreme Court has already dismissed three earlier challenges to Trump under the emoluments clause in 2020 and 2021.

And let’s be clear: the reason the Constitution prohibits the president from taking payments from a foreign government is to prevent undue influence over policy. Somehow, I find it hard to conceive of Donald Trump changing his opinion on, say, lifting sanctions on Syria because the Trump Organization might eventually franchise a high rise in Damascus.

Of course, it’s much easier to imagine someone like Joe Biden interfering in Ukraine’s domestic politics to get a prosecutor fired because he was investigating a company that was paying Biden’s son.

Trump broke generations of precedent during his recent trip to the Gulf.

For starters, he abandoned the Deep State catechism about a Palestinian state.

How many of you know that Trump actually invited the so-called president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to attend the public meetings in Riyadh — not as a participant, and without being allowed the opportunity to meet with him?

Dan Diker, the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, says Trump’s very public rebuke of Abbas was akin to “taking him out to the woodshed.”

Next, he called on the Gulf leaders, as well as the new leader of Syria, to publicly denounce terrorism and the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel. And they did.

The Saudis welcomed Trump with a procession of 12 Arabian stallions on the tarmac. Why? Because they know that Trump is the strong horse.

We’ve never had a president like Donald Trump, and probably will never have his equal again.

I discuss the latest news from the Gulf, Putin’s stalling tactics in Ukraine, and the make-it or break-it moment in the Iran nuclear talks on this week’s Prophecy Today Weekend.

As always, you can listen live on Saturday at 1 PM on 104.9 FM or 550 AM or by using the Jacksonville Way Radio app.

Yours in freedom.

©2025 Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved.

Ken Timmerman’s 14th book of non-fiction, THE IRAN HOUSE: Tales of Revolution, Persecution, War, and Intrigue, can be ordered by clicking here or by viewing my author’s page, here. 

Raising Olives in Provence, can be ordered by clicking here.