Nobody Wants This

There’s a reason why the republicans started the Rules Committee hearings on the budget bill (which is actually called the “Big Beautiful Bill”) at 1am today: the bill’s contents are unpopular. The rush to get the bill passed is to avoid having the public learn about what’s in it, particularly the cuts to SNAP, Medicaid and Medicare (and yes, Medicare funding will be reduced).

And outside of the voting public, the markets are expressing their opinion: the 30 year Treasury bond yield is now at 5.07%, up 12 bp today, and the 20 year bond auction yesterday was described as “tepid” in Bloomberg. And the USD is falling. These are signs of a decline in confidence in American assets and the US economy in general.

Like the tariffs, no one is forcing the USA to pursue these policies: it is literally a choice of President Trump and his acolytes, who seem to take joy in the misery they’re going to inflict on the bottom quartile of the US population. Trump campaigned on tariffs, but I don’t recall him campaigning on taking away Medicaid, kids’ school meals and Medicare. Apart from the upper echelons of the Trump administration and its donors, nobody wants this.