Democratic leader in the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, during an 8-hour, 44-minute speech opposing the Trump Administration’s legislation, July 3, 2025
EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Trump’s Not-So-Beautiful Bill and Authoritarian Rule
UPDATE, JULY 6:
EA’s David Dunn joined China’s CGTN on Saturday to evaluate why Donald Trump’s Big Bill “is the biggest sacrifice of American future to its present”.
Donald Trump is a winner because he dominates American politics, he dominates his party, and he dominates Congress.
But this is the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich and from the young to the old.
Dunn cites the Wharton Business School assessment that 60% of Americans will be worse off while the top 2% to 5% are much better off. He notes the damage to health care, food assistance, economic stability, and environment programs while benefiting fossil fuel companies.
ORIGINAL ENTRY, JULY 4: I joined Irish and UK outlets on Friday to evaluate the impending damage from Donald Trump’s bill with large tax cuts for the wealthy; sharp cuts in health care, food assistance, other social services, and green energy for the not-so-wealthy; and hundreds of billions of dollars for the disappearance and detention of migrants and asylum seekers.
The bill was narrowly passed by both houses of Congress this week and will be signed by Trump today.
Listen to Dublin NewsTalk’s Pat Kenny Show
In 10 minutes, I detail the provisions of the bill, including the loss of health care for up to 18 million people, the loss or reduction of food aid to 8 million, and the addition of $3.3 trillion to the US Government’s $36 trillion debt.
I also explain the significance of the speech of 8 3/4 hours by the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, calling on Americans to “press on” and quoting the late Rep. John Lewis:
Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful. Be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day a week, a month or a year. It is the struggle of a lifetime.
Listen to Monocle Radio’s The Globalist from 3:37
Natasha Lindstaedt of Essex University and I join host Georgina Godwin for an examination of how Donald Trump asserted his control over the Republican Party; the possibilities for Democrats given the bill’s likely effects; and, most importantly, the consequences for people across America.
There are many people who have written the Democrats off. But America is not just one country. It is 50 states and many local communities.
It is going to be the everyday effect on the ground: whether you cannot get to a hospital, whether you cannot get support if you are short of food, whether your roads are starting to crumble, whether you suffer from pollution.
It’s that effect on people and how they lead their lives — I hope they will respond by saying, “There has to be a better way.”
