Josh Hawley and the Mirage of Republican 'Populism'

[Brenda]

MAY 20, 2025

Last Thursday, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri rebuked “corporatist Republicans” in a New York Times op-ed published shortly after his colleagues in the House released a draft of their “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill. The senator specifically called out those in his own party who are pushing for big cuts to Medicaid in order to extend the tax cuts that Donald Trump signed into law in 2017. Cutting the insurance program that currently serves over 70 million Americans in order to fund “corporate giveaways” and tax cuts for the rich, wrote the senior senator from Missouri, is both “morally wrong and politically suicidal.”

If passed in its current form, the budget bill would slash around $715 billion in funding for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and enact burdensome work requirements for recipients. This would lead to a massive reduction in the rolls over the next decade, with millions of Americans becoming uninsured as a result. In addition to these cuts, House Republicans have also proposed $300 billion in reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps put food on the table for 41 million Americans. Together, these cuts would devastate poor and working-class communities — all for the purpose of closing a budget shortfall that could easily be avoided by sunsetting the 2017 tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the top one and 0.1%.

The House Republicans’ one big tax hike, meanwhile, speaks volumes about party priorities. Under the House plan, universities with endowments that exceed $500,000 per student would be on the hook for a major tax increase on endowment income, with the rate going up to as high as 21% for the wealthiest universities. This was an easy call for Republicans who refuse to raise taxes on billionaires or corporations yet want to appear as if they’re challenging “elites.” Here, Republicans can keep taxes low for the 1%t while targeting elite universities that promulgate “woke” ideology. In the end, the measure would end up hurting low-income students who rely on financial aid and scholarship the most, while further cutting into research funding. This fits nicely with the Trump administration’s campaign against universities and research institutions, though it hardly attests to the GOP’s putative transformation into a “party of the working class.”

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/josh-hawley-and-the-mirage-of-republican-populism/

[kimbutgar]

1. He'll bow down and kiss the ring of the orange Hitler and vote for this horrible bill that will cause a lot

Of pain for Americans!

Harley and his fellow Republicans have no integrity whatsoever. They sold their souls to the orange Caligula.

[hatrack]

2. Fuck Hawley, and fuck his "Friend Of The Workingman" pantomime . . .

Last edited Tue May 20, 2025, 07:43 PM - Edit history (1)

He's intelligent enough to know that by 2030, which is when he'll face reelection, this country is going to be in a world of stinking hurt, and even the Magic R after his name won't mean much.

He's stupid enough to think that his performative bullshit in 2025 is going to provide some sort of political or personal protection by the time he has to face the voters again, whether in an election or in some sort of face-to-face interaction with actual voters.

In the meantime, wait and see how he votes on gutting Medicaid with the budget bill. If he votes "yes", then "duh". If he votes "no", it will only be once all the votes necessary to pass it have been secured.

[Brenda]

3. Yep

Do we really have to crash and burn before things turn around?

If so, everyone needs to know CHUMP and Republicans burned America down.