What do Josh Hawley, Lindsay Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Bill Haggerty, Cynthis Lummis and Dan Sullivan have in common? If you said their all Republican senators, you’re absolutely right and you can pat yourself on the back for being far more informed than the average American voter. But beyond that and theit all being white and claiming to be Christian, do you know what they all have in common?
The answer I’m interested in is every one of those people is attempting to pocket half a million dollars each of the ACA subsidies and SNAP benefits they are denying to Americans who will never see a lump sum half-mil in their entire lives.
The senate bill that passed yesterday hands those senators half a million dollars each because their phone records were subpoenaed and they’re mad. That’s my take. Here’s what The Nation says about it.
Tucked inside the bill is a measure that would create a slush fund to enable senators who’ve had their phone records subpoenaed, without their knowledge, to sue over invasion of privacy, for at least half a million dollars. It’s basically free money for Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, and Cynthia Lummis, all of whom had their metadata subpoenaed by Jack Smith. (No messages were included.) If they all won in court, they’d pocket at least $4 million collectively.
So basically, it wasn’t just Republicans taking from the poor to give to the billionaires writ large. It was taking from the poor and putting it right into their own pockets. Took a 40+ day shutdown for them to get that clarified, but they did it. I’m betting their lapdogs in the house will let it stand, too. And they’ll all keep crying crocodile tears for the poor while continuing to use us as pawns in their infinite greed game.
Fuck ‘em all.
