Vance Delivers Hillbilly Eulogy
The vice president cast the deciding vote to kill and starve the people he came from but will never escape from
July 2: Murkowski passes bill to help the country (in return for excluding Alaska) … Democrats target Vance for breaking the tie/country … Blue-state Republicans could kill this thing or their careers … CBS to pay $16 million for the crime of interviewing Kamala Harris …
You can listen to the TFN podcast here, and score swag or support TFN here.
Vice Pres. JD Vance first rose to prominence elevated by right-wingers enamored of his book, Hillbilly Elegy. Vance portrayed himself as a bridge between two worlds, the impoverished or semi-poverished people he grew up with and the rich, educated elites he wanted to grow up with.
Vance sought to humanize America’s poor, to make them real in the eyes of the elite. Specifically, really lazy and entitled and dumb. Liberal Hollywood helped him out by producing an hour-and-56-minute ad for the book.
Then, yesterday, Vance fulfilled his destiny by becoming the deciding vote to strip away more than a trillion dollars in aid that otherwise would’ve gone to the people from whomce he came. All to help pay for making his new friends even richer. The bill that passed the Senate by 51-50 yesterday will, if signed into law:
- Cut Medicaid by about $800 billion
- Strip health insurance from 16-17 million people
- Cut food assistance to poor families by $285 billion
- Make student loans more expensive and difficult to get
- Increase to 30 years how long student-loan borrowers must pay on time, every month, before qualifying for loan forgiveness
- Cap parental student loans at $65,000
- Close 27% of nursing homes, with more than half of all nursing homes reducing both nursing and homing, cutting staff and residents; at risk of closing, HuffPost reports:
93 in Illinois
39 in Missouri
66 in Texas
41 in Ohio
- Add 55 hospitals to the list of 380 independent, rural hospitals already at risk of closing; of those 55, HuffPost reports:
Two in Iowa
Two in Maine
Four in Missouri
Four in Nebraska
Two in North Carolina
Five in Ohio
One in West Virginia
All told, independent, rural hospitals will lose an estimated $465 million next year alone. That’s $630,665 less for each independent, rural hospital to treat drug overdoses, remove farm implements from anuses, and deliver babies to proud brothers and sisters.
- Put more than 1.75 million construction jobs in jeopardy
- Kill more than 800,000 jobs
- Kill an estimated 477,000 health-care jobs (I’m guessing, but not sure, separate from those 800,000)
- Raise electric bills by 10%
- Cut corporate taxes permanently and overtime/tip taxes temporarily
- Knock $95 billion off the gross domestic product of individual states starting next year
- Increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over ten years.
Republicans argue that the tax cuts will pay for themselves by spurring the economy about as well as Pres. Donald Trump’s tariffs have. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says the poorest 20% of U.S. households will get tax cuts worth $150 next year — which will disappear without a ripple among the benefit cuts that are coming.
The middle 20% of U.S. households, economically, will get a $1,750 tax cut (again, offset by awfulness). The richest 20% will take home $10,950 more every year than they would have if Trump’s 2017 tax cuts had expired the way Yahweh and Jesus and Allah and Brahma and Zeus and Odin intended.
The bill contains $350 billion in additional spending on putative defense measures: military spending, and federal secret police to protect us from outside enemies who, unchecked, might hit the American people with terrifying attacks like eliminating $285 billion in food aid and $800 billion in health care.
A wildly expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will have a budget almost double its current size. Right now, ICE gets $8 billion annually. This bill gives ICE an extra $30 billion over four years.
According to The Intercept, ICE will have more agents — to combat a misdemeanor — than the FBI has to fight all the other federal crimes.
Immigration detention centers — to cage people merely accused of a misdemeanor — will get more money than the Federal Bureau of Prisons gets to incarcerate every single federal actual criminal. Federal prisons get $8 billion a year. The Trump administration will spend $45 billion over the next four years building a complex of camps where people will be concentrated.
All told, the bill dedicates $175 billion to fight illegal immigration, a “problem” that lowers the national crime rate and feeds us food that millions of us won’t be able to afford without food stamps. All of this, right as Republicans are weaponizing a system — that Democrats helped build, never forget — that can be aimed at virtually anyone, and at absolutely anyone if the feds just claim that you’re the people it’s ostensibly aimed at.
They can now toss American children in cages if just one of their parents lacks proper documentation. That’s 4.7 million kids. But it’s not just documents, it’s documents they can decide not to recognize. Remember, Vance just…decided…that lawful immigration status for Haitians under Pres. Joe Biden was illegitimate on its insufficiently pasty face.
But also, peaceful protesters. Op-ed writers. People who post on social media.
Only three Republicans balked at a bill that kills more jobs than any bill in history — not counting tariff bills and Wall Street regulation — and simultaneously cuts relief for the sick and hungry more than any bill in modern American history: Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Thom Tillis (R-NC).
That left the vote tied at 50-50. Until Vance — with almost three years experience in government — cast his tie-breaking vote to do to the country what his book did to poor people.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wrote:
“JD Vance was the deciding vote to cut Medicaid across the country.
“An absolute and utter betrayal of working families.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) wrote:
“Bookmark this.
“JD Vance is the ultimate reason why 17 million Americans will lose their healthcare.”
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) wrote:
“JD Vance talks about turning the GOP into a party for working people.
“But he’s the biggest billionaire bootlicker of them all.
“When it mattered, he was the deciding vote to slash Medicaid to bits to pay for billionaire tax breaks.
“We're never going to let him forget it.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) wrote:
“What happened to you @JDVance--author of Hillbilly Elegy --now shrugging off Medicaid cuts that will close rural hospitals and kick millions off healthcare as ‘minutiae?’”
Y’know, folks really oughtta read skim search for keywords in Hillbilly Elegy. Vance barely talks about government aid (especially not student loans). And when he does, he sounds very much like a guy the liberal establishment should not have been celebrating or giving column inches in the New York Times.
Hillbilly Elegy blames poverty on people buying big entertainment systems, not on a financial system rewired over half a century to funnel our money to the rewirers.
Some Hillbilly Elegy quotes for your bitter, bitter enjoyment (spoiler: he hates the people he voted to fuck):
“I have known many welfare queens; some were my neighbors, and all were white.”
“People talk about hard work all the time in places like Middletown [OH]. You can walk through a town where 30 percent of the young men work fewer than twenty hours a week and find not a single person aware of his own laziness.”
“Powerful people [like current Vance] sometimes do things to help people like [former] me without really understanding people like [former] me.”
In the 200 U.S. counties most reliant on Medicare and Medicaid, 84% of people voted for Trump. And I was under the impression white dudes were slow-suiciding!
There’s a debate in MAGA-ville over whether Trump’s voters will turn on him once their kids don’t get to go to doctors anymore. The irony is, they might not, if religion and/or good-faith patriotism make MAGA suckers for a narrative that their (and their kids’) suffering is (a) for a greater good, and/or (b) not real, and/or (c) not all that bad, since it brings Heaven that much nearer.
And those food stamps Vance single-handedly eliminated? Newsfuckers, the vice president hates poor people:
“I also learned how people gamed the welfare system. They’d buy two dozen packs of soda with food stamps and then sell them at a discount for cash. … [blah blah food stamp recipients dare to buy booze and cigarettes and cell phones blah blah] … I could never understand why our lives felt like a struggle while those living off of government largesse enjoyed trinkets that I only dreamed about. … We began to view much of our fellow working class with mistrust.”
No. Fucking. Shit.
(Longtime Newsfuckers may recall that TFN squoze an entire series of articles out of Vance’s past as a writer of political commentary right-wing fan-fiction erotica.)
You may hear things that the bill does that it doesn’t actually do. For instance, Trump is saying that it ends taxes on Social Security benefits, even though it doesn’t. It does have some temporary Social Security tax savings, and a temporary tax deduction for people over 65, but you can’t take that one if you’re (a) poor enough that you already don’t pay Social Security taxes, or (b) took retirement before 65, the way Satan intended.
Other things the bill doesn’t do include removing grimy buildup, fighting stubborn stains, and ending nighttime sniffling, sneezing, aching, coughing, stuffy-head, and fever so you can rest. More lie-checking here.
The House
With the Senate bill now in the House of Representatives, the House has a number of options. They could seek a conference committee with the Senate GOP to come up with a compromise bill that both chambers could vote on. The House could change the Senate bill and send it back to the Senate. Or the House could just bend over and get Thuned by the Senate by just voting on the Senate version.
That’s what Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wants to do, so it’s possible this monstrosity will win full congressional passage today and get signed by Trump prior to July 4th just like he wanted.
In fact, this morning, the bill cleared a preliminary procedural vote in the House Rules Committee, sending it forward for a full floor vote.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is hoping House Republicans will change the bill. That’s why she voted for it. Wait, wha—huh?!?
That’s right, Newsfucker, Murkowski passed the bill so that the House could fix the bill in ways that she could have fixed the bill if she had not voted for it. Know what that’s called? Not meeting your work requirements!
Instead, Murkowski voted to inflict this terribleness on the rest of America in return for sparing Alaska from it. In other words, Murkowski was a hostage who could have freed all the other hostages, but said it was okay to shoot the other hostages as long as Alaska could go free.
As Paul put it, “They chose to add more pork and subsidies for Alaska to secure that vote.”
In the House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) says he’s a no. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) voted against the House version over concerns about the deficit but says he will vote yes for the Senate version, which increases the deficit even more.
YOUR DEMOCRATIC FIGHTERS During the Senate fight over the bill, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told reporters Monday, “Oh my God, I just want to go home. I’ve already … I’ve missed our entire trip to the beach.”
Rep. Brendan Doyle (D-PA) on Tuesday said, “I will do whatever it takes, stay up for 48 straight hours, 72 straight hours, do whatever it takes to block this bill from becoming law … And that should be the attitude, frankly, of every Democratic member of the House and Senate. If you are here, you’re damn lucky, and you’re privileged to be here. You should want to be here. If you don’t want to be here, leave.”
FLASHBACK Just a reminder that, as I revealed Monday night over on my original-reporting Substack — thanks to your support! — the subject of the Senate’s morning Bible study in the hours before they voted was literally about God hating government entitlements.
FLASH FORWARD The right-winger who taught that, Ralph Drollinger, is leading the same Bible study — about how the church is God’s social safety net — in the House of Representatives tomorrow, Thursday, at 8am. As an example of Drollinger’s sterling thinking, allow your sterlinger-thinking TFN to point out that if the church were social safety netting the way God intended, the government wouldn’t fucking have to. Starvation’s been around long before socialism, Preacher Drollinger.
More geniusness from Drollinger, that I forgot to include in my vaguely TFN-ish reporting:
“[O]ne cannot expect the State to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of society’s bereft any more than one can expect the institution of the family to manufacture well-running automobiles.”
My dude. Jesus. Of all the fucking examples.
The Ford Motor Company has literally been run by the Ford family for generations. Okay, sure, the Ford family also made the Pinto, but that was when they were unregulated the way Jesus wanted.
Oh, and Drollinger’s nonprofit, Capitol Ministries, is run by Drollinger and his wife.
SNEAK PREVIEW Here at TFN we’ll be making blue-state Republicans — who made a big show of fighting for bigger deductions for state and local taxes for their rich donors — famous if they pass this House bill. Especially in New York and California.
If this bill passes thanks to votes from California and New York Republicans, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be removable in 2026, stripping Republicans of House control.
REMEMBER It’s going to feel terrible and awful if/when this obscenity passes. So remember that we will come together in protest. And much of the bill’s worst doesn’t happen right away. Which means there’s still time to head off much of it, and set the stage for reversing it…
IF WE FIGHT TODAY FOR WHAT TOMORROW SHOULD BE.
Remember: Everything changes.
The Other Reason Newsom Shouldn’t Settle
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is suing Fox over something of pretty small importance — Fox’s claims that Newsom lied about when Pres. Donald Trump called him, ostensibly/fictionally regarding deploying California National Guard troops there.
Elegantly, Newsom is suing for $787 million, about what Fox had to pay for lying about Dominion Voting Systems. Newsom says he’ll drop the suit in exchange for an on-air retraction and apology.
Refusing to do either will hurt Fox’s case in court. But accepting a retraction and apology in return for dropping the suit is, in a word,
As Salon Senior Writer Sophia Tesfaye senior writes, Newsom should hold out for a settlement, drag the case out, and ensure that Fox is held materially accountable for its evildoing. Your agreeable TFN agrees. But…
…there’s another opportunity Newsom is missing here, potentially even greater. The financial settlement with Dominion didn’t stop Fox from lying, let alone staying on the air. What really hurt Fox — fucked them up behind closed doors — was the Dominion discovery process. All those juicy, forever-on-the-record records of Fox personnel in internal emails and texts discussing their lies, why they lie, why maybe they shouldn’t lie, why of course they should keep lying, and who lies why.
That’s what Newsom should be pushing for now. Discovery. Let’s see all the internal communications about John Roberts and about how Jesse Watters aired a deceptively edited clip cut to make it sound like Newsom was confirming Trump’s claim. Let’s see it all, Newsom. Don’t settle!
Two Quickies
Paramount over the weekend pushed out too-journalisty journalist Wendy McMahon as president of CBS News, while putting the finishing touches on their payoff to Pres. Donald Trump. Literally, Paramount has been trying to figure out how to pay him off without getting sued by shareholders for bribery. Paramount needs federal approval for its sale to Skydance (funded by Oracle money) and yesterday agreed to pay $16 million for not airing the entire uncut interview it did with Vice Pres. Kamala Harris last year. The money will go to fund Trump’s presidential library. (That is the punchline.) Also: At least no one from CBS wrote a book about how terrible Pres. Joe Biden was.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) apologized to New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani for joining the Islamophobic, xenophobic pile-on on the guy. Gillibrand had said about Mamdani that “people that glorify the slaughter of Jews [which Mamdani hasn’t] create fear in our communities. The global intifada is [sic] a statement [Mamdani hasn’t said] that means destroy Israel and kill all the Jews.” She has yet to apologize for her Christian extremism, including working with a group that helped bolster and defend Uganda’s LGBTQ+ death penalty.
TCB
NEWSFUCKING, BUT ELSEWHERE! I’m tentatively set to appear on Michelangelo Signorile’s SiriusXM show on Thursday at 4:30pm discussing my exposé about Ralph Drollinger preaching to Congress that the Jews killed Jesus.
And don’t forget to join me every Monday at 3:30pm eastern time on The Nicole Sandler Show — free! — right here.
JULY 4th I’m on the fence about July 4th, since there’s a lot going on and, as I mentioned before, revenues from paid subscriptions have fallen off during the summer Substack slowdown.
So, I may do a regular TFN on Friday, or a meditation on July 4th, or some sorta hybrid, but taking off over the long weekend probably isn’t an option!
That said, no one should be panicking. If new paid upgrades by you glorious Newsfuckers at least hold steady, along with support for my original-reporting Substack, I know TFN will make it through the summer. And I see you Newsfuckers donating via PayPal. Thank you! (And, yes, I’ve been remiss giving more options for supporting TFN other than hated, evil PayPal.)
No one should feel bad about not supporting TFN, of course. We’re all in this together. But if you can afford it, and if you can’t live without TFN, remember that TFN can’t live without you. If it’ll feel good to help keep TFN going, please consider upgrading today. Thank you.
APP USERS The app doesn’t let you upgrade, so you’ve gotta do it at this link. Thanks!
RESOURCES
Go get ‘em, kids! Remember, everything changes…
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
The Big Bullshit Bill is structural violence on steroids.
Whew. Great summary. You, can, take a long weekend. It’s allowed. We’ll still be here.