July is finally here, even if June felt endless. But as you know, the news cycle never lets up. My AC is barely holding up in this summer heat—but I’m still here, tuned in, and breaking down the news that actually impacts working-class folks like us. This morning brew highlights the doers and the deflectors.
Oklahoma Senators Play Politics While Families Face Cuts
The Senate’s vote-a-rama has dragged on for more than 24 hours, and Republican lawmakers still don’t have the votes to pass President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Meanwhile, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin is taking a page from Trump’s playbook—flooding X (formerly Twitter) with glossy Capitol tour videos to distract from the real issue: why he supports the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, on the other hand, is spinning the truth. He claims that not passing the bill would cut the Child Tax Credit in half, but what he won’t say is that he voted against the Child Tax Credit expansion last year. Mullin, along with many Democrats and Republicans, supported it.
Their distractions are smokescreens because even Elon Musk, once in an unshakable bromance with Trump, knows this bill is trash for the American people and our future.
Musk Plans Political Revenge as Trump Threatens Subsidies
“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day. Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,” Musk said on X.
"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Musk is planning to start a new party if the bill passes and primary them in the midterms.
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” wrote Musk on his platform X.
Clergy and Activists Demand Senators Reject 'Deeply Harmful' Bill
Meanwhile, faith leaders, impacted individuals, and clergy marched to the U.S. Capitol for a Moral Monday protest yesterday against Trump’s bill.
They laid 51 caskets symbolizing lives at risk and engaged in prayerful civil disobedience, leading to 38 arrests. Bishop William J. Barber II called it a moral moment.
“This is a moral moment, in which all Americans must ask if we want to be a country that takes from the most vulnerable to give to the most powerful,” Bishop William J. Barber II, President of Repairers of the Breach, said. “Lives are at stake. This week, we asked our Senators not to look away, but to kneel with us in prayer before they vote on this deeply harmful bill.”
The Republican Senators who are holding the line with Democrats against Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
Senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis are refusing to back Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” each for distinct reasons. Paul, a longtime fiscal hawk, says the bill would explode the national deficit and worsen the country’s debt crisis.
Tillis, on the other hand, opposes the deep Medicaid cuts that would devastate hospitals and health services in North Carolina, his home state. With Republicans holding only a slim majority, their resistance poses a serious threat to the bill’s passage.
Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine remain key moderates on the fence.
Murkowski has voiced strong concerns about deep Medicaid and SNAP reductions in the bill, noting that potential cuts could harm vulnerable Alaskans and strain rural hospitals.
Collins, similarly, has expressed fundamental worries about Medicaid provisions and has pushed for major overhauls rather than small fixes . Their hesitation is significant—both have a history of breaking from party lines on healthcare, and with just a narrow Republican majority, their final decisions could determine the bill’s fate.
I’ll keep you updated on the Senate’s vote-a-rama.
Nehemiah D. Frank, founder, publisher & editor-in-chief
At BWST, we cover the moments that are reshaping our history and our rights—on paper, in court, at the bedside. When headlines skip the "why this matters" part, we're here to fill it in.
But we don’t do it alone.
$8/month — Keep investigations alive
$80/year — Fuel Black-led, truth-driven journalism
$250/year — Founding Member (Zoom access, name on our wall, exclusive content.
Share this post