Well, Lisa Murkowski, may think she saved Alaska from the Medicaid cuts and shifted her vote so Vance could break the 50-50 tie, but she will learn she was deeply mistaken because what affects he Nation will affect Alaska as well. A senator may have been elected from just one state, but the obligation is to the entire Nation. She failed.
The bill passed by the Senate now goes to the House. But this bill is more than a Robin Hood in reverse; it makes major policy changes for health care, the environment, and in providing for the poor. Here we may have a chance. Although the three Republicans in New Jersey voted for the House bill, we can badger their offices, demanding that they do not give into greed and oligarchy.
It may be Schadenfreude, but something in me hopes all those who voted for the new regime find themselves in the same boat as the poor, especially as their farms and factories lose workers and they go bankrupt. The problem is, of course, we in the middle class and the poor will suffer more, as we always do while corporations get their immoral tax breaks.
Prayer for the Day
We know, O God, what is required of us, yet we falter;
We know what we need to do, yet we hesitate;
We use helplessness as an excuse for our inaction,
For we fear what will happen f we respond.
Move us, O Holy Spirit, beyond the excuses we create,
So we may have the courage to take on evil.
In the name of the One who is our strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Since 2015 the world’s richest 1 percent have gained at least $33.9 trillion in real terms, enough to end annual global poverty 22 times over. Billionaires – roughly 3,000 people – have gained $6.5 billion in real terms, more than the $4 trillion estimated annual cost of achieving sustainable development goals.
OXFAM, from Report dated 26 June 2025
Executives of such [rural] hospitals are bracing for cuts that could force them to scale back services, causing ripple effects across their communities that would affect patients regardless of what kind of insurance they have.
Paige Cunningham, in The Washington Post, July 2, 2025
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
And have not remembered the rock of your refuge;
Therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,
Though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,
And make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
Yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.
Isaiah 17: 10-11