This stuff about Steve Bannon (Steve Bannon???) issuing a warning of sorts about Musk and DOGE (and Trumpty) going after Medicaid seemed outlandish. At first glance I figured it was satire but I didn’t see The Onion listed as the author. I, hell all of us have good reason to doubt Bannon’s sincerity when it comes to anything decent and good but he’s right. Gutting Medicaid will hurt a LOT of people in a LOT of Red States. MAGAs. People in rural areas who have limited health care access to begin with and too few hospitals. Lots of such places had to close the last time Trump was in the WH but a whole lot more are now on the chopping block. Take away Medicaid funds they get, and in fact count on an awful lot of hospitals in pure MAGA territory will close. Not even Emergency care will be available!
Not that Bannon cares any more about poor and working class people than Trump or Musk or the average Republican on Capitol Hill. However, Bannon knows MAGA. A helluva lot better than Elon Musk and perhaps even Trump. If, as it seems Bannon’s worried about MAGA blowback from gutting Medicaid both Trumpty-Dumpty and Muskrat should damn well pay attention and slow the hell down. As this article from Newsweek tells us Bannon is at the very least telling them to slow down and think things through before taking any significant action:
Steve Bannon has warned Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), that he needs to be “careful” about cutting Medicaid as a “lot of MAGA” uses the health care plan.
Bannon, a former White House chief strategist during President Donald Trump‘s first term, made the remarks during Thursday’s episode of his War Room podcast.
Take note of that second part. Bannon didn’t quietly contact Trump or Musk, he came out publicly on the matter. More importantly he’s got an audience. Musk has already got many a MAGA mumbling, worried about Medicare, Social Security and other programs they rely on. They LOVE things like free school lunches (and sometimes breakfast), SNAP (food stamps), Head start (saves on child care expenses) and all manner of things. They just don’t believe “those people” as in non-white folks and especially those who don’t openly proclaim their worship of their orange turd god Emperor to get them. But as Bannon points out shutting all that down, especially Medicaid is going to cost Trump bigly with his MAGAs. Lose their support, or at least turn it into something much less fervent and the fear of them Trumpty counts on to keep everyone (especially Republicans in Congress) in line changes the equation.
Bannon’s comments this past Wednesday included more criticism. Looking at the GOP budget proposal and how it’s already slated to take away 150 billion a year said it wouldn’t work. So there’s that. At the same time Newsweek tells us this:
Bannon has long been an advocate of reducing federal spending. A recent Wall Street Journal profile of War Room reported Bannon called Russ Vought, the newly confirmed White House budget chief, demanding he urge Musk to speed up his cost-cutting plans as “we look like idiots.”
So which is it Steve? I don’t for one second believe you’ve developed a conscience. Like Trump you see MAGAs as good for two things only – voicing loud and consistent support for Trump (mixed with threats against politicians who don’t) and actually casting votes for Trump. I think at the very least you are trying to hedge your bets by warning that gutting Medicaid will piss off millions of MAGAs in multiple states including RED ones. On the other hand you want that program and others dismantled. Just in a more subtle way that Trump won’t get blamed for. Republicans on Capitol Hill should do the job for Trump. Not Musk.
I happen to believe Bannon’s anger with the U.S. and the free world has made him into a true anarchist. Tear/Burn it all down is his mindset. He’s plenty rich enough to live out the rest of his years in luxury on some small island somewhere and revel in the destruction he wrought. Which brings me to the Jedi Mind Trick thing. The mutual loathing between Bannon and Musk is public. Palatable even. What if what Bannon is up to is attempting to GOAD Musk into being even more reckless than he already is? Worse, what if Musk takes the bait?
By the end of September and this fiscal year the pain will be widespread. I recall the FORMER Gov. of Kentucky campaigning on ‘getting rid KYNECT’, the federally approved Obamacare replacement in that very red state. It was a major part of his platform, despite the program being wildly popular. Well, he won and followed through on his campaign promise and Kentuckians were mightily pissed! How much so? They did the unthinkable – put a DEMOCRAT in the Governor’s Mansion. And I should note re-elected him. In Kentucky, a state that hates both Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell and has done so since forever but keep voting them new Senate terms.
So Bannon’s right when he says Trump and Musk are playing with fire when it comes to gutting Medicaid. Like the voters of Kentucky refused to believe Bevins would actually DO what he insisted he’d do until he up and did it, MAGAs won’t believe Trump will allow Medicaid to be destroyed until he actually does it. And the nearest ER might be WAY over an hour away. And the ambulance bill arrives in the mail. But it could be coming before this year is out. And next year it will be hung around the neck of every Republican running for office from the local and county level all the way up to Congress!
Bannon is correct that Trump and Musk should hold their horses on Medicaid. The only question is whether he wants to give Trump an “out” to shift blame to Congressional Republicans and hope to somehow retain both chambers of Congress, or to burn it all down in a “screw em all for shutting me out of the action” mentality. Time will tell because I think Musk is in fact going to move quickly to gut Medicaid.
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