While I was sleeping early Friday morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the rescission bill which claws back funds approved by Congress in a bipartisan process. Republicans rescinded parts of previous spending agreements they didn’t like, which were needed at the time to pass the bill. They have a thin majority, so can do many things they want. Notably, funds for USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have been cut in the rescission bill. It now heads to the president’s desk for signature.

The rescission bill followed the widely unpopular reconciliation bill which also cuts federal programs while increasing the national debt. The president signed the reconciliation bill on July 4.

I need to stop and take a deep breath.

Like many, I contacted my federal representatives multiple times during the weeks the bills were being considered. They all (Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks) voted for both the reconciliation and the rescission. This week I received replies from Miller-Meeks and Ernst, explaining their vote on the reconciliation. Grassley posted a press release on his website. There are some nuances, but all of them gave the main reason for voting for it as extending the 2017 tax cuts.

Let’s start with Miller-Meeks. This was the crux of her email to me: “I was proud to support H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which permanently extended the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Without this bill, the average Iowan would have seen an increase of $2,063 in the annual tax bill. I was proud to work with my colleagues to prevent this from happening.” I don’t know this “average Iowan,” of whom she speaks. I didn’t see our household taxes change because of the 2017 tax cut. I paid zero taxes for 2024, so there are no taxes to cut going forward. Wealthy Iowans will do better. In each of my emails to the congresswoman I pointed out that we cannot afford to borrow more money for tax cuts. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that’s one of the main features of the bill, the U.S. will incur trillions of dollars in additional debt.

Someone in Senator Ernst’s office apparently read my emails opposing the bill. The response addressed Medicaid, as did I. The core message was similar to Miller-Meeks: “On July 1, 2025, I joined the entire Iowa delegation in voting to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which the President signed into law on July 4, 2025. In addition to preventing the largest tax increase in history for our families, farmers, and small businesses, the bill strengthens the integrity of Medicaid and prioritizes those who truly need help by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.” Ernst did not address the borrowing needed to cover the loss of tax revenue for the U.S. Treasury.

Senator Grassley was singing the same tune in his July 1 press release, “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today voted to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to protect Iowans from being hit with the largest tax increase in history and provide historic investments in border security and law enforcement.”

If we think logic and reason apply to these votes, they don’t. They are simply Republicans doing Republican things with their audacity increasing with each day the Congress is in session. The direction hasn’t changed much since the Reagan administration, except for Republicans doing all this with more transparency. This one was really in our face. They rely on the American electorate being asleep at the wheel and paying their law-making only a minimum of attention. “Tax cut? Good,” the unwitting might say.

I haven’t come to understand the meaning of these bills, other than they go against the grain of good governance and Republicans don’ t care. What I do understand is Miller-Meeks and Ernst are up for re-election and if we care about our country, we should be contributing in some way to replacing them with Democrats.