Before I start this post:
The first economic protest is this Friday, February 28. To participate, buy nothing from Amazon, General Mills, Nestlé, Walmart, Target, McDonald’s.
Moving on…
It has been brought to my attention that last night’s House vote was not the end of the line for Trump’s budget package. I stand corrected. This budget moves on to the Senate for a vote.
The problem for me is that the GOP has a relatively larger majority in the Senate than the House. This is the breakdown:
- 53 Republicans
- 45 Democrats — subtract John Fetterman who votes with republicans. That leaves us with
- 44 democrats, but we have
- +2 Independents who vote with us.
Final count:
54 Republicans will win and 46 Democrats will rethink their life choices. (What’s the point?)
Are 5 republican senators going to vote no? I’m so sure that the answer is no that if I’m wrong, I’ll stop charging readers for my posts… I’ll need to start charging first, then I can stop charging.
Allow me to *jansplain smore, why the Senate vote is merely a formality. Budgets are not like other bills. If this were a regular bill, there would be the filibuster rule requiring 60-votes to pass. This is a reconciliation bill, only needs a simple majority in the Senate. Filibuster can not stall the budget in the Senate, nor does it require the President’s signature.
*Jan is the quintessential middle child who overcompensates for her unfortunate placement in the birth-order by obsessively researching everything — just ignore her jansplaining, everyone else does.
Trump’s “big beautiful budget” (his words) passed the biggest hurdle.
I’ll save my doomsday post for the Senate vote. I’m writing it now, it will be great. It will include car crashes and nudity.
In the comments of my last two posts, I expressed my fears about Ukraine. On the bright side, I believe the U.S. will be ejected from NATO and replaced by Ukraine. Fingers crossed.
How are you peeps holding up? I’ll share my three tips for staying calm. Feel free to share yours in the comments.
- A meditation pillow. I bought mine many months ago, but I don’t know what to do with it. It didn’t come with instructions. So, I just bury my face in it and inhale, smelling it while I snot-sob.
- I look at dogs and cats that need homes on petfinder.com. I imagine a world where I could help them all. I think I just want to go to dog heaven.
- Writing is my catharsis. I’m very mean before I edit. Reading is good too.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5308067/house-republicans-budget-vote-mike-
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5308067/house-republicans-budget-vote-mike-johnson
A lot from Lydia 
Lydia, here is the best description I have found about the state of the “big, beautiful” bill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjYHSRgP5Ow.
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Thank you! Everyone needs to watch this. She explains it perfectly, and it makes me feel a little better.
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I’m so sad about the budget passage thing. I agree that the Senate will likely pass it on the first vote. Life for the not-rich will be especially dangerous if Medicaid goes away.
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