General
This column originally appeared in Kyle Whitmire’s newsletter, Alabamafication. Sign up here to get it in your inbox for free.
Whoever hands out the U.S. Senate speaking gigs must have it in for Sen. Katie Britt.
A year and a half ago, Britt went on national television to deliver the State of the Union rebuttal to President Joe Biden and walked away from it, deep sigh, a sitting duck for Saturday Night Live.
And if anyone had forgotten that, Britt returned to national television again this weekend — on a show called “State of the Union,” no less — to defend the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” to CNN host Jake Tapper.
I know somebody had to go sell that stinker a day before the Senate vote, but couldn’t it be somebody other than Britt? Hasn’t Britt learned to say “no” yet? Sure, she called her autobiography “God Calls Us to Do Hard Things,” but that doesn’t mean every lousy speaking request is coming from the Almighty.
Let’s be clear what this bill does. It cuts federal spending on programs for poor people but still increases the national debt by $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the latest estimates.
How does that work? At the same time it cuts programs for the needy, like Medicaid and food stamps, it’s cutting taxes for the rich. By even more. It’s like Robinhood, only backwards.
Meanwhile, the bill offloads responsibility for the safety net programs onto the states, including Alabama.
But somehow not Alaska, maybe.
While Britt has been promoting this bill like she’s trying out again for the Crimson Tide cheerleading squad, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has been considerably less enthusiastic and hinted she might vote against it. The consequence for Murkowski and her constituents has been anything but punitive. To the contrary, the Senate tried to change the bill to offer Alaska better Medicaid benefits and tax breaks for … uh … whaling.
I hadn’t realized whale hunting was still a thing in the 21st century, but turns out, some native American people there not only get to hunt the sea creatures still but also get to write off $10,000 a year for things such as explosive projectiles. Saturday’s draft of the BBB, would have raised that to $50,000 a year.
The Senate parliamentarian later ruled that some of these changes would derail lawmakers’ fast-track push to get the bill done before July 4, but at least Murkowski looked out for her constituents’ health care and their continued efforts blow up Moby Dick.
The BBB gets Britt’s support seemingly for free.
The 1,000-page bill changes and grows by the hour, but so far, I have not found any similar benefits for Alabamians, not even the chance to shoot a bald eagle or something.
On State of the Union, Britt took credit for spearheading a $200-per-year increase in the child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200, which might seem like something except that the House plan increased it to $2,500 and the Senate plan actually pared that back. At the same time, the Senate plan increases the deficit faster than the House plan.
If you had an older relative who spent money like this, you’d think they’d been taken in by a online marketing scam.
On Tapper’s show, Britt argued that states such as Alabama would pay for SNAP cuts by making the program more efficient.
“What we are doing on that is making sure that states have some skin in the game,” Britt said.
Some states, she said, have SNAP error rates greater than 60 percent. (Curiously, some is actually one — Alaska in 2023.) The SNAP error rate is the percentage of incorrect payments — either over or under what is due to recipients.
For some, skin in the game will mean getting skinned. States with error rates over 6 percent, which currently includes Alabama, will have to pay a portion of SNAP benefits or cut their programs. In the last year, Alabama’s error rate rose to 8.3 percent.
But Britt isn’t concerned.
“Are you guaranteeing that these changes that you are voting for, Monday presumably, will not hurt recipients in Alabama — for those who are citizens and who truly need and deserve it?” Tapper asked Britt on Sunday.
“Absolutely,” she said.
As Britt has campaigned for the bill, one Senator has voiced some skepticism — the senior senator from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville.
“Everybody that’s going to be in state government is going to be concerned about it,” Tuberville told Politico three weeks ago. “I don’t know whether we can afford it or not.”
Tuberville has a reason to be worried, as the odds-on front runner for Alabama governor, he might have to clean up this Big Beautiful mess back home. That still hasn’t stopped him from voting for it to clear procedural hurdles, though.
But he flinched.
When we have to depend on Tuberville for signs of discernment, we’re in trouble.
“Just don’t bankrupt us is all I’m saying,” Tuberville said. “Don’t bankrupt us.”
Meanwhile, Britt shows no such worries.
When it came time for someone to go on TV and argue that a bill that cuts taxes for the rich and safety nets for the poor wouldn’t hurt Alabama, she took the job. She went on TV and promoted the bill’s promise without a concession of concern, not a shadow of doubt.
She didn’t flinch.
She didn’t hesitate.
She showed nothing but enthusiasm.
And soon, Alabama will have to live with that.
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THIS WILL BE ON THE TEST
😖 Speaking of scams. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville is asking supporters to donate money to buy Rep. Ilhan Omar a one-way ticket to Somalia after the Minnesota congresswoman criticized the Trump administration for deploying U.S. Armed Forces to police protests in Los Angeles. The money will actually go to Tuberville’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign.
Tuberville fundraising off calls for Rep. Omar to leave U.S.
[The Washington Post]
E.O. Wilson would be proud. Alabama forester Kyle Lybarger has built a huge following on social media by talking about plants. On TikTok and Instagram, Lybarger nerds out over the state’s biodiversity and raises money to protect endangered species.
In Alabama, a Social Media Influencer Really Gets Wild
[The New York Times]
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