Letters from an American

[Uncle Joe]

Heather Cox Richardson
Oct 24, 2025

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has canceled House business again next week, meaning that over the last 17 weeks, the House of Representatives will have worked on Capitol Hill for just 20 days. It also means that the House will not be back at work before November 1, when at least twenty-five states have said they will not be able to provide the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits more than 42 million Americans rely on to put food on the table.

(snip)

Trump is trying to make the impasse between the parties about the shutdown, but that obscures the actual fight at hand. What is at stake is the theory behind the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act: the destruction of the modern American government that was put in place in the 1930s by Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and expanded from then until 1981 under both Democratic and Republican presidents. Today’s fight is about the cuts made by billionaire Elon Musk as head of the “Department of Government Efficiency,” and cuts made after Musk left the administration by Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought.

Republicans have embraced the destruction of the modern government, slashing SNAP benefits, Medicaid, cancer research, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and so on. The Democrats are defending the government that has been in place since the 1930s, focused on leveling the playing field between the very wealthy and ordinary Americans.

Trump is determined to resurrect the pre–New Deal system in the United States and refuses to entertain any notion that his vision will not work. That refusal to be crossed showed over the past twenty-four hours when he exploded over a Canadian advertisement aired last night that quoted an April 25, 1987, speech in which Republican president Ronald Reagan criticized tariffs as “trade barriers” that “hurt every American worker and consumer.”

(snip)

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-24-2025

[evilhime]

1. convincing himself

which he has to do in order to keep going on . . . there is no way he can accept that the majority of the country sees him as something evil and destructive of our way of life.

[Dave Id]

2. Great job if you get one

Extended vacation with full healthcare benefits and you don't have to put in any work or even show up. Where do I apply?

[calimary]

3. I keep seeing phrases like "he exploded..." in anger or whatever.

And I find myself regretting that it’s always figuratively, not literally.

[stage left]

7. I hear you.

Ditto.

[h2ebits]

4. I get her daily "Letters from an American" in my email feed; she is also on Facebook and I share her dailies "public"

I urge everyone to follow her. . . .

[Shipwack]

6. Seconded! nt

[ananda]

5. I guess Trump will run the country with donations from billionaires.

...