The democratic party needs a total changeover. Take these four years and get rid of the centrist stupid people, find a candidate who's charismatic and gathered around just basic left leaning politics in economy and welfare. Produce a STRONG narrative in marketing with slogans that are quotable and that resonate with the voters who don't understand policy or politics in general. — Christoffer

Also ditch all the social stuff while you're at it. Nobody cares about identity politics or whether someone says mean words.

The solution isn't that hard, it really isn't. However I worry that the problem isn't that the Dems are incompetent but that they're incompetent by design. It's not like there weren't opportunities these past few election cycles, but the party always made sure that the candidate that was nominated was the candidate that wouldn't rock the boat. Maybe they'll let the party decide next time, though to be honest I'm hoping for more of a dark horse candidate like Obama than some of the obvious options on the table like Newsom.

The real shame will be 4 years of environmental deregulation, and the gutting of science. He’ll try to repeal the IRA, which may be possible now that they’ll have a trifecta (although a lot of republican districts have benefited, and with a slim house majority that may not fly). — Mikie

The IRA was the only reason why I wanted Harris to win since she literally has nothing on climate for me to care about. She would've continued the funding at least. It's fate is largely on the House now though as you say a slim GOP majority will likely not repeal the IRA given it's benefits to red districts. The great thing is that the Republicans don't really care about the debt so whatever tax cuts they have planned will likely just be subsidized through more borrowing.

Also, and equally damaging, is the free reign of appointing judges, which will further the courts to the right for a generation. I imagine Alito or Thomas will retire, and Sotomayer is in poor health I hear— so he may get another 3. He’ll have a full 4 years of a Republican Senate too, because 2026 there’s no chance Dems take it back, given the map. — Mikie

There's always the possibility of the Dems getting rid of the filibuster and passing all the court proof laws they want. I don't care about the argument that this gives Republicans the same power. If they want to use it to enact some of their preferred legislation like a federal abortion ban then they're more than welcome to try. Maybe we'll see politics actually be about a clash of ideas again.

But it’ll all likely swing back in ‘28. That is, if the party moves towards Bernie and away from the Clinton-Obama establishment neoliberal crowd. — Mikie

What names do you have in mind to pin our hopes behind? Bernie is too old now (older than Biden) and alot of the names floated before Harris became the nominee like Shapiro and Whitmer aren't really appealing. AOC also lost alot of her luster too since her initial victory in 2018.

I'm hoping for Jon Stewart personally. He's antiwar so he'll be way better on issues like Gaza and he's Jewish so the Israelis can't call him an anti-Semite. He's an outsider but a big enough celebrity that he can't be dismissed out of hand by the MSM. Plus he's funny and as Trump has shown being funny overrides literally everything in politics.

Things seem pretty peaceful to me. Where do you see crisis brewing? — frank

Trade policy since we're talking about it. A global trade war sounds like it'd be pretty bad for everyone including the US ironically enough.

The US is a declining superpower, China is heading toward superpower status. For a while, I'm guessing the two will be a stable pair for the world. — frank

Exactly and I think this will accelerate that.

The global economy is fairly integrated and the US is the primary stabilizer and engine. This is a situation the whole world is creating because everyone benefits from it. Transitioning to a different structure would require some kind of massive crisis. It's not the kind of thing anyone would choose. So China will continue to do the best it can with the US. — frank

One can argue that the current situation is a crisis, or has the potential to lead to one. At the very least I think alot of countries are gonna reassess their reliance on the US, which is to the benefit of countries like China. Even after Trump leaves how long will it be before people elect another lunatic?

I'm not supporting Trump here, but I'm just going through his policies. What you bring up here is why he wishes to impose tarriffs. He's using his bully power to limit trade with a nation that needs it, which will weaken them. If they locate other markets in Europe, I would expect tarriffs in Europe. And so what would then happen is that someone takes out a calculator and realizes the better way to make money is not to create their economic policies from moral theories, but instead to maximize profits. — Hanover

Tariffs only work with regards to the US-China/India trade relationship. You mentioned how places like Canada and Japan will invest more in the US because of the deregulation but China and India produce way more goods at a cheaper cost and Trump's tariffs won't do anything to change that.

If anything starting a global trade war may weaken the US's economic standing on the global stage, as other countries are more likely to become less dependent on the US market and trade with each other, strengthening China's hand. I think that is likely to happen even after Trump leaves office because the US has shown itself to be an unpredictable trading partner. That's not even going into the likely counter tariffs imposed on the US from other nations who don't like the idea of a 20% tariff being imposed on them.

This is the whole thing about him wanting to force NATO nations to pay for their own defense. He's threatening Europe with insecurity by underfunding NATO unless European nations better foot the bill. This fits his "everything is a deal" persona. — Hanover

Yeah but I don't see the end goal of all this to cut spending domestically and fund things like, say, healthcare. That may be what people like Bernie would do but Trump in his first term has increased military spending like every other president and I've seen no indications that he would change that in what he says. He only seems interested in NATO countries paying their fair share for it's own sake.

I'm not getting into the weeds of what causes what because I don't know enough about it. I can say that fuel costs are an important part of everyone's budget and they've increased. Sam's Club sells gas at like 10 cents cheaper per gallon and cars are up and down the street to save the $2.00 on a tank. It's part of inflation control. — Hanover

Gas prices have gone down since 2022 but we haven't seen the costs of other goods go down in turn. Inflation has consistently been happening for the past century while gas prices have fluctuated. There is no connection between gas prices being low and the cost of everyday items.

1. The US economy will boom under this plan, as global change regulations are expensive. The US will outproduce the EU and will attract places like Canada and Japan to engage in business with them. It is doubtful those nations will prioritize the ethics of global resource management over reduced prices. — Hanover

Yeah but it probably won't beat places like China and India given how much more lax their regulations are. Those are the countries they need to compete with.

4. This is exactly what Trump is trying to motivate. He's trying to save on defense costs by pushing it back on Europe. — Hanover

Has he suggested decreasing defense spending before? It sounds like he will just continue the status quo of the US being the biggest spender on defense by far. I think it appeals to his tough guy persona.

5. A shift toward more drilling will reduce oil prices and forestall climate friendly alternatives like electric cars and the like, which many Americans have no interest in anyway. Any drop in cost of living, even if temporary, will make Trump very popular because inflation of basic needs (like fuel, housing, and food) have risen drastically recently. — Hanover

There's only so much more drilling that can be done to reduce oil prices (contrary to what some on the right say the Biden administration is overseeing record production right now). Also contrary to what Trump says, there is little correlation between the price of other goods the price of oil and gas.

Never act in panic. This was a big mistake the democrats did this year. In panic they replaced Old Joe with laughing Kamalahaha. — Eros1982

I can point to alot of things that Dems did wrong (like running with the Cheneys while snubbing the Palestinians in their base) but replacing Joe was one of the only reasonable things they did this election cycle. Joe Biden was ultimately the biggest drag on the party even after dropping out and his connection to Kamala was what doomed her more than anything.

The problem with the Dems was what we saw these past few election cycles: the Dems never listen to their base. They could've let the voters decide who should best represent them but why do that and risk someone who the party establishment can't control when they can have one of their goons be nominated instead? The last time they didn't do that was in 2008 with a dark horse named Obama and look how that turned out for them. Clinton, Biden, and Harris were all terrible candidates. Clinton was massively unpopular when she ran in 2016, Biden couldn't even win the first few primaries despite being the frontrunner, and Harris didn't even get any votes in any of her primaries. But they were all nominated anyways and often through some shady tactics that undermined any opposition. Maybe next time they will let the party decide, but who knows if there will be a next time.

I don't know if Trump will actually do the things he promised. I hope not. But if he doesn't, his voters will be pissed. If he does, there will be serious negative impacts. That's the problem with simplistic proposals for complex problems. So it seems to me Trump is in a lose-lose situation. The good news: this bodes well for the next election cycle. — Relativist

He doesn't need to do them and would be better off not doing them. Things won't change but he can bullshit his way into telling people they have gotten better and alot of people may buy it. Of course I think he probably will do alot of them unfortunately. He sounds very passionate about tariffs as the solution to everything and he did do a trade war with China the last time around (though this time will be way more widespread and intense). Will people be swayed by his statements that he solved inflation despite prices likely increasing from the tariffs and them criticizing the Dems for being out of touch in the past 4 years? Maybe, I really cannot say, but it doesn't really matter at this point since they'll be dealing with it all the same.

Do you think that he and Vance and Musk and RFK and Bannon will be able to agree on anything and not end up derailing themselves in acrimony in a few months? — Tom Storm

Musk says he wants to slash government spending and bust unions, while RFK undermines vaccines. Both of these people could've pushed for climate action on the right given their backgrounds, but why make things better when you can make everything a hell of a lot worse?

And Harris could still carry the popular vote. But she's a weak uninspiring candidate is the problem. — Baden

I still blame Biden ultimately for tying his party's hands like this. Even Harris herself is incapable of distancing herself from him because she's a part of his administration. His decision to run again and his (even now) stubborn belief that he's capable of winning is the biggest reason why the Democrats lost.

Kind of accepted the possibility of Trump winning since Israel started their war in Lebanon in late September so the result tonight isn't surprising to me. Well we get what we voted for. We'll see if prices now magically go down to 2019 levels now that Trump is in office again.

However, "when shit hits the fan" as it were and you need daily approval of the president for all sorts of military actions and responses, then the inability to predict Trump is a problem. — boethius

In such a case he'll probably defer to a third party because he has no idea what the right military course of action would be and doesn't seem to be interested in being heavily involved in these types of situations for long (look at how he approached COVID). It'll probably depend on the people he would surround himself with so we will likely see things deescalate if he hands it off to people like Tucker or Tulsi though there is the (unlikely ATM) risk he appoints some crazy hawk like Bolton. I dunno, what does Project 2025 say about a future Trump cabinet?

Sure, but none of that is on the scale of crashing the global economy in a mad scheme to attack Iran without an endgame. — boethius

Maybe but my sense is that he can do literally anything and his base won't care one bit.

The issue of buying Trump is related in my these only to escalating the genocide, simply to avoid paying for something you can get for free anyways under Biden. — boethius

The one (I guess) good thing I can say about Biden is that although he would ultimately allow these escalations to happen in the end, he may be slowing them down with his constant concerns, which wouldn't happen with Trump. Israel doesn't care about the concerns that the US brings up but they could be slowing down their violations if only to keep up this appearance of listening to them. If the Israelis are impatient and want to nuke Gaza and be done with it, then they may very well be fine with paying some money to speed the genocide process up.

Obviously Trump has no problem wither further violence against the Palestinians, but if he's asked for something he's going to want something in return. — boethius

A small price for AIPAC. The great thing with Trump is that more things are on sale with him, such as the West Bank.

Where I'm unsure how easy it is to buy Trump is to do something that would make him unpopular like starting a giant war that can't be won and would also cause a major economic catastrophe sending oil sky high (he's also super proud of keeping oil prices low). — boethius

It's not a matter of him being bought off to outright start a war which I agree he wouldn't do if the option was explicitly presented to him. However there are plenty of escalatory actions that the guy may not know is escalatory. I'm talking about him accidentally putting Iran in a position where they put Trump in a position to start a war. Perhaps he could be told that assassinating a top Iranian general in the middle of Tehran like Israel did when they killed Nasrallah would be a good idea, with assurances from Netanyahu that this definitely wouldn't get the Iranians to retaliate in a major way. He could very well be paid off to do something like that, as he was when he moved the embassy to Jerusalem.

Definitely Trump participates in these sorts of transactions but all this stuff his base also wanted. His MO is more seeing what his base wants and then maximizing his gains in following through on that. — boethius

He can snub his base all he wants and they will still suck up to him. He was supposed to "drain the swamp" but his major piece of legislation was a tax cut to the rich. He was supposed to get Mexico to pay for the wall but shut down the government because congress wouldn't fund it. He was supposed to bring back jobs to the Midwest, which ironically enough happened under Biden. None of that matters.

There is nothing that he can't brush off with his usual bullshit. We unfortunately live in a political environment where substance doesn't matter which explains the current campaigns going on right now. His base currently supports him because they think he will bring down prices, but his economic plans include a 20% global tariff on all imported goods that most people believe is inflationary. That should mean something but his base doesn't and won't care.

Definitely possible. I'm definitely not arguing the genocide would stop under Trump, just that I find it unlikely he'll attack Iran. However, Trump being erratic and also loving good press, he may see forcing Israel to let aid in Gaza as an easy win. — boethius

He's probably not knowingly gonna do something that will be akin to starting a war, but I can't definitively rule out him being duped into it. He was convinced to assassinate Soleimani after all. The Iranians will do all they can to avoid escalation but as we see with the Israeli's constant provocation they can be moved to retaliate and who knows where that will go.

It's unclear to me what hard influence the Israeli lobby has over Trump so maybe he can be just paid off as you say, but perhaps not. — boethius

I mean he has been paid off by people like Sheldon Adelson and now his wife. He was the one who ripped up the Iran deal, moved the embassy to Jerusalem, and did the Abraham Accords which bypassed the Palestinian issue. Like you said, Trump isn't knowledgeable about the middle east so he could be casually led into agreeing to things that most other presidents won't including Biden.

As a result I don't see him giving a damn about the Palestinians or their plight. His administration would probably pass the responsibility to someone like his son in law Kushner who's made his intentions to build beachfront property on Gaza well known.

The reason to escalate as far as possible now while Biden is present, try to "finish the final solution job", would be, even if Trump can simply be bought, to simply avoid needing to do that. Escalating as far as possible now and then deescalating (whether it is Trump or Harris that wins) is simply cheaper than needing to cut a deal with the next president, whether Trump or Harris. — boethius

Biden is still gonna be president for a few more months so yeah the possibility of Israel starting a war with Iran isn't completely out of the question. In fact Netanyahu may be more likely to do it during the lame duck period just so he can tie the next administration's hands. If Netanyahu feels emboldened by a Trump victory to start a war with Iran that would probably be when he'd do it. Would also provide cover for his buddy Trump to pretend like he's some kind of dove too.

When Trump talks about Iran he never mentions a need to attack them but just goes on about how he sanctioned them and they were broke and he kept the price of oil down and they would never dare due anything because he's Trump etc. — boethius

He did suggest that Israel should attack the nuclear facilities in Iran in response to the Oct 1 attack. Of course that may be him playing politics because he thinks a war with Iran would help him but I just want to throw that out there.

Apart from that I agree that Trump's general aversion to wars will probably discourage Israel from starting a war with Iran since they won't have the ironclad guarantee that Biden would provide that the US would be involved. Of course that same assessment would also mean that entities like China and Russia would be more emboldened to invade places like Taiwan.

Unfortunately I don't see him encouraging Netanyahu to deescalate in Gaza or Lebanon especially if the US doesn't have to get involved. Trump is also paid off by folks like Adelson too mind you so probably he'll be transactional in matters like the West Bank.

:roll:

But he’s succeeded in convincing a very large number of people that the facts don’t matter, or alternatively, that they’re not facts, and that he’s the sole purveyor of facts. And that is definitely evil, although he has many willing co-conspirators in the dissemination of that evil. — Wayfarer

That says more about us than it does about him honestly. Fact is, even if Trump loses (an apparent coin flip at this point) it'll only be a matter of time before the next lunatic comes in that people will find reasons to support. It's happened before in Germany, it's happening now, and it will happen in the future.

Unfortunately alot of this election is based on vibes with very little substance and I say that for both sides. Eh, I guess people get what they voted for, whether they know it or not.

If the Democratic Party offered something real and started talking to working people, they’d break through a lot of this stuff — as Bernie did. But since they’re also a party of corporate America, there’s little chance of that. — Mikie

I mean they saved a bunch of the Teamster's pensions and yet alot of their members would still vote for the billionaire who's last administration has been terrible for labor. In fact I imagine alot of them would somehow believe Bernie is terrible for labor too while praising Musk as a hero for the working class. For sure Democrats often take their voters for granted and rarely deliver on their promises, but there are moments where I just feel like none of that really matters anymore and we've all just gone insane. For sure it mattered in 2016 when Trump ran on a populist message and won, but he's not even doing that anymore and that doesn't seem to have changed a thing.

Harris’s lead has gone from roughly 2.8 to 2.4, with nearly every serious forecaster calling it a coin flip. Nate Silver has Trump’s odds at 50.6% or something like that. Little reason for the 60% number if not for manipulation. — Mikie

I think you're not taking into account how both sides feel after 2016 and 2020. Even in an objectively toss-up race the left, after having been burned by the polling errors in the previous elections, are way more likely to be pessimistic and believe that there is some unknown factor in Trump's favor this time. Hell that is the sense I get from reading your earlier prediction. Even in 2020 as the polls were showing Biden solidly ahead they always had most people expecting that Trump will win anyways. Unless Harris is up by double digits at this point I'm not surprised that the markets will go in that direction.

He'll surely come up with some excuse as long as he sees this war as key to his political survival. For sure Sinwar was a terrible person who was a major obstacle to a ceasefire deal but I am kind of surprised that he was taken out since Netanyahu and him were partners relying on each other in keeping this bloody conflict going as much as Iran and the US were partners in keeping it from escalating any further. From what I can gather it wasn't a targeted assassination like Nasrallah or Haniyeh so I'm guessing Bibi screwed up and accidentally reopened the Gaza ceasefire talks again, something he really doesn't want.

Now that Sinwar passed away—who was the main objective of Israel since October 7th—Netanyahu would like to stop killing civilians in Gaza and Lebanon, right? — javi2541997

Apparently Bibi is now saying the war isn't yet over because they have to get the hostages out, which is why he is continuing to reject a ceasefire deal that does both at the same time.

Zero. There has been no cases where IDF soldiers and/or Israeli civilians went house to house murdering, raping, and torturing Palestinians in a manner comparable to 10/7. — BitconnectCarlos

Apart from the 40,000+ Palestinians killed, many of whom were tortured and raped by the IDF. But if you happen to disagree I invite you to go to Gaza yourself and tell them all that.

Never underestimate the impact how a large terrorist attack can be put to use to rouse people to support war. — ssu

What the Israelis don't seem to understand is that it goes both ways. How many Oct 7s have happened to the people in Gaza and now Lebanon and how many civilians have been radicalized as a result?

The DNC strategy at this point is to lay low, appeal to the middle, say as little as possible (see any of the uninspiring, friendly interviews she’s done), and bring it back to how bad Trump is and was. — Mikie

I think it was a mistake for Harris to keep the Biden people on her campaign team for this reason. These are the same idiots who thought it was a good idea to hide a candidate with a 35% approval rating and hope for the best when people vote. They're still acting like they're running with a guy who must be covered in bubble wrap until election day. Either because these people are that incompetent or they think that changing strategies with a new candidate is an implicit acknowledgement of their own failures is unclear but they're not changing their strategy and taking advantage of a more energetic candidate like they should be. Of course, the Republicans haven't really adapted to running against someone who isn't Biden either. They still believe for whatever reason that Harris cannot finish a sentence and that she needs notes or a teleprompter to say anything.

That being said this strategy isn't that really much different from Trump's to be honest (apart from arguably the laying low part). He's not doing as many events as he did in 2016 (though he is making up for it in other ways), he's trying to appeal to the middle with regards to abortion, his statements always lack any substance, he's doing uninspiring friendly interviews with right wing podcasters and Fox, and every time he speaks he has to talk about how bad the Democrats are.

Anyway, I do recognize that Trump may make things worse and he already contributed to this mess when he moved the USA embassy to Jerusalem (among many other things he did, with help from Nikki Haley in the UN General Assembly). — Eros1982

Not to judge your voting intentions since I can sympathize with your frustration but it's not really a question whether Trump will be worse (he will), so you might as well be honest and own the decision.

And it should be easy for you to look it up yourself but you apparently prefer to stay misinformed. Can't help people who are unwilling to help themselves.

Not surprisingly, what you want to see and what is the case are two very different things.

I remember when the right used to be all about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and defunding big bad government institutions like FEMA. I mean, they still are all about that, but you know...

Even if we don't know the full story what we do know already paints Netanyahu in a bad light. He was warned by the Egyptians of an attack on Oct 7. Netanyahu in his arrogance ignored those warnings and he's been trying to make this crisis worse in an attempt to save face ever since.

A long war in Lebanon can be a double edged sword though. It helps Netanyahu extend his forever war and stay in power for the time being, but it can eventually become a mess which would hurt him politically especially if it results in alot of Israeli casualties and it doesn't help get people back to their homes. Hezbollah isn't Hamas and they still haven't completely eliminated the latter after a year of constant fighting.

The political reasoning is to get back the tens of thousands of Israelis that have been evacuated from Northern Israel, and hence the likely goal is to "destroy Hezbollah" altogether. — ssu

Exactly. If they were really concerned with getting the Israelis back and saving the hostages in Gaza (which are probably completely doomed so much as they are still alive) there was an easy way out which Bibi refused to take.

As for the land invasion itself, if history is any indication a ground invasion wouldn't be a quick and painless operation. If there is any reason why Netanyahu doesn't want to start a war with Iran right now it would be because Israel thinks it is necessary to defang Hezbollah as a threat altogether before doing anything else (at least if Kushner's statement is anything to go by). They can still bomb Israel hard even at this stage.

Yet a large scale attack would mean that the US would give a green light, which isn't actually so difficult as already the US has committed to the defense from incoming Iranian missiles. If Joe Biden (and Kamala) are started to be called chickens or whimps, that might easily get the US to side with it's ally even during an election. — ssu

Apparently the US is coordinating with Israel on a response unlike last time. Oddly enough that makes me feel a bit more confident about the possibility that it won't be too escalatory (or be specifically designed with an offramp in mind) despite the fact that the US is getting involved. That being said, I'm sure the Israelis may try to do their own secret operation, though there is only so much they can do unilaterally. I can certainly see it avoiding oil infrastructure for the reasons you described unless the Israelis really want to humiliate Biden even more.

War is the main interest of the current Israeli government to cover the corruption and power abuse of Netanyahu. He was lucky with the attack on October 7th. He would be locked up in prison otherwise. — javi2541997

Netanyahu is interested in more war to stay out of jail. The rest of his coalition are just in it for the body count.

As Israel and Iran are distant from each other, there is a geographic reason that limits warfighting capabilities. Hence both sides will talk about limited actions: they simply cannot fight the war in any other way. — ssu

Of course both sides can only fight using air strikes but if Iran wanted to cause more damage they probably would've done so. Same with Hezbollah. Apparently alot of their strike here was intercepted like last time, and likely it was by design. They are clearly telling Israel right now that they are done and if Israel is done then things will cool down.

Now tell me how Netanyahu won't strike back when he has said the above? When you say Iran will pay and that Israel will retaliate against it's enemies, it would be quite difficult then to follow by not doing anything. — ssu

Of course I'm not suggesting that I expect Netanyahu will hold back. It was honestly surprising that he even held back in April. Like I said, Israel, helmed by Netanyahu, wants to escalate as far as possible. They really want to strike their nuclear facilities, which they can't really do by themselves, but again that's where the US comes in.

Last time the two warring parties refrained their military actions, but likely this time it will be far more. — ssu

Iran still refrained this time around. The problem has always been Israel and their desire to drag everyone into a war. It doesn't matter how much the other sides want peace if one party believes a war is in their best interest. That's how WWII started.

A complete and utter failure of the Biden policy of letting Israel do whatever it wanted in Gaza in the hopes that it won't do whatever it wanted in Lebanon.

I don't see why Israel needs the US to fight its war for it. These past few days Israel decapitated Hezbollah. Hamas has been neutered. Israeli intelligence is unmatched. MBS just made a statement that he couldn't care less about Palestinians. A good portion of the Arab world cheers today at the death of Nasrallah while in the west they protest - Iranians, Syrians, Lebanese. — BitconnectCarlos

And the US better stay out of it too. A ground invasion is probably where this is heading (given that air strikes are insufficient to destroy alot of Hezbollah's tunnels and military infrastructure), but as long as Iran and the US don't get dragged in, then the IDF can enjoy being bogged down by such an adventure like they did in 2006.

Springfield was one of the many dying towns back during 2016 (one of the places that would've voted for Trump back then on his false promise to bring back jobs) before being revitalized as immigrants started coming in and bringing much needed labor to the region. This isn't to say that the infrastructure isn't being strained as a result of such a large influx of people, but there's a reason why the mayor of Springfield and the governor of Ohio, both Republicans, aren't pushing for mass deportations like the rest of their party are.

That was very stupid of him. But, I am wondering: does this guy take any advices from other people? — Eros1982

He does but that doesn't mean he listens to them. He even said it himself in one of his rallies that they keep telling him to focus on policy instead of personal attacks... before going on personal attacks.

The problem with trying to give him advice is that he ultimately rejects the very premise of it. It implies that 1) other people know something he doesn't and 2) he has to follow what they say. For someone with his ego, it's completely unacceptable.

Why didn't he do this during his first term? Unlike Harris he was actually president and actually did a big tax cut bill for the ultra wealthy.