| Full transparency: It’s kind of hard to write a newsletter about a bill that keeps changing! I’ll do my best, but just to give you an idea of what we’re working with, the House Budget Committee needed to break up their 3,976-page report on the 1,116-page Big Beautiful Bill into nine separate documents because of “file size limitations.” My Chrome tabs are buckling under the pressure: It’s obvious by now that nothing about this bill is normal. To say it’s merely a “tax cut” is like calling the Titanic a boat. The legislation covers virtually every corner of life: There’s stuff on health care, nutrition, shipbuilding, missile defense, restaurant tips, golden domes … it’s a minefield of policies, which might be why Republicans are having a hard time cobbling together support for it. The Committee on Rules met Wednesday at 1 a.m. EST for an emergency meeting, and judging by the photos on Getty Images, it was a rough night for many an elected official. And the daylight hours were no better: The White House continued to breathe down the necks of Republican lawmakers, telling them failing to pass President Donald Trump’s signature tax bill before Memorial Day would be the “ultimate betrayal.” But Kathryn Anne Edwards is pretty sure Americans will be the ones feeling betrayed if Republicans proceed to cut the two largest programs that help low-income families the most: Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Kathryn calls the tax bill “a relic of a bygone economic era” in which economists felt that giving money to low-wage workers was wasteful and inefficient. Now, thanks to empirical research, we know the opposite is true. “Research released just this month, for example, uses the variation in timing of state Medicaid expansion to show how effective the coverage is: It reduces mortality by 21% for new enrollees, at a cost well below what they would contribute to the economy,” she writes. “SNAP also has huge economic returns, if for no other reason that it gets money into the hands of people who are quick to spend it. The Department of Agriculture estimates that during a recession, every $1 billion spent on the program increases GDP by $1.5 billion.” As it currently stands, Justin Fox says the bill “delivers no deficit reduction and adds huge amounts of hassle for poorer Americans.” But perhaps one part of the bill — a decree that would require Medicaid recipients to put in at least 80 hours a month of work, community service, training or education — is worth pursuing, writes the Bloomberg editorial board. In theory, a work requirement could save the US $280 billion over a decade, but such a mandate would be, in the editors words, “devilishly complex to administer.” But other cuts have Ron Brownstein scratching his head: “The House Republican drive to revoke federal tax incentives for clean energy is testing one of the most durable rules of Congressional behavior: don’t vote against the economic interests of your own district.” Despite lackluster political support, red states got a ton of jobs out of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act: Then there’s the elephant in the room, says Allison Schrager. For all the talk of Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill delivering a debt bomb, she says it’s retirement we should be worrying about. “The biggest source of America’s long-term debt problem, which is not even included in the 10-year budget projections, is unfunded entitlements, largely Social Security and Medicare,” she writes. The fact that neither party is willing to touch retirement savings with a 10-foot poll doesn’t bode well for the future of this nation. I’d say our lawmakers should sleep on all of that, but given House Speaker Mike Johnson’s “aggressive” timetable and the text Representative Ralph Norman sent Axios today — “THINGS ARE NOT LOOKING GOOD!!” — I don’t think they’ll be getting a lot of shuteye tonight. Elsewhere in self-imposed deadlines: Elon Musk has vaguely promised that his robotaxi service in Austin will launch “by the end of June.” Knowing him, it’ll be June 30th at 11:59 p.m. Liam Denning says the Tesla CEO has no wiggle room on his due date, since he already botched the robotaxi unveiling in October, which was initially scheduled for August but had to be pushed back because, well, this is Elon Musk we’re talking about. “Musk has spoken of launching 10-20 vehicles, initially. Who they carry, and when, where and how they do so, are all important variables,” Liam writes, who says Tesla’s lofty valuation hinges on a successful rollout. You’d think such high stakes would mean the Tesla chief is hard at work trying to get a slot on Kim Kardashian’s calendar, but no: Musk spent Wednesday in Washington listening to Trump spread genocidal conspiracy theories during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. What happened to taking a step back from politics! As Liam says, “Musk’s politicking has turned Tesla showrooms and chargers into targets for his opponents, and robotaxis may also be in the crosshairs.” We’ll find out in June, I guess? | 
