Headlines / Quote of the Week
Fri., June 6, 2025
Big Beautiful Bill: Trump’s disgustingly named “big beautiful bill” is big, all right. If passed in its current form, it will add $2.4 trillion to the U.S. deficit, according to an analysis this week from the Congressional Budget Office. Most of the money will be spent on tax cuts that primarily benefit the rich, surprise! The cuts would have cost $3.8 trillion, The New York Times reports, but the bill also chops about $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. That will cause about 10 million Americans to lose health insurance, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.
Musk/Trump Fissures: You may recall that Republicans have wailed about the dangers of federal budget deficits for generations. You may recall that local immigrant Elon Musk was illegally appointed the head of an illegally created federal agency – DOGE – to slash the federal budget. And yet you may be surprised to learn that Musk is holding true to his professed values this time and criticizing the big, beautiful bill. Musk called it a “disgusting abomination” in a series of posts on X Tuesday, telling the Republican House members who voted for it, “You know you did wrong.”
Losing Legwork on Illness Treatment: A big part of Musk’s work at DOGE was slashing funding for medical research, reducing our understanding of chronic diseases and slowing the development of vaccines. The New York Times reports the National Institutes of Health has ended 1,389 research awards and delayed funding for 1,000 projects affecting research on Alzheimer’s, cancer, substance use, and other diseases.
Were Those Austinites Really Gang Members?: During Trump’s first term, critics noted that though he claimed his deportation program would focus on violent criminals, it was mostly normal law-abiding immigrants who were detained. A report in The Texas Tribune suggests the same dynamic is underway now. The report details how a group of 47 Venezuelan relatives and friends, including nine minors, were arrested in South Austin in late March. Authorities claimed they were members and associates of a Latin American gang, Tren de Aragua, and that more details would be released “as they become available.” Three months later, they have provided no proof that those they arrested are connected to the gang.
Property Tax Cut Vote: We cover a lot of our elected leaders’ concerning accomplishments in the recently concluded legislative session. One of the things we didn’t discuss is the property tax cuts for Texas homeowners and businesses that voters will get a chance to approve, or not, in November. If voters agree, homeowners will see their property tax exemption raised from $100,000 to $140,000, saving the average homeowner about $400 a year. The cuts will cost about $50 billion over the next two years, The Texas Tribune reports. That’s a huge figure which is expected to wipe out the budget surpluses the state has enjoyed for the last two biennia.
SNAPped Apart: So yeah, property taxes = bad and free Coke and Snickers = also bad. Legislators passed a bill in the last week of the session that will prohibit people on food assistance programs from using SNAP to buy soda and candy. The bill, expected to be signed into law quickly, mirrors similar legislation in Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska. Meanwhile, Republicans in Washington are proposing big cuts to SNAP (see: big beautiful bill).
Please Don’t Take Our Pot Industry: The rest of us get to continue consuming mass quantities of Coca-Cola, Big Red, Dr Pepper, Snickers, M&Ms, and all things sugar, but you know what we don’t get to do? Smoke that kind bud (legally anyhow). For, as the Chronicle has covered in detail, Texas Republicans also passed Senate Bill 3 this session at the behest of the state’s top prude, Dan Patrick, outlawing THC products. But wait! SB 3 hasn’t yet been signed into law! And according to KUT, Gov. Greg Abbott has received roughly 120,000 handwritten letters from farmers, small-business owners, and veterans asking him to veto SB 3.
I Throw My Candies at You: How likely do you think that would be – for Abbott to veto SB 3? We will offer an opinion – zero percent likely. Still, The Texas Tribune reports that Abbott is facing intense political pressure to veto SB 3 from hemp industry leaders and ordinary Texans and he could score a huge and strange public relations victory for doing so. But he would have to risk angering Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to do so. Patrick demonstrated the depth of his own reefer rage at a bizarre press conference on SB 3 in the last week of the session, throwing THC candies at one reporter and calling another stupid for questioning the bill.
Our Finest Session: And by the way, how great was the 89th session of the Texas Legislature? Great, right? Well Republicans sure think so. As the session concluded on Monday, Dan Patrick told his fellow senators that “this is the finest session any Texas Senate has ever had.” Not everyone agreed. Republican Rep. Brian Harrison told The Texas Newsroom that “it would’ve been better for Texans if this session ended the day after it started.”
Like Oil and ICE: One of the many victories that made Patrick so happy was the approval of Senate Bill 8, which will require county sheriffs who run a jail to have a written agreement partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This has our own sheriff, Sally Hernandez, mulling how she will abide by the new law and still honor the Austin community’s antipathy for ICE. An agency spokesperson told KUT that the sheriff is “carefully considering” how to partner with ICE and that the choice on how to do so would be based on “available resources.”
King of the Hill Actor Killed: Voice actor Jonathan Joss – best known for his role as John Redcorn on King of the Hill – was fatally shot in San Antonio Sunday. According to a post made by his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, they were checking the mail at the heavily damaged remains of their house, which burned down in January. Police reported on Monday that they found no evidence of the shooting being motivated by Joss’ sexual orientation, however Kern de Gonzales says that prior to pulling the gun, the shooter shouted homophobic slurs at both men.
Councilwoman Jackie Goodman Dies: Former Austin City Council Member Jackie Goodman has died, after recovering from a surgery this spring. Goodman was elected at-large and served four consecutive terms from 1993-2005. Goodman was inducted into the Austin Women’s Hall of Fame in 2016. As her Hall of Fame profile notes, “From land use planning, environmental stewardship, social services and education to animal rights, civil liberties, libraries and neighborhoods, during her tenure at City Council, she found ways to give voice to underserved and underrepresented points of view and sought balance to the challenges.” She also served as a board member of Save Barton Creek Association for over 30 years.
Counseling Upgrade: Austin ISD will spend millions of dollars from the $2 billion school bond package approved by voters in 2022 to create more than 50 new student mental health spaces on local campuses, KUT reports.
Millions to Cover Police-Inflicted Injuries: With the settlement of the Sam Kirsch lawsuit two weeks ago, Austin has now paid off all of those who were badly hurt by police during the Black Lives Matter protests of May 30-31, 2020, and later filed lawsuits against the city. Kirsch received $4.5 million from taxpayer dollars to settle the suit, which alleged that police violated his rights by shooting him in the face with a crowd control bullet as Kirsch peacefully protested. The bullet broke multiple bones in Kirsch’s face and badly damaged his left eye, which was finally removed in April.
Tornado-esque: Tree branches are still lining the streets of Austin after last week’s remarkable thunderstorm, which cut off power to 180,000 Austinites, some of them for days. But KUT reports that all the real damage happened in North Austin, while much of South Austin remained sunny, because the storm was a “microburst,” an isolated patch of rain that suddenly drops out of the sky. Last week’s storm hit a swath of town 10 miles long and about 2.5 miles wide with heavy rain, hail, and 85 mph winds, almost as strong as a small tornado.
Rain Is Kinda Great, Though: And, wow, has it been a dry spring – at least until last week. Before the storm, we had received very little rain in May, typically our wettest month. But last week’s storm and another rain shower that came two days later produced 5 inches of rain, enough for us to end the month at 6.5 inches, more than the average rainfall in the month.
Quote of the Week
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”
– Elon Musk, posting on X about Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”
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