Happy Monday! Are We At War?

Highlights of today and the past weekend

We had a pretty major weekend – this week comes with a bunch of unknowns on Iran, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” and where we go from here.

ICYMI, Donald Trump announced that he dropped bombs on 3 nuclear facilities in Iran on Saturday night – and this afternoon, Iran retaliated by bombing American bases in Qatar and Iraq. Great moves from the ‘pro-peace ticket’!

Impacts of Trump’s (congressionally unapproved and therefore unconstitutional) strikes will be far-reaching – beyond bringing us into another war we shouldn’t be in, it’ll raise prices for almost everything. We can expect to see gas prices increase, especially if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, which is responsible for around 20% of the world’s crude oil. We can also expect to see prices of anything that gets transported via truck, train, or plane to skyrocket if the Strait is closed; prices for gas in Florida are already rising. Trump knows it too, since he posted desperately, saying, “EVERYONE, KEEP OIL PRICES DOWN. I’M WATCHING!” Well, good thing he’s keeping an eye on things.

Democrats seem to be on a variety of pages on how to respond to Trump’s attack – Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced a War Powers Resolution last week that would require an act of Congress to go to war with Iran and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), introduced a similar bill in the Senate. With the War Powers Resolution being ‘privileged,’ it can be brought to a vote without Speaker Johnson’s approval, and should be supported by every Democrat in the House – though, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he hasn’t looked at the Resolution despite saying Trump’s actions were unconstitutional, which I can’t understand, considering it’s a bipartisan effort to limit Trump’s boundless legal transgressions. Trump’s actions, including only briefing Republicans on the attack beforehand are so clearly dangerous, erratic, and unregulated, but once again, Dems inability to work together cohesively without Members trying to have their own personal claims to fame is front and center.

The “Big Beautiful Bill” is expected to hit the Senate floor this week, but in good news, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that certain GOP priorities have to be removed from the bill, like gutting EPA protections, imposing costs for SNAP and other food aid programs on states, and lessening federal courts’ power to issue injunctions and temporary restraining orders through the “Byrd Bath,” a Senate rule that requires everything in a reconciliation bill to relate directly to the budget. However, the bill still includes tax cuts for the wealthy and an increased budget for the Department of Defense at the expense of Medicaid and SNAP programs.