Alligators & Other Swamp Creatures

President Trump traveled to Florida this week to visit the just-opened, 3,000-bed detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. Like the once-famous prison in San Francisco Bay, this one is surrounded by hostile forces in the water — the Florida version contains pythons, snakes, crocodiles and of course alligators. Why hire security guards when you have a readily-available battalion waiting to serve?

Then Trump returned to Washington, making calls to that other swampland known as Congress, eager to save his One Big Beautiful Bill from the clutches of grandstanders, political dealmakers and a person named Elizabeth MacDonough who was appointed Senate Parliamentarian by the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2012.

As far as I know, no US voter ever elected Elizabeth MacDonough to anything. Unelected and anonymous, for 13 years she has done the Dems’ bidding from her perch as the Senate’s guardian of the rules. In the Big Beautiful Bill, she nixed GOP plans to 1/ limit grant money for “sanctuary cities” 2/ ban illegal immigrants from getting SNAP (supplemental nutritional) benefits 3/ end all funding for Elizabeth Warren’s boondoggle known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

As Hot Air put it,

The House now reviews the Senate version — and despite defections, House Speaker Mike Johnson vows to pass the Big Beautiful Bill with his razor-thin majority in time to deliver it to President Trump’s Resolute Desk by the Fourth of July.

Maybe it does not include everything on MAGA’s wish list — presumably cutting all funding for illegal immigrants and for anything wind or solar may have to come later — but White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller calls it still “the most essential piece of legislation in western world….a recipe for American greatness.”

The Senate version would still 1/build a missile defense shield for the US, 2/ enshrine border security with a permanent wall and continued deportations, 3/ enact the largest spending cut in history 4/ offer the largest tax cut in US history — no tax on tips, overtime or Social Security, permanent Trump tax cuts plus 100% expensing for new factories 5/ require work by the able-bodied getting food stamps or Medicaid.

“I’m sick and tired of the lies about this bill that have been perpetuated by opportunitsts,” said Miller. “It is the most conservative bill of my lifetime.”

But the unspoken benefit of this budgetary process, flawed though it may be, is political. If you pull back to a helicopter view, you will see that it exposed the Dems as the corporate-rich elitists they have become. In opposing the Big Beautiful Bill, as Ned Barnett noted in American Thinker, Dems are “turning their backs on their most important core constituents: Blacks, blue collar workers and seniors.”

Since FDR created Social Security and other programs during the Great Depression, Dems have stood for the downtrodden, the hungry, the elderly, the oppressed. The Big Beautiful Bill eliminates taxes on tip money and overtime, on Social Security, and lots of other taxes weighing down creativity and enterprise. And yet, as The Federalist pointed out, “All 45 Dems in the Senate voted for a $4 trillion tax increase.”

This rejection of their earlier values is also apparent as we approach the Fourth of July.

In 2001, according to the Gallup Poll, 87% of Dems identified as “extremely” or “very” proud to be American. In 2025, that combined number has fallen to 35%. Meanwhile, 92% of Republicans were proud to be American this year, up from 90% in 2001.

So wave that flag with joy. Donald J. Trump has done the impossible. He has tamed the alligators. And now our nation has a chance to see its 250th brithday.