July 6, 2025

By Stephen Stofka

Happy 4^th to everyone. Despite the holiday weekend, the boys squeeze in a Sunday morning breakfast. The conversations are voiced by Abel, a Wilsonian with a faith that government can ameliorate social and economic injustices to improve society’s welfare, and Cain, who believes that individual autonomy, the free market and the price system promote the greatest good.

Cain settled into his seat as the busser set two glasses of water on the table. “We need another system of government.”

Abel gave him a questioning look. “They haven’t even brought the coffee yet, and you are rewriting the Constitution? I need to fasten my seat belt for this discussion.”

Cain laughed. “I’m disgusted with the corruption that is embedded in Senate rules. This monstrosity of a bill, what I call the ‘Big Bogus Bill.’ Senate Republicans bought Senator Murkowski’s vote, the critical vote, by exempting Alaska from some of the provisions in the bill (Source).”

Abel smiled. “This is the party you voted for. There are only  a few, like Rand Paul, Murkowski and Collins in Maine that are independent. The rest are automatons playing follow the leader. They are supposed to represent the interests of the people in their state, not the interests of their party leaders.”

Cain frowned. “Democratic leaders did the same thing in 2010 as they tried to get the Obamacare bill across the finish line.”

Abel interrupted, “That’s what this whole thing is about. Trump and the Republicans tried to repeal Obamacare in Trump’s first term. The House tried like fifty times. The repeal got so close, then John McCain gave his own party the thumbs down in the Senate vote on the repeal (Source). Now  Trump and the MAGA crowd are determined to undo as much of the ACA as they can.”

Cain frowned. “It’s a long standing grievance. Republicans have never had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate since the 17^th Amendment instituted popular voting for Senate seats.”

Abel interrupted, “Well, it needed reform. Having the state legislatures elect their senators invited too much corruption. Senators were basically buying their seats.”

Cain nodded. “Good point. But it also allowed the states to check a President. I think we have lost that. We saw it this week when Trump threatened to primary Senator Tillis from North Carolina if he didn’t vote for the bill.”

Abel replied, “And Tillis told him to take a hike, basically. He said he wasn’t going to run again anyway. He’s disgusted by his own party acting like the President’s obedient pets. Trump was born with a silver spoon and yet he wants to take Medicaid away from a lot of people, including those in North Carolina. Tillis works for the people of North Carolina, not the spoiled brat in the White House.”

Cain sighed. “Too many wealthy people in the halls of power if you ask me. What was I, oh yeah, the filibuster. Every time that the Democrats get a filibuster proof majority, they pass a huge intergenerational social program that is not subject to the regular appropriations process. When people vote Republicans into power, Republicans have one hand tied. That’s not fair to the people who voted them into power. It’s like playing a game and the other player gets to make all the important rules.”

Abel argued, “Republicans have fought every one of those programs all the way up to the Supreme Court and lost every time.”

Cain nodded. “Republicans are still angry that John Roberts, the Chief Justice, voted with the liberals that the ACA was constitutional. A few months later, Obama defeated Romney, one of the old guard in the Republican Party. A few years later, Donald Trump appeared as the avenging angel (Source). He took on primary candidates from every faction of the party and won.”

Abel looked skyward. “Come on, this is not a Die Hard movie.”

Cain laughed. “That’s where you’re wrong. To some voters, Trump was like the tip of the spear, the leader of a resistance movement against big government.”

Abel frowned. “An agent of chaos who will destroy the Republican Party and the conservative values it has stood for. Is helping people that bad to so many Republicans?”

Cain smirked. “Democrats design programs that are not effective at helping the poor. We talked about that last week. The data supports my claim. These programs cost far more than the projected costs and the Democrats want to raise taxes on successful people to mask Democrat incompetence.”

Abel chuckled. “Yeah, right. Republicans promised that the Iraq war would pay for itself.”

Cain interrupted, “They expected that the revenue from more efficient oil production would defray a lot of costs, but they never promised that the war would pay for itself (Source).”

Abel replied, “Ok, you want to torture this like a lawyer? A lot of the American public was led to believe that the costs would be far less. How’s that?”

Cain argued, “Goes to prove my point. Policymakers and politicians have difficulty making projections. The Iraq war cost more than anticipated. That’s the nature of war. The war lasted like eight years. Look at the schemes the Democrats cook up. The programs have an infinite time horizon, so it’s impossible to project future costs with any accuracy. Democrats passed Medicare in 1965. Their leaders in the House Ways and Means Committee projected that the program would cost $9 billion a year by 1990. The actual cost was $67 billion (Source). So, either they were incompetent or lying. I suspect it was both.”

Abel asked, “So, what would you do? Cancel Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other entitlement programs? While you are at it, why don’t you cancel the income tax amendment?”

Cain sighed. “Obviously, it’s not practical, but it’s not right that one party has dominated spending priorities for so many decades. It’s been sixty years since Medicare began. A lot of seniors think that payroll taxes and Medicare premiums pay for their care, but that’s not the case. Over a third of the costs are paid for by taxpayers out of general tax revenues. In 2023, that was $360 billion.”

Abel argued, “Those costs skyrocketed after the Republicans added Medicare Advantage and Prescription benefits to the program. Those two parts, Part C and D, cost more than half of Medicare spending. And why were those added? To help Bush win re-election in 2004. So I don’t want to listen to Republican sob stories about Democratic social programs. These programs mostly help people in red states who are older and poorer.”

Cain argued, “Look, you talk about Trump destroying the Republican Party? It was Bush and the old guard Republicans like Cheney who destroyed the party. They started acting like Democrats, passing legislation to get votes.”

Abel smirked. “Did it ever occur to you that it might actually be about helping people?”

Cain nodded. “Yes, it occurred to me. This is a country of many countries, too diverse for some one-size-fits-all program designed in Washington. The Constitution gives Congress the power to provide for the general welfare, not particular benefits given out to some individuals and not others. Only those programs, like national defense, the courts and the Post Office, which benefit everyone.”

Abel replied, “There’s always been a disagreement about what the general welfare clause in the Constitution means. In 1937, the Supreme Court noted as much when they found that the Social Security Act was constitutional. The court did not think it was their place to overrule the reasonable judgment of the legislature (Source). That is a prominent feature of the current court’s conservative majority. That the court should stay within its bounds.”

Cain nodded. “Ok, I’ll grant you that last point.. However, there are many of us who disagree with that broad interpretation of the general welfare clause. The fact that ‘common Defense’ and ‘general welfare’ are linked together in the same phrase is evidence that a narrow interpretation is appropriate.”

Abel asked, “Do you think this 6-3 conservative majority will overturn precedent and find the Social Security Act unconstitutional? They already overturned centuries of gun law with the Heller decision. They overturned decades of campaign finance law with the Citizens United decision. They overturned decades of abortion law with the Dobbs decision. I mean, why not go after Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?”

Cain replied, “I think they would be mindful of both precedent and the consequences.”

Abel argued, “They didn’t care about the consequences in the Dobbs case with abortion. They didn’t care about the consequences of giving blanket immunity to Trump in last year’s decision (Source). The conservative justices are like politicians in any majority. It’s hard to see past their own principles and prejudices. In the Dred Scott decision that provoked the Civil War, Chief Justice Taney adopted a narrow originalist interpretation of the words ‘citizen’ and ‘territory’ in the Constitution. That led him to conclude that Negroes could not be citizens and that Congress had no authority to make laws for the Missouri Territory (Source).”

Cain raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I forgot that. He declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.”

Abel asked, “Grade school test. When was the Missouri Compromise?”

Cain laughed as he raised his hand. “1820.”

Abel smiled. “Very good! You get a gold star.”

Cain sighed. “So much memorization back in those days.”

Abel replied, “Before we had librarians in our pockets. Anyway, the Missouri Compromise avoided secession and civil war in 1820. So, it should have been a good guess that voiding that compromise would aggravate tensions and lead to civil war, but Taney didn’t see it. He thought the court had resolved the issue once and for all. That’s my point. The logical application of our principles can lead us to disregard the consequences of our thinking. I’m afraid this court will follow a path of reasoning that will tear this nation apart, just like Taney did with the Dred Scott decision.”

Cain stared into his coffee cup, then looked at Abel. “That’s dark. You know, I wanted to get your feedback on the abortion ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court this week, but I promised my daughter I would join them on a picnic at the lake.”

Abel nodded. “And the Big, Beautiful Bill that passed this week.”

Cain smiled. “I’m still working through that bloated bill, but I thought it was clever the way Republicans had structured the bill so that the tax cuts happen in 2025 and 2026. The benefit cuts happen after the midterm election next year.”

Abel shook his head. “There are about 79 million people on Medicaid (Source). The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill will cause 12 million to lose their coverage (Source).”

Cain argued, “Yeah, but Medicaid enrollment already dropped 12 million after the expiration of the pandemic entitlements (Source). The world didn’t come to an end. So let’s say that Medicaid enrollment falls to 67 million. That’s still 20% above the levels of 2013 just before Obamacare kicked in (Source).”

Abel sighed. “It seems like so little gain for all the political upheaval it has caused.”

Cain shrugged. “Democrats probably could have accomplished that with small tweaks to the system. But no. As always, they wanted to completely rewrite policy in this country.”

Abel frowned. “So the tax goodies happen right away? People are going to be doing their 2025 taxes next spring and will see all these goodies. Manipulating public opinion just before the primaries start (Source).”

Cain slid out of his seat. “That’s politics. By stalling the benefit cuts, they avoid any repercussions before the election.”

Abel shook his head. “Seems so corrupt.”

Cain nodded as he turned to go. “It’s a game of power. That’s a big flaw in democratic systems. I still think we should have government by small tribunals.”

Abel laughed. “That’s basically how the Constitution was written. Anyway, see you next week. I think it’s my turn to pick up the check.”

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Image by ChatGPT