Most people know the Declaration of Independence for the soaring stuff—”we hold these truths to be self-evident.” That’s the opening. The bulk of the document is a list of 27 grievances against a government that stopped serving its people. Here’s what you did. Here’s why we’re done. The founders were making a case, and as someone who spent 15 years making cases, I have a professional appreciation for how tight it is.
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For the country’s 250th birthday, I read some of those grievances against what Congressional Republicans actually did this past year. The receipts, since you shouldn’t take my word for any of this:
“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
Congressional Republicans passed the largest Medicaid cuts in the program’s history. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 10.9 million Americans will lose their health insurance. That money didn’t go to deficit reduction—the law adds $2.8 trillion to the deficit. It went to tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. CBO analysis here.
“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.”
The CBO’s distributional analysis found the bottom 10% of earners will see their incomes fall 3.1% under this law, while the top 10% see theirs rise 2.7%. A straight transfer, bottom to top, written into federal law.
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.”
The same bill that cut food assistance for families increased ICE’s funding roughly tenfold—from about $10 billion to over $100 billion by 2029—making it the most funded federal law enforcement agency in the country. If you’ve been following my immigration enforcement coverage, you know exactly what that money is doing.
And the detail that still gets me: Trump signed this law on July 4th, 2025. At a White House ceremony. While the fireworks were going off. You could not write this as satire because an editor would send it back as too on the nose.
The Declaration ends with a question—when a government stops serving its people, what do you do about it? The founders wrote down their answer. Congressional Republicans gave us theirs: they voted to cut your food, your healthcare, your housing, and then they showed up to the party.
Happy 250th. Read the whole document sometime. It holds up.
