$$$ FOR ICE? INSURGENTS? APPLES FOR KIDS? WHICH ONE GOT YES. NO. OR MAYBE

The optics of political calculation… GOP Congress outraged, lots of pearls clutched, at the thought of a $17.76B Trump slush fund to compensate those who stormed the Capitol and beat up on police protecting lawmakers…but not enough to put their money where their mouths are. The Senate just passed the $70B package funding ICE and the Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s second term, after lots of arm-twisting it seems. But passed it without assurance that the Trump administration won’t revive the thought of giving our tax dollars to insurgents. An amendment that had been added to the bill. Or as the WSJ put it… “The overnight “vote-a-rama” allowed GOP senators in competitive election fights this fall—including Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Jon Husted of Ohio and Ashley Moody of Florida—to register their objections to the fund without derailing a bill that is a priority for the party.” You know. Take a stand without actually having to take a stand. And hope constituents will understand if they do indeed have to pay rioters out of their own pockets. Will understand and let them keep their jobs in November. Then over on the House…By a vote of 213-210, the House passed an appropriations measure to fund the Agriculture Department. Under the legislation, WIC — the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — would lose $141M in funding for fruit and vegetable benefits for the nearly 5.4M children and pregnant and postpartum women enrolled. The National WIC Association, an advocacy group for public health nutrition providers, estimated that the bill would reduce monthly fruit and vegetable benefits from $52 to $13 for breastfeeding mothers and from $26 to $10 for young children. Which of these offerings to give to, or take away from, taxpayer funding would you prefer? Which one makes us MAGA? Or MAHA? It’s too bad so much is being spent on cage fights and redesigning DC, starting conflicts around the world, renaming departments to reflect manliness, and all the generally unsavory stuff we’re having to pay for…when most of us would prefer that a kid could just have an apple.