It was an interesting question from a good friend: “So, Mr. Boyle, are you proud of Senator Tillis now?”

This was right after Tillis, a Republican U.S. senator who’s represented North Carolina since 2014, announced he wouldn’t seek reelection next year. That came after Tillis delivered an impassioned speech June 29 on the Senate floor in which he lambasted President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” for the devastating effect it will have on Medicaid recipients.

The speech was a barn burner, unusual for any senator these days, but especially Republicans who don’t want to cross the very vindictive orange leader who now heads their party, and for Tillis, who’s usually pretty restrained.

“What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding is not there anymore?” Tillis said, noting that Trump’s White House advisers “are not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise.”

Tillis was not done.

“Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care and betraying a promise,” he said. “It is inescapable that this bill, in its current form, will betray the very promise that Donald J. Trump made in the Oval Office or in the Cabinet Room when I was there with (the Senate Finance Committee), where he said we can go after waste, fraud and abuse on any programs.”

Trump promised to protect the program and its mission of providing health care for low-income Americans. But Tillis said the “amateurs” who are advising Trump have persuaded the president to eliminate what’s called the “provider tax,” which funds Medicaid, Tillis said. That’s not exactly removing “waste, fraud and abuse,” the senator said.

The bill passed the Senate, 51-50, on Tuesday with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The House passed a final version July 3. The Congressional Budget Office estimates of devastation to Medicaid remain.

Considering how Tillis was dressed that night when he delivered his fiery oration, we should’ve known he was done with public service, as well as kissing Trump’s derriere. He sported a dark blazer, gray golf shirt and a strangely large bolo tie, which is not exactly standard dress for the Senate, or North Carolina for that matter. Or really, most of the United States.

‘Too many elected officials are motivated by pure raw politics’

Clearly, this was a man saying loudly, in so many words, “Screw it, I’m done with this bovine excrement!” 

His formal retirement statement, like his speech, was also well-crafted.

“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said, noting the Senate recently lost two leaders “who were dedicated to making the Senate more of a functional and productive legislative body.”

“They got things done,” Tillis wrote, apparently referring to former Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. “But they were shunned after they courageously refused to cave to their party bosses to nuke the filibuster for the sake of political expediency. They ultimately retired and their presence in the Senate chamber has been sorely missed every day since.”

Obviously, the same scenario plays out when anyone steps out of line on the right, especially with Trump.

“It underscores the greatest form of hypocrisy in American politics,” Tillis said in the statement. “When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer. But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and even censure them.”

I wouldn’t normally cite so much of a retirement statement, but these next paragraphs really hit the mark. And again, you don’t hear politicians speaking this way until they’re quitting, which is a shame.

“Too many elected officials are motivated by pure raw politics who really don’t give a damn about the people they promised to represent on the campaign trail,” Tillis said. “After they get elected, they don’t bother to do the hard work to research the policies they seek to implement and understand the consequences those policies could have on that young adult living in a trailer park, struggling to make ends meet.”

Tillis had noted earlier that his own journey started with him “living in a trailer park and making minimum wage as a young man” before evolving into him “having the honor of serving as U.S. Senator for North Carolina.” 

It’s important to note that Tillis has voted with Trump just about all of the time.

So yes, I was proud of Tillis for standing up for his convictions, for fighting the insidious and destructive policies of Trump, a serial liar and con man whose “Big Beautiful Bill” will provide tax cuts for the wealthy, explode the national deficit and boot 11 million people (probably more) off of Medicaid. As National Public Radio reported, “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Senate bill would add more than $3 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. Extending the 2017 tax cuts made up the bulk of the cost but other changes have added to the bottom line.”

Tillis was joined by fellow Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine in voting against this atrocity of a bill. 

But as I told my buddy, what would’ve made me super proud of Tillis — and maybe got me wearing bolo ties in his honor — is if he had decided to stay and fight Trump, perhaps even forming a coalition of somewhat moderate Republicans (or at least those who recognize legislative harm when they see it) to block the president’s worst instincts.

But Tillis, as others before him, including former Republican Senators Jeff Flake and Mitt Romney, have opted to speak truth to power only after announcing their resignations. Sure, it gives them a measure of freedom they wouldn’t have otherwise, but they also cede the future fight to a replacement, who’s likely to be a Trump-endorsed sycophant. 

Hey, at least we don’t have Murkowski representing us

I also told my friend that I was infinitely more proud of Tillis than of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who delivered perhaps the most mealy-mouthed defense of her deciding yes vote that the planet has ever heard. Cornered by ABC News, Murkowski was told that Paul said she negotiated a “bailout” for her state because she insisted on provisions to protect Alaskans from the worst cuts of the bill.

Murkowski paused for several seconds, looking angry and angst-ridden, then said, “Do I like this bill? No, because I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests, but I know, I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that.”

Well then, don’t vote for it, Senator!

If you know a bill is harmful for millions of Americans, why would you give it your approval? How about you actually stand up for what’s right for the country? What a novelty that would be!

Also, what a line of feigned phoniness to back into your statement with they’re “not going to be advantaged by this bill.” They’re not only going to be disadvantaged by the bill, some of them are likely to be greatly harmed by it, even possibly by dying once they lose their health care and cannot get treatment. That’s more than “not going to be advantaged.”

Maybe if Murkowski had located her spine, she would have joined Tillis, Paul and Collins to fight the good fight. What’s so astounding is that she knows the bill is wrong for America, yet she still chose wrong over right, after selfishly securing favors for her state.

That’s a sad state of affairs when a powerful elected official looks at an issue, identifies what is right and what is wrong, and chooses wrong because it’s politically expedient. 

Why won’t Republicans fight back against Trump?

But getting back to forming a coalition to fight Trump, we all know that’s not going to happen for one reason: All the politicians truly care about is getting reelected, and if you cross Trump you’re going to get primaried.

Tillis clearly does not care anymore about getting reelected.

“As many of my colleagues have noticed over the last year, and at times even joked about, I haven’t exactly been excited about running for another term,” he said in his statement. “That is true since the choice is between spending another six years navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington or spending that time with the love of my life Susan, our two children, three beautiful grandchildren, and the rest of our extended family back home. It’s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking reelection.”

I really can’t blame him. As I said, you can’t cross Trump and get reelected.

“It’s Trump’s party, and they’re just living in it,” Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper told me. “We’re of course used to presidents exerting power. We’re used to presidents being the leader of their party, but we’re not used to presidents threatening members of their own party who deviate even the slightest bit from their message and their preferred legislation.”

Trump has power over the legislators but also over the voters, many of whom follow his direction without asking any substantial questions, or even peeling themselves away from Fox News or Newsmax for a few minutes.

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth had a fascinating recent report on the Big Beautiful Bill that found Americans do not support the bill, especially once they find out its specifics. The center bills itself as “a nonprofit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth.”

Lots of folks have heard about Trump’s provisions for not taxing overtime or boosting border security spending, and maybe that makes them happy, but they’re not so aware of the tax breaks for the uber-wealthy or the gutting of Medicaid and food stamps programs. The center notes that the bill is “the most regressive policy package in living memory,” with a “distinctive mix of tax cuts that help the rich and spending cuts that hurt middle- and low-income Americans.”

“The public is already against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the report states. “Yet our survey results show that when its historic regressivity becomes clearer and more concrete, Americans across the political spectrum become overwhelmingly opposed.”

It seems most Americans aren’t in favor of exploding the deficit and booting poor people off their insurance so mega-wealthy folks can get more tax breaks. The problem is that so many Americans are blissfully unaware of what’s actually in the bill.

“The word ‘blissfully,’ I think, is actually not just a colloquialism,” Cooper said. “I think that it is actually the key word in that sentence — just blissfully unaware, right? It’s easier to go along with the leader. It’s a lot harder psychologically and cognitively to say, ‘I supported this person and he is supporting something that’s going to hurt millions of people.’ It’s like the day you find out Santa Claus ain’t real, or that your parents aren’t perfect.”

Cooper said Tillis probably would have been OK in a future primary, “just because we don’t tend to vote out U.S. senators in the primary.” But the party could punish Tillis with less funding, Cooper said.

I’ll note that outside groups would probably run ads saying all sorts of ridiculous rubbish about Tillis, ranging from he’s actually a Democratic socialist to he’s destroying the country by abandoning the real Republican Party — “I mean, just look at that fancy bolo tie!”

Maybe that’s the biggest lesson here: the real Republican Party now is Trump’s party. There’s no room for moderates, or those who tend to think for themselves — or consider the ramifications of legislation on their constituents. Or who care about working class stiffs or the poor.

I guarantee you Trump will find ways to punish Collins and Paul, and their states, in the near future. He truly is the king of the party.

And that’s why Republicans won’t stand up to him, now or in the future.

Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments about this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there. 

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

Related