Loading…

The record on the ballot: two years of Republican control | The Receipts - media kit | The Receipts - Dataspheres AI

Every vote and every figure here comes with its source. Watch The record on the ballot: two years of Republican control (15 min), with captions The stories...

Every vote and every figure here comes with its source. Watch The record on the ballot: two years of Republican control (15 min), with captions The stories Two years of one-party control Since January 2025, Republicans have held the White House, the Senate and the House. Two years of one-party control. Here is what they did with it. The One Big Beautiful Bill The biggest law of the term, the One Big Beautiful Bill, tied 50-50 in the Senate. Vice President Vance broke the tie. The House passed it 218-214, and every Democrat voted no. The biggest law passed on a tie-breaking vote. Who pays, who gains Who pays for it? The Congressional Budget Office ran the numbers. The poorest 10% of households lose about $1,200 a year. The richest 10% gain about $13,600 a year. What the law cut, and what it funded The cuts: about $1.06 trillion from Medicaid and ACA health plans over ten years, and $186 billion from SNAP food aid. The same law added $170 billion for immigration enforcement. And 10 million more people uninsured by 2034. Where the $170 billion for enforcement went Follow the enforcement money. $75 billion went to ICE. And $45 billion of that went to ICE detention: beds and camps. The money built detention. Health care help ran out Then the extra health care help with ACA premiums ran out. On Dec. 11, 2025, the Senate voted 51-48 to extend it, short of the 60 it needed. 48 Republicans voted no. Net premium payments rose 58% on average, and 4.6 million people left the individual market. The poorest pay more for health care. Who ICE held on July 11, 2026 On July 11, ICE held 65,765 people. 46,436 of them had no criminal conviction. The detention money mostly holds people with no conviction. Who ICE actually holds The money went to immigration enforcement. The claim is that ICE goes after criminals. The record: 70.6% of the people ICE held had no criminal conviction. 506 U.S. citizens were detained, more than 70 of them children. And about 200 children were held a day, against about 25 under Biden. Minneapolis, January 2026 In Minneapolis, on Jan. 7, Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, was shot dead by an ICE agent. On Jan. 24, Alex Pretti, a VA nurse, was shot dead by Border Patrol. No one has been charged in either case. The camps, in their own inspectors' words Inside the camps, the government's own inspector general found metal punishment cages at "Alligator Alcatraz", out of line with "standards for humane treatment". 37 people died in ICE custody in fiscal 2026, the most on record. One death at Camp East Montana was ruled a homicide. Personal records, sent to ICE And it is not just detention. Americans' records now feed immigration enforcement. The IRS gave ICE about 47,000 taxpayers' addresses, and Medicaid enrollees' data went to DHS. Social Security data was loaded into a system called SAVE, and 33 million voters were run through it. Just 0.04% came back as noncitizens. Local police ran more than 4,000 license-plate camera searches for ICE. And ICE added a face-scan app, social media monitoring and spyware. Americans' data now feeds immigration enforcement. A war Congress never voted for Then there is Iran. The Pentagon puts the cost at $43.6 billion, and 21 U.S. service members have been killed. Congress never authorized it. The Senate rejected at least 12 votes to end or limit the war. The last failed 49-50. Every Senate vote to end the Iran war In the Senate, there were 14 roll calls on the war in 2026. 12 failed. The two that passed were a procedural motion and a non-binding resolution. A war Congress never authorized went on. Troops sent into American cities Then the troops. About 4,000 National Guard and 700 Marines went into Los Angeles, then the Guard went into Washington, Portland and Chicago, over the objections of governors and mayors. Courts ruled against the deployments in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago and Washington, and the Supreme Court blocked Chicago 6-3. The Congressional Budget Office put the cost at about $496 million. Troops went into cities over local objections. Calm cities, costly troops Were these cities out of control? In Washington, violent crime was at a 30-year low, and down another 26% before the troops came. Chicago had its fewest summer homicides since 1965. And Los Angeles alone cost about $134 million for 60 days. The troops went where crime was already falling. The Epstein files: the votes around the vote The Epstein files. In July 2025, Rules Committee Republicans voted release down 5-7, and the House blocked a release vote 211-210. Then Speaker Johnson sent the House home early. In September, the Senate killed a release amendment 51-49. In November, forced by a petition, the House passed release 427-1. In January the Justice Department called it done at about 3 million of 6 million pages. Now a second petition sits at 216 of 218 signatures, and the House is out until Nov. 9. Release of the Epstein files was blocked again and again, so they stay hidden. Ep