Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Did Trump’s Iran War Just Hit $40 Billion on Your Dime?
The Congressional Budget Office says Donald Trump’s war on Iran had already cost taxpayers $38 billion by August 1, and the meter keeps running at $2 to £3 billion a month. It doesn’t count dead and wounded troops, veterans’ care, or interest on the borrowing. The CBO also warns the war will push inflation half a point higher into 2027. Congressman Brendan Boyle, who requested the report, said Americans are “essentially paying for this twice.” Once through taxes, again at the pump and the grocery store. Remember that the next time Republicans say we can’t afford Medicaid or food stamps.
Senate Democrats Kill Trump’s Crypto Bill Over His Own Crypto Fortune
The Clarity Act was supposed to be the crypto industry’s big prize, a federal rulebook for a $2.3 trillion market. Tuesday it died on the Senate floor, 49 to 50, short of the 60 it needed. Every Democrat voted no, joined by Republicans Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Jerry Moran, and Thom Tillis. Democrats wanted real limits on a president who’s made a fortune in crypto while in office, and Republicans wouldn’t go far enough. Elizabeth Warren said the bill “would turbocharge Donald Trump’s unprecedented corruption.” When a bill’s biggest beneficiary sits in the Oval Office, blocking it isn’t politics. It’s the job.
Can Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon Really Agree on Anything?
Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon spoke back to back at the Pro-Human Assembly, and both went after the tech oligarchs racing to build artificial intelligence nobody controls. Sanders announced a bill with Congressman Greg Casar to permanently ban superintelligent AI. He said, “Like nuclear weapons, artificial superintelligence is a threat to humanity.” Bannon agreed on the danger, then split on the fix. Sanders wants Trump to sign a treaty with Xi Jinping when they meet next week. Bannon wants a quarantine, kicking every Chinese national out of American labs. When the far left and far right both smell the same rot, the rot is real.
Is John Fetterman Already Auditioning for a Fox News Contract?
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman admitted Tuesday that he attended an exclusive July retreat in Montana hosted by the Murdoch family, alongside Fox News executives and Republican Senators Tim Sheehy and Katie Britt. That’s days after he appeared by video at Trump’s Republican midterm convention, and after the Wall Street Journal reported he’s been taking conservative money while blowing off constituents. He’s held zero town halls in three years. Fetterman says he was invited and just wants straight conversations. Analyst Mike Nellis summed it up. “He’s a goner.” Fetterman insists he’ll stay a Democrat. Pennsylvania voters sent him to Washington to fight for them, not to summer with Rupert Murdoch.
Will Republicans Shut Down the House to Save Pete Hegseth?
Republican Thomas Massie walked onto the House floor Tuesday and read eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The charges include waging an unauthorized war on Iran for more than 90 days, failing to protect civilians, retaliating against Senator Mark Kelly, kidnapping Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and bombing Yemen without approval. It’s privileged, so the House must act within two legislative days. He told CNN he warned nobody, because when leaders learned of his Epstein petition, “they canceled two weeks of Congress.” Massie lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger in May. He’s got nothing left to lose, and that’s why he’s dangerous to them.
Why Will Health Insurance Bite Your Paycheck Harder in 2027?
A new Mercer survey of 1,800 employers finds health benefit costs will jump 8.2% per worker in 2027, the steepest rise since 2003 and the fifth straight year of big increases. Two-thirds of big companies plan to push more premium cost onto workers, so paycheck deductions will climb even faster than that average. Families already paid about $6,850 toward premiums last year. One benefits executive put it plainly, saying this “does eat into money that could be invested in wages.” Every other rich country figured out a public system decades ago. We’re the only one still letting insurance companies raid the paycheck.
And that’s the way it is, Today Wednesday, September 16, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann
