Commonwealth Report: Trump’s Iran War Hits $38 Billion

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1:02Democrats kill the crypto bill, Sanders and Van and Torch AI oligarchs, Federman parties with Murdoch, and Massie moves to impeach Hegseth and premiums sore. Good morning. This is the Commonwealth Report News for the public. Not the powerful. You can follow us at Commonwealthreport.News. The Trumps are on war just hit $40 billion on your dime. The Congressional Budget Office has Donald Trump's war on around had already cost taxpayers $38 billion by August 1st. And the meter keeps running at $2 to $3 billion a month. It doesn't count dead or wounded troops. Veterans care or interest on the borrowing. CBO also warns the war will push inflation half a point higher into 2027. Congressman Brendan Boyle, who requested the reports, said Americans are, quote, essentially paying for this twice. Once through taxes, again at the pump in the grocery store. Remember that the next time Republicans say we can't afford Medicare or food stamps. Senate Democrats kill Trump's crypto bill over his own crypto fortune.

2:06The Clarity Act was supposed to be the crypto industry's big prize, a federal rulebook for a $2.3 trillion dollar market. Tuesday had died on the Senate floor, $49.50, short of the $60.00 needed. Every Democrat voted no joined by Republicans, Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Terry Moran, and Tom Tillus. The Democrats wanted real limits on a president who's made a fortune in crypto-wall in office, and Republicans wouldn't go far enough. Elizabeth Warren said the bill, quote, would turbo-charge Donald Trump's unprecedented corruption. When a bill's biggest beneficiary sits in the Oval Office, locking it isn't politics. That's your 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 that nobody controls. Sanders announced a bill with Congressman Greg Kessar to permanently ban super-intelligent AI. He said, quote, like artificial weapons, artificial super-intelligence is a

3:10threat 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 fire left and fire right both smell the same rot, that rot is real. Is John Fetterman already auditioning for a Fox News contract? Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman admitted to his day 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 at video by video at Trump's Republican midterm convention, and after the Wall Street Journal reporter, he's been taking conservative money while blowing off constituents. He's held zero town halls in three years. Fetterman says he was invited in just one straight conversation. Analyst Mike Nellis summed it up. He's a goner. Fetterman and sis, he'll stay a Democrat. Pennsylvania voters sent him to

4:13Washington to fight for them, not to summer with Rupert Murdoch. Or Republicans shut down the House to save Pete Hegseth. Republican Thomas Massey walked out of the House floor Tuesday and read eight articles of impeachment against defense secretary Pete Hegseth. The charges include waging and 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 were learned of his Epstein petition, quote, they canceled two weeks of Congress. Massey 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 next year? A new Mercer Study of 1800 Employees Finds Health Benefit Cost will jump 8.2% per worker in 2027, the steepest rise since 2003, and the fifth straight year of big increases.

5:19Two-thirds of big companies plan to push more premium costs onto workers, so paycheck deductions will climb even faster than that average. Families already pay about $6,850 toward premiums last year. One benefits executive put a plainly saying, quote, this does eat into money that could be invested in wages. Every other rich country figured out a public system decades ago, where the only one still letting insurance companies raid the paycheck. And that's the way it is that a Wednesday, September 16th, 2026, on Tom Hartman.