Republicans are reworking President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a comprehensive tax and spending package that is high on the President’s wish list.
The bill will extend the 2017 tax cuts passed by the first Trump administration, increase the child tax credit, and introduce deductions for tips and overtime pay.
There are some good nuggets in there but it is also a spending bonanza that could add $2.3 trillion to the deficit. It has a Medicaid work requirement that won’t go into effect for five years and is easy to work around. It expands military spending. It also has expanded infrastructure and energy tax credits that echo the very climate policies Republicans once criticized.
In essence, the bill tries to be all things to all wings of the GOP: tax hawks, social conservatives, and big-spending populists. As Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie said on Wednesday’s episode of Redacted: Why does this all have to happen in one big bill? Why can’t these goals be accomplished more efficiently in separate bills?
