The Big Beautiful Bill That Isn't

There's is one overwhelming quality of the Republican party. The ability to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. There's a reason they're called "the stupid party", they earned it.  

By Rich Kozlovich

 

I'm going to be honest here, clarity over this budget is difficult to grasp.  However, No matter what anyone says, I do know it will increase spending, increase the nation's debt limit, and the national debt. 

Another thing that's clear is that old axiom, "Don't tax you, don't tax me.  Tax that fellow behind the tree", mentality is in play here, only it's "Don't cut me, don't cut you.  Cut that man behind the tree".  Especially if SALT is involved....both parties..... which is addressed below. 

Both parties are fighting to keep their wedge of the pie, few of them will support the number one solution, which is, massive cuts across the board, including Medicaid, which apparently has now become untouchable.

My grandfather, a farmer and coal miner,  was one of the world's great economists.  He said if you spend more than you make, you'll go broke.  Beyond that, there's much here that seems irrational, and confusing to me, so, here are the articles I've gathered, both pro and con going back to when the bill was first introduced in the House to lend a bit of history to this piece, not necessarily in chronological order.   So, peruse them and decide for yourself if you'd vote for it. 

 Personally, I wouldn't, I don't see a thing that addresses what should be the number one issue for all the members of Congress and the Administration.   Paying off the national debt, which is possible, all it takes is guts.  What I am in favor of is a budget battle and a government shut down to force major cuts in spending, and major cuts in the size of government.  

What’s in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?The House passed the legislation in a 215–214 vote.  House Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda in an early morning session on May 22. The legislative package, totaling more than 1,000 pages, encompasses provisions that touch almost every area of federal policy and spending, ranging from tax cuts to Medicaid to the border. Though it makes spending cuts across several sectors of the federal government, the Congressional Budget Office has projected the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.....

Republican Holdouts on the Big, Beautiful Bill: Politics at its worst  May 22, 2025 - Very soon, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring the Big, Beautiful reconciliation bill to the floor for a full House vote before it heads to the Senate for more tinkering. As of now, several Republican members of the House of Representatives have said they would vote against the bill as it is currently written.  Generally, the House Republicans who oppose the bill fall into two camps: House Freedom Caucus members and Republicans in deep blue states.

 

Who are we protecting? May 22, 2025 - Among the many aspects of President Trump's attempt to reverse decades of "free trade" policy, which was a cynical label used to disguise the deliberate hollowing out of American manufacturing, one of the most important has been scarcely remarked.  Critics of Trump's efforts to correct that disastrous policy delight in mocking his new direction as "protectionist," as if that were automatically a bad thing. Yet even the most avid advocates of so-called "free trade" have supported selective protectionism. Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), the most "free trade" oriented of the Founding Fathers, wrote of the benefits of protecting "infant industries." The idea was to shield certain industries from foreign competition until they could gain their footing and grow strong enough to compete globally. Those being protected were American workers, the same group Trump is now trying to benefit...........

 

Bond Market Shock: Is a New Financial Crisis Looming?On Friday, Moody’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating, sending shockwaves through the bond market. Japan, in particular, is under intense pressure, with yields on its 40-year government bonds (JGBs) surging to 3.45% from 2.09% earlier this year. This upheaval threatens the global foundation of government bonds. Are we on the brink of a new debt crisis?.......

 

Buckling under to the Green New Deal  May 21, 2025  - (See also, “Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill retains hundreds of billions (maybe trillions?) in ‘Green New Deal’ spending” by Olivia Murray.)  In an earlier article for American Thinker, I wrote about the Conservative Climate Caucus in Congress, providing proof that bad ideas can flourish on both sides of the political divide. I concluded the article by warning readers that it was important to eliminate all vestiges of the Green New Deal and stop subsidy-seeking companies from manipulating the political environment to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.......

Trump appears to be losing patience with blue-state Republicans on SALT — President Donald Trump took a surprising swipe Tuesday at efforts to increase a key tax deduction — underscoring that the main beneficiaries would be Democratic “governors from New York, Illinois and California.” His comments, during a visit to Capitol Hill to rally support for his policy megabill, came as House Republicans from blue states are holding out for a major increase in the federal deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT.......

GOP Rep. Massie: ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Add $20 Tril to debt - The Big Beautiful Bill will add $20 trillion of federal debt over 10 years, and that’s according to the authors of it. But there’s another huge problem: it will increase the price of the $36 trillion of debt we already have, as bond buyers realize we aren’t fiscally responsible..............

Trump after GOP meeting: Any Republican who opposes budget plan is ‘a fool’ - President Donald Trump held a closed-door meeting Tuesday with various Republican factions in an effort to bridge party divisions over his "One Big, Beautiful Bill" — a sweeping piece of legislation aimed at funding his agenda.  While, in Trump’s words, “there was a lot of love in the room,” he also warned that he would regard as “a fool” “anybody that didn't support it [meaning the bill] as a Republican.”  He also assured that it would be “the biggest tax reduction in history” and “the biggest regulation reduction in history,” emphasizing that it would protect Medicaid and Medicare: “We're going to keep them, and even make them stronger.”........

Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill retains hundreds of billions (maybe trillions?) in ‘Green New Deal’ spending May 20, 2025 - Congressional Republicans are the absolute worst, for many reasons, but this time, it has to do with the “big” and “beautiful” tax bill that’s working its way toward Donald Trump’s desk—Republicans, despite holding both houses, as well as the Oval Office, are set to retain hundreds of billions of dollars in Green New Deal provisions, if they get their way. Here’s the context, from Adam N. Michel and Joshua Loucks at the Cato Institute:......

Tax reform isn’t inevitable -- it’s earned  May 16, 2025 - In the summer of 2017, Washington, D.C. was not just sweltering in heat -- it was smoldering with political disappointment. Republicans had just failed to repeal ObamaCare, despite a decade of promises.  I was the Digital Communications Director for Speaker Paul Ryan at that time -- a job I also held for Speakers John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy -- and those closed-door meetings in the days that followed were disorienting. Congressional Republicans spent August licking our wounds. But by September, we were determined to show the American people that we deserved the majorities they gave us........

Chip Roy Spells Out What He Wants Before and if He Approves Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’   Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy said Monday on Fox Business that he would like President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” to address “deficit numbers” and tax policy before giving his approval on it.  Late Sunday, the House Budget Committee narrowly pushed through the president’s budget reconciliation package, with Roy among three other conservatives who pushed back against approving the legislation and voted “present.” While discussing his vote on “The Bottom Line,” co-guest host David Webb asked the representative what else he would need to get him to vote yes, noting he “mentioned the Green New Scam.”.....

 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Passes Committee Vote After Mike Johnson Agrees to Changes Pushed by Conservatives-  President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” that would extend his 2017 tax cuts and reshape federal spending cleared a hurdle Sunday night that it failed to clear last week. The bill passed the House Budget Committee 17-16 in a rare Sunday night vote, according to The New York Times. The bill failed a similar vote on Friday......

 Majority Whip Barrasso Says Senate Will Match House Spending Cuts, Marking a Huge Shift in Direction - Republican Senate Whip John Barrasso told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that he believes the Senate will be able to match the big spending cuts proposed in the House version of the budget. In fact, he thinks the Senate might cut deeper.....

Here’s what’s in the House GOP’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package -  The House GOP narrowly passed its massive tax and spending cuts package ahead of its Memorial Day deadline, sending President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” over to the Senate, where it will likely face many changes.  The package includes several controversial measures that would deeply cut into two of the nation’s key safety net programs – Medicaid and food stamps – while making permanent essentially all of the trillions of dollars of individual income tax breaks contained in the GOP’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. What’s more, it would fulfill Trump’s campaign promises to cut taxes on tips and overtime, albeit temporarily.  The magnitude of the measures is evident in the estimates of the cost they would incur or the savings they would produce. The tax changes in the package would add $3.8 trillion to the nation’s debt over a decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released before last-minute changes were made to the bill......

 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Quashed by Several House Conservatives in Committee Vote - The “One Big Beautiful Bill” fell short in a House Budget Committee vote Friday, with conservatives on the panel arguing it does not cut federal spending enough.  Axios reported that the final tally was 16-21, as GOP Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman and Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma joined all of the committee’s Democratic members in voting against the measure......

 

Liberal Amnesty Group Inadvertently Makes Great Case for the Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill - Congressional Republicans have got to get their act together on the budget reconciliation package, which hopefully will be settled this weekend. Yet, liberal pro-immigrant groups might have inadvertently made the case to pass the mega-bill since it’s chock-full of immigration enforcement measures that make pro-illegal alien activists recoil....... 

Trump's OMB Director Quietly Calls Out the Republicans Threatening to Derail the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' - The Republican Party was on a game-winning drive for the budget reconciliation package, and it looked like they could fumble the ball on the goal line. The bill is in serious trouble, given the House Republican majority’s slim majority where a few defections can lead to disaster. It was not a good Friday for the caucus (via WSJ):......

House Budget Committee Votes Down Big Beautiful Bill - The House Budget Committee voted down a budget reconciliation bill just after noon Friday in a temporary roadblock for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”  The defeat of the bill is another expected — if unnecessary — bump in the often messy negotiating process of the massive piece of legislation.......

The ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ will bring big benefits for blue-collar workers May 17, 2025 - Despite all these provisions that will boost workers’ take-home pay and create new manufacturing jobs, almost every Democrat continues to portray Trump's bill as nothing more than a tax cut for the rich......

Kevin O’Leary sounds the alarm on tyrannical new provisions in Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill - With “friends” like Republicans, who needs Democrats?  Just yesterday I wrote about a new betrayal out of Washington from our spineless Republicans “representatives” who just passed a “pro-gun” bill—but not pro-gun in a Second Amendment “shall not be infringed” kind of way, rather in a showmanship and superficial pro-gun way. The LEOSA Reform Act (H.R. 2243) would establish a national constitutional carry…but only for law enforcement. (At this time, I suggest you read Monica Showalter’s blog on “cops who act like third-world cops because they are third-world cops” found here.) Can we the civilian class, or as George Mason would say, “the militia,” get the same recognition of God-given rights?..............

 GOP Hardliners Defy Trump, Block 'Big Beautiful Bill' - The House GOP leadership suffered what the Hill describes as a "stunning setback" on Friday when five conservative members of their own party blocked a spending bill crucial to President Trump's legislative agenda. The five Republicans joined all Democrats on the House Budget Committee in voting against the sweeping package of tax cuts and spending reductions—known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" in deference to Trump. The five dissenting Republicans want deeper spending cuts...........

House GOP’s Medicaid Reform Would Force Millions of Able-Bodied Americans to Get Back to Work -  House Republicans’ proposal to impose work requirements on Medicaid would force millions of Americans to meet new eligibility conditions or lose coverage, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. At least 3.5 million individuals will be removed from Medicaid rolls due to House Republicans’ proposal to require most able-bodied Americans to work, volunteer or be in school for at least 20 hours a week to qualify for the entitlement program, according to a source familiar with an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that could be released as early as Friday. GOP lawmakers have justified the imposition of work requirements among other reforms to Medicaid by arguing that the entitlement program should prioritize Americans who need coverage the most, not able-bodied adults or illegal migrants........

Hawley: I Can’t Support House Bill’s ‘Real Medicaid Benefit Cuts’ - Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that he will not support the House spending bill because it has “real Medicaid benefit cuts.”  Hawley said, “It ought to be just a basic foundational principle, it is wrong to cut health care for the working poor, and that’s what we’re talking about here with Medicaid. My state is a Medicaid expansion state, over 20% of Missourians, including hundreds of thousands of children, are on Medicaid.”.......

All GOP Senators Have to Do Is Not Be Dumb, So We’re in Trouble - It’s times like these that remind me that the Latin root of the words “Senate” and “senile” are the same. Of course, all bad senators aren’t senile. Some are just stupid. But sadly, even the stupid ones are necessary because we must keep the Senate in 2026 to make Donald Trump’s second administration a success. That means we must be smart and self-sacrificing, and GOP senators (and aspiring senators) must be smart and self-sacrificing. Which means we have a challenge.....

Speaker: Critics Wrong, Bill Will ‘Reduce the Deficit,’ Not Raise It - The liberal media, suddenly concerned about spending and deficits with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), is missing the boat on what President Donald Trump's tax cut and spending program will do for U.S. revenues, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued Sunday...............

OMB’s Vought: Big Beautiful Bill Doesn’t Increase Deficit - Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought pushed back Sunday against Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency commission, stating that the Big Beautiful Bill will not increase deficit spending or affect the growth of the national debt........

6 Senate Republicans Who Could Hold Up Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ - Senate Republicans will take control of the party’s mammoth tax and domestic policy bill when they return to Washington on Monday — and seek to win over a diverse group of GOP lawmakers agitating for changes to the legislation. Members are staring down a key four-week stretch to hammer out provisions of the bill, with their Fourth of July goal in sight and pressure mounting to complete President Trump’s top domestic agenda priority. .............

Rand Paul Threatens To Block Trump’s Economic Bill Over Debt Ceiling Concerns - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Sunday that he would support President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" if the debt ceiling hike was removed. Paul told CBS' "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan that he and three other Republican senators will hold out against the bill unless it is modified.  "I think there are four of us at this point, and I would be very surprised if the bill at least is not modified in a good direction," Paul said. 

‘It’s Completely Unsustainable’: Republican Lawmaker Doubles Down, Knocks Trump Tax Bill  - Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, is doubling down on his concerns about a bill that would make sweeping changes to taxes, Medicaid, food stamps and more after it was passed last month in the Republican-led House at the urging of President Donald Trump. The more-than-1,000-page bill narrowly cleared the lower chamber on May 22. Now, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where some conservatives have raised concerns about the legislation's cost. "It's completely unsustainable,"...........

Musk Slams Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ As Undercutting DOGE, Raising National Deficit - Elon Musk said the spending in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.” Mr. Musk also suggested that the description of the bill goes too far.  “I was like disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit … and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” he said in an interview with CBS. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. I don’t know if it can be both.”................

 Deregulation deferred — not defeated — by the Big Beautiful Bill - In my latest Forbes column, I detail how the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) had the potential to revolutionize federal regulatory policy. But last-minute changes in the House stripped away provisions that could have both pruned existing rules and reshaped how regulations are made and managed henceforth. The Senate now takes up the BBB..............

Rand Paul States His Position on House GOP’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ - Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act the House passed early Thursday morning and made his position to Senate leadership clear. The sticking point for the Kentucky Republican is that the bill includes language to raise the debt limit................

Okay, so, now that you've read all these articles, is everything involving this BBB clear in your mind?