Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ clears final hurdle
Source: C-Span
US President Donald Trump’s mammoth tax-cut package has cleared its final hurdle in the US Congress, with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approving it.
Thursday’s 218-214 vote amounts to a significant victory for Trump.
It will fund his immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent and deliver further tax breaks that he promised during his 2024 presidential election campaign.
It also cuts health and food safety net programs and cancels dozens of green energy incentives.
It will add $US3.4 trillion ($5.2 trillion) to America’s $US36.2 trillion ($55.1 trillion) debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag and its hit to healthcare programs, Republicans largely lined up in support. Only two of the House’s 220 Republicans voted against it.
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The bill had already cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by the narrowest possible margin.
Republicans said the legislation would lower taxes for Americans across the income spectrum and spur economic growth.
“Historic tax relief for working families. Massive investment to secure our nation’s borders. Capturing generational savings. Slashing waste, fraud and abuse in government programs so that they may run more efficiently,” Republican representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina said.
Every Democrat in Congress voted against it, blasting the legislation as a giveaway to the wealthy that would leave millions uninsured.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an eight-hour, 46-minute speech that was the longest in the chamber’s history.
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Trump kept up the pressure throughout, cajoling and threatening Congress as he pressed them to send him the legislation by the July 4 Independence Day holiday. “FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!” he wrote on social media.
Republicans raced to meet that deadline, working through last weekend and holding all-night debates in the House and the Senate. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday (local time) 51-50 vote after Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.
According to the CBO, the bill will lower tax revenues by $US4.5 trillion ($6.9 trillion) over 10 years and cut spending by $US1.1 trillion ($1.7 trillion).
Those spending cuts largely come from Medicaid, the health program that covers 71 million low-income Americans. The legislation will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments – changes that will leave nearly 12 million people uninsured, according to the CBO.
Republicans added $US50 billion ($A76 billion) for rural health providers to address concerns that those cutbacks would force them out of business.
Nonpartisan analysts have found that the wealthiest Americans will have the biggest benefits, while lower-income people will effectively see their incomes drop as safety-net cuts outweigh their tax cuts.
The increased debt load created by the bill will also effectively transfer money from younger to older generations, analysts say. Ratings firm Moody’s downgraded US debt in May, citing the mounting debt, and some foreign investors say the bill is making US Treasury bonds less attractive.
On the other side of the ledger, the bill staves off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of this year, when Trump’s 2017 individual and business cuts were due to expire. Those cuts are now permanent, while tax breaks for parents and businesses are broadened.
The bill also sets up new tax breaks for tipped income, overtime pay, seniors and auto loans, fulfilling Trump campaign promises.
The final version of the legislation includes more substantial tax cuts and more aggressive healthcare cuts than an initial version that passed the House in May.
During deliberations in the Senate, Republicans also dropped a provision that would have banned state-level regulations on artificial intelligence, and a “retaliatory tax” on foreign investment that had spurred alarm on Wall Street.
