If the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is what you would call a Congressional bill if the president is a moron, gets through the Senate, it will hurt low-income and working-class Americans and benefit the wealthy.
I could stop this post right there, but I will go on a little more. Today, because I am the guardian to my elderly oldest brother who is dealing with Parkinson’s and in a senior home, I was in Lewistown, Pa., to visit his tax attorney. Little makes sense in this misadventure with being my brother’s guardian, which ranges from dealing with incompetent financial firms over his estate to the fact that his accountant for some reason is an hour away from where he lived despite having plenty of choices closer to him. But I digress.
Lewistown is in Mifflin County and was one of the worst places to be during COVID. It has a poverty rate of 32.7% and like many towns in the general Appalachian region, faces opiate and meth issues. As I drove to my brother’s accountant’s office, I went past a fairly rundown home that was also displaying several Confederate flags and a Trump sign.
Trump took Mifflin County in a landslide. Not an imaginary landslide in the national 2024 results that he babbles on about, but a real-deal one. Lewistown went heavily for Trump.
As I drove past Johnny Reb of the North’s house, I thought about how Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill would affect him.
The bill is a masterclass in political theater—promoted as a boon for the everyday American like my Lewistown confederate friend but, in reality, is a windfall for the wealthy. The bill extends the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions, ensuring that the top 1% continue to enjoy substantial tax breaks. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, nearly two-thirds of the benefits from extending these provisions would go to the richest fifth of taxpayers, with more than a quarter going to the top 1%. Meanwhile, the bill’s much-touted perks for the working class, like eliminating taxes on tips and overtime, are temporary and set to expire in 2028—conveniently aligning with the end of Trump’s presidency.
For the working-class supporters who rallied behind Trump, the bill offers our Nuevo Johnny Reb and people like him little more than crumbs. While the legislation includes a $1,000 “baby bonus” for children born between 2025 and 2029, it simultaneously slashes funding for essential programs like Medicaid and SNAP. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 8.6 million people could lose healthcare coverage, and 3 million could lose access to food assistance. So, while the wealthy toast their tax savings with vintage champagne, working families are left to navigate a landscape with diminished support systems.
The bill also introduces stricter work requirements for social safety net programs, effectively penalizing those who are already struggling. These changes disproportionately affect communities of color, exacerbating existing racial and economic inequalities. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes that Black and Hispanic taxpayers would receive a disproportionately small share of the benefits from the bill’s tax provisions. It’s a classic case of giving with one hand while taking away with the other.
In the grand finale, the bill is projected to add $3.4 trillion to the national deficit by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This ballooning debt conveniently sets the stage for future calls to cut spending on programs like Social Security and Medicare, programs that many of Trump’s supporters rely on. In essence, the One Big Beautiful Bill is a Trojan horse: a shiny package promising prosperity but delivering policies that favor the affluent at the expense of the very people who helped usher it into law by voting for the Semi-Sentient Rotting Carrot.
My Rebel flag flying friend has no idea what will hit him if this thing passes the Senate. Of course, they may just deny that anything bad is happening because the most important thing is Trump is a racist just like they are. And they will give up any comfort for that. Unfortunately, a lot of people who are not racist, who are struggling Americans with decent morals, are about to face an economy that is even less about them than it has ever been. And that even includes some folks in Lewistown.
The last word goes to Paramore.
