TRUMP'S HUGE, UGLY LAW

Donald Trump signed his Big, Beautiful Bill on July 4.  Here are some details.

• Wikipedia calls it the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.  For purposes of this posting, I'll call it BBB.
• Has several hundred provisions.
• Permanently extends the individual tax rates Trump signed into law in 2017, which were set to expire at the end of 2025.
• Raises the cap on the state and local tax deductions to $40,000 for taxpayers making less than $500,00/year, but will drop to $10,000 after five years.
• Temporary tax deductions for tips, and overtime pay.
• Allows car buyers to deduct up to $10,000/year in auto loan interest for cars assembled in the U.S. and purchased between 2025 and 2028.
• Creates something called Trump Accounts, allowing parents to create tax-deferred accounts for the benefit of their children, which will expire in 2028.  In short, the U.S. government deposits $1000/birth of a child born between 2025 and 2028.  Then parents may contibute up to $5,000/year, with money growing tax-deferred, if used for higher education, job training or as down payment on a home.
• Includes a permanent $200 increase in the child tax credit, a 1% tax on remittances and a tax hike on investment income from college endowments.
• Offers a tax deduction set to expire in 2028 of up to $6,000 for seniors.
• Phases out some clean energy tax credits in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
• Promotes fossil fuels over renewable energy.
• Raises debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
• Cuts Medicaid by 12%.
• There is a waiver process for an exemption for planned SNAP cuts for Alaska and Hawaii.
• Expands work requirements for food stamps (SNAP) benefits, and makes states responsible for some costs relating to the food assistance program.
• Increases defense spending by $150 billion, another $150 billion for border enforcement and deportations and from $10 billion to more than $100 billion by 2029 for funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will increase the budget deficit by $2.8 trillion by 2034, and cause 10.9 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage.
• Think tanks and experts indicated the BBB will create the largest upward transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history.

In a way, this was a smart bill, for it gave something to just about everyone.  Thus, voters are split on the BBB.  According to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released on Monday:

• 44% support.
• 44% did not support.
• 12% not sure.
• 48% felt it would improve the economy.
• 52% said it would worsen the economy.

Maybe it's a matter of timing or source, but a CNN poll conducted by SSRS today reported that 6 in 10 Americans oppose Trump's megabill.  Some details.

• by a 45-point margin, Americans say this will add to the federal deficit.
• 51% to 29%:  will hurt the economy.
• 37% to 16% expect it to leave their family worse off, with half unsure.
• 93% of Democrats say they oppose the bill, while 78% of Republicans support the bill.
• 21% strongly approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president.
• 
  45% strongly disapprove.
• Watch this video.

From Time magazine:

As the United States reaches its 250th year, the widening gulf between the very rich few and the rest of us has become glaringly apparent. In 2024, the richest 10% held over 67% of household wealth in the U.S., while the bottom half held just 2.4%.

The BBB will only further worsen this situation.

The Founders would be horrified by these developments because they believed great wealth in politics would corrupt and destroy the republic. Those beliefs were shaped by a range of influences: the widely read works by Roman historians who blamed the empire’s decline on a widening gap between rich and poor; radical Protestants who called for a Godly republic with limits on property or even its redistribution in a Great Jubilee every 50 years; James Harrington’s 1656 novel Oceana, describing an island country with a constitution that gave land to all and placed explicit limits on income and wealth; Enlightenment philosophers, particularly John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1689), which argued “all Men by Nature are equal” and that individuals should not hoard surplus wealth; and Cato’s Letters, a series written by British “radical Whigs” in the 1720s who, angered by the infamous South Sea Bubble, called for reforms while bitterly criticizing the corrupting ties between wealth and politics.

So Congress passed the H.R.1 - One Big Beautiful Act.  Good name for the very rich.  Huge Ugly Law would be more appropriate for most Americans.  Got to hand it to Trump and Republicans, for they pulled off an impressive victory.  Lurking, though, are the Jeffrey Epstein Files.  From The Hill today:

For the QAnon followers and assorted conspiracy theorists at the core of President Trump’s MAGA coalition, the existence of the storied “Jeffrey Epstein Files” might as well be the movement’s gospel truth. Trump himself boasted that Epstein’s files were so damning that their big reveal would put most of his Democratic opponents behind bars.  Instead, the conspiracy theory that gave us Trump is now threatening to burn his presidency to the ground.

The person who sparked this controversy, Elon Musk, seems, more recently, sheepishly quiet about the brouhaha.  Surely, he must have something substantive to share, or he wouldn't have inflamed and permanently destroyed his relationship with Trump by tossing in this specific grenade when they split.

I'll end with, of all the things, the Major League All Star game.  Yesterday, it ended with the scored tied 6-6.  Extra innings?  No, for the rules were changed three years ago to have a home run derby determine who won.  Read this ESPN article about the results.  Was exciting.  If this means anything to anyone, the National League was victorious, and Kyle Schwarber was the hero, winning the Ted Williams All Star Game Most Valuable Player award:  a  glass bat.

-