On July 4, amid fanfare and flyovers, President Trump signed his “one big beautiful bill.” The legislation reduces taxes, increases appropriations for the military, border security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — while cutting spending on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill’s $4.5 trillion decrease in revenues and $1.2 trillion increase in spending will add $3.3 trillion over the next decade to the already astronomical $36 trillion national debt.

Despite Trump’s claims, the bill is extremely unpopular. Five recent polls found net approval ratings ranging from minus-19 percentage points to minus-29 points for the legislation. “The more [Americans] learn about this bill, they hate it just as much,” declared Harry Enten, CNN’s data analyst.

Many Americans haven’t yet realized that the tax cuts and estate tax changes, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy, have been made permanent, while the exemption on workers’ tips and overtime and reductions on taxes to Social Security benefits will expire in 2028. Most are unaware that, in an attempt to minimize Republican losses in the midterms, legislators delayed until 2027 implementation of the Medicaid cuts (which will result in 11.8 million Americans losing their health insurance) and that reductions in the federal share of SNAP costs won’t kick in until 2027.

Opposition from so-called Republican........

© The Hill