Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Is An Assault On American Life | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON ― It’s laborious to convey the scope of ache that can hit Americans nationwide if Republicans’ so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” turns into regulation.

The almost 900-page invoice that handed within the Senate on Tuesday makes such devastating cuts to federal applications that Republican leaders needed to hold scrambling to patch it along with last-minute Bandaids ― an additional $10 billion right here, a statewide waiver there ― to maintain the naked minimal of their members on board with its passage. The invoice now heads to the House, the place Republicans will battle over Senate provisions they don’t like.

At its coronary heart, the GOP laws kicks almost 12 million individuals off of their medical insurance by reducing greater than $1 trillion ― with a T ― from Medicaid. Republicans are relying on individuals dropping their well being protection so as to assist pay for a $975 billion tax break for the wealthiest 1% within the nation.

But the invoice will do a lot of different merciless issues, too.

It will lower meals help for low-income individuals and youngsters by $285 billion.

It will make it tougher for individuals to qualify for and afford federal scholar loans.

It will give tens of billions of {dollars} to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to assist detain American kids with their undocumented mother and father.

It will power rural hospitals to drastically cut back companies or shut.

It will put nursing properties at excessive threat of closure.

And it’s going to remove tax credit for wind and photo voltaic power, efficient instantly.

This is only a sampling of the drastic cuts within the GOP invoice, which nonetheless provides $3.9 trillion in new debt ― a actuality that flies within the face of Republicans’ professed dedication to fiscal duty. The invoice is wildly unpopular, and it’s not a coincidence that its devastating cuts to Medicaid gained’t take impact till late 2026, after the mid-term elections. That is by design, as Republicans hope to be reelected earlier than the cuts hit and that folks will neglect they had been those set these cuts in movement a yr and a half earlier.

It’s straightforward to learn all of this as a bunch of huge numbers that don’t imply something, and never as very actual coverage adjustments which are on observe to grow to be federal regulation within the coming days. Millions of individuals in pink and blue states might be harm by this, and if it’s indirectly, they’ll hear about it hurting individuals they love or individuals of their neighborhood.

Between slashing cash for well being care, training, clear power and even meals for poor households whereas spending billions of {dollars} in taxpayer cash to assist immigration enforcement brokers detain American kids, President Donald Trump’s signature home coverage invoice is greatest understood as an assault on American life.

Republicans, who’ve been bending over backwards to ship this invoice to Trump by his arbitrary deadline of July 4, know this. But just about all of them are staying silent about its results to keep away from the president’s ire and his threats of operating candidates towards them within the subsequent election. In the case of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), whose vote was essential for passing the invoice the Senate, she simply negotiated particular exemptions to spare her state.

Over the weekend, proper after asserting he gained’t search reelection, a newly liberated Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) broke from his celebration and trashed the invoice. He warned that Trump is “betraying” his personal voters by claiming individuals gained’t lose their well being protection.

“I’m telling the president that you have been misinformed,” Tillis mentioned on the Senate ground. “You supporting the Senate mark will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for Medicaid.”

Here are among the very actual issues which are going to start out occurring all around the nation if Republicans move this invoice, which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) described Sunday as “the most dangerous piece of legislation in the modern history of our country.”

The invoice’s sweeping Medicaid cuts will put 55 impartial rural hospitals at critical threat of closure, in accordance with an evaluation by Families USA, a nonpartisan nationwide group centered on inexpensive well being care.

These 55 hospitals newly in danger for closure are a part of a complete of 380 impartial rural hospitals nationwide already at critical threat of closure.

Lots of those hospitals are in states led by Senate Republicans who voted to move the invoice. Of the 55 hospitals newly prone to shutting down, Families USA notes that two are in Iowa, two are in Maine, 4 are in Missouri, 4 are in Nebraska, two are in North Carolina, 5 are in Ohio and one is in West Virginia.

Independent rural hospitals are on observe to lose an estimated $465 million in complete affected person income in 2026 as a result of Medicaid cuts within the GOP’s invoice, or a median lack of $630,665 per hospital, mentioned the group.

Nearly 600 nursing properties nationwide are at a excessive threat of closing as a result of invoice’s Medicaid cuts, per an evaluation by researchers at Brown University’s School of Public Health.

They discovered that 579 nursing properties are at a excessive threat of closing as a result of they meet all three of the researchers’ standards: greater than 85% of their residents are Medicaid recipients, they’ve an occupancy price of lower than 80%, they usually have poor high quality scores, particularly a 1- or 2-star score based mostly on the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services’ five-star high quality score system.

Nursing properties on this high-risk group are unfold throughout 45 states, with the very best numbers in Illinois (93), Texas (66), Ohio (41) and Missouri (39).

Hundreds of hundreds of individuals will lose their jobs within the clear power business on account of the Trump’s invoice eliminating federal tax credit for wind and photo voltaic power tasks, efficient instantly.

Without these tax credit, billions of {dollars} in personal funding in clear power tasks will disappear in a single day, successfully halting ongoing photo voltaic and wind tasks, and leaving everybody engaged on these tasks with no job, in accordance with the League of Conservation Voters.

The GOP invoice additionally proposes a brand new tax on wind and photo voltaic power tasks, delivering a double whammy to the renewable power business. In addition to being higher for the planet, photo voltaic and wind tasks are cheaper to construct than counting on fossil fuels like coal and pure fuel for power.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) railed towards this provision on Sunday, warning of power shortages and better electrical payments for everybody.

“Energy demand is soaring for the first time in decades, largely because of AI data centers,” Schatz mentioned on the Senate ground, referring to their fast-growing reliance on photo voltaic panels. “Eighty percent of the new capacity on the grid last year came from solar.”

Killing renewable power tasks will “cost people ― not companies ― people, rate-payers, $60 billion in his decade alone,” he fumed. “Your electric bills are about to go up.”

An estimated 477,000 well being care staff will lose their jobs over the following decade due to the GOP invoice’s cuts to Medicaid, in accordance with an evaluation by George Washington University and the Commonwealth Fund.

These a whole bunch of hundreds of jobs might be eradicated on account of decreased Medicaid enrollment and income losses for well being care suppliers.

Their evaluation additionally estimates that one other 411,000 jobs might be eradicated in different companies, as a part of the ripple impact of so many well being staff changing into unemployed. In complete, the teams estimate state economies will lose $95 billion in associated gross home merchandise in 2026.

The GOP invoice offers Immigration and Customs Enforcement almost $30 billion to hold out Trump’s harsh crackdown on immigration enforcement.

In addition to having the ability to use this cash to rent extra brokers and improve its amenities, ICE is being directed to make use of this cash for “promoting family unity by detaining alien parents with their children.” That is a euphemism within the Senate Judiciary Committee’s overview of its part of the invoice for permitting ICE brokers to detain American kids whose mother and father are undocumented immigrants.

Here’s the language within the Senate invoice, on web page 855:

More than 4.7 million kids have at the very least one undocumented mother or father of their residence, and greater than 2.6 million have solely undocumented mother and father of their residence, per the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.

The GOP invoice eliminates a number of federal scholar mortgage compensation applications that assist low- and middle-income debtors repay loans based mostly on their revenue. New debtors will now solely be eligible for the GOP’s new Repayment Assistance Program, which requires greater month-to-month funds.

A typical borrower beneath this new plan will see their month-to-month scholar mortgage prices go up by a whole bunch of {dollars} a month, or hundreds of {dollars} a yr, in accordance with the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit centered on eliminating scholar debt.

This evaluation additionally “vastly understates” the lifetime value of scholar loans beneath the GOP invoice’s program, the nonprofit wrote to senators final month. It laid out how debtors would fare beneath the brand new program versus the present program the GOP plans to remove, the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.

“Borrowers accessing the new Repayment Assistance Program (RAP) will be expected to make on-time, monthly payments for 30 years to satisfy their obligation, compared to SAVE which provides debt relief after 10, 20, or 25 years depending on borrowers’ circumstances,” mentioned the group.

The invoice additionally considerably limits the amount of cash that oldsters can borrow from the federal authorities to assist pay for his or her child’s undergraduate training. It imposes a brand new cap of $65,000 on so-called Parent Plus loans.

If you’re a whaling boat captain and also you’re tight on cash, you’re in luck: the GOP invoice offers you a break on shopping for no matter issues it’s that whaling captains have to do their jobs.

Deep within the invoice is a provision that will increase the tax deduction individuals can take for whale searching bills, from $10,000 to $50,000.

Not simply anybody who likes going whaling can get this profit, although. You need to be acknowledged as a whaling captain by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and engaged in subsistence searching of bowhead whales, per Politico.