Brendan Duke

The tradeoff at the heart of the flawed GOP megabill: cutting programs that help people afford groceries and health care in order to cut taxes for households making over $500k.

Our analysis of the full Joint Committee on Taxation tables of the flawed GOP megabill: a $1T tax cut for the top 1% and a staggering $2.4T tax cut for the top 10%.

Tax cuts of around $500B for households in the bottom 60%--the very folks who also face the brunt of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

I know *exactly* what you mean!

Let's put the $3.4 trillion cost of Republican reconciliation law in context.

Its tax cuts are so costly that Republicans could have extended all of the expiring tax cuts for families (including millionaires) without cutting SNAP/Medicaid...and it would have cost *less*.

The Congressional Budget Office's final verdict: the GOP tax and spending bill will cost $3.4 trillion over ten years.

Let's put the $3.4 trillion cost of Republican reconciliation law in context.

Its tax cuts are so costly that Republicans could have extended all of the expiring tax cuts for families (including millionaires) without cutting SNAP/Medicaid...and it would have cost *less*.

The Congressional Budget Office's final verdict: the GOP tax and spending bill will cost $3.4 trillion over ten years.

In our analysis of the House bill, we showed how people in families with income above $500,000 have average annual incomes of $1.5 million. This bill will make our debt soar & increase inequality in every state. There's nothing beautiful about that. www.georgetownpoverty.org/issues/food-...

The big winners of the #BigUglyBill will be the small percentage of people who make over $500,000 per year, while millions will lose health care & food assistance. It's striking that this is particularly true even for some groups that disproportionately voted for Trump:

After three months of hard work, seems like the Trump Administration has added rounding to the Liberation Day formulas.

Trump Just Went Absolutely Nuclear in Screwing Over MAGA Voters He has persuaded the media and many voters that he’s different from earlier Republicans on economics—but he’s now doubled-down on the GOP’s plutocratic agenda.

For 50 years GOP has relied on 3 big scams:

*deficits pose civilizational threat (when Dem is in WH)
*tax cuts for rich pay for themselves
*safety net cuts needed to purge welfare cheats

w/this bill, Trump's "working class GOP" is supercharging all three

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1976...

As @brendanvduke.bsky.social says, this isn’t a case of shared sacrifice. The bill isn’t asking everyone to tighten their belts a little in the name of deficit reduction. Instead it’s asking the poorest to tighten their belts so the richest can loosen their belts.

That is profoundly unfair.

The speed at which he’s running away from his vow to protect Medicaid…haven’t seen him run this fast since January 6, 2021.

NEW: The Senate version of One Big Beautiful Bill is one big ugly transfer of wealth from low-income families to the rich.

Americans struggling to get by will pay more for groceries & health care so the highest income families can get big tax cuts. This isn’t shared sacrifice.

The speed at which he’s running away from his vow to protect Medicaid…haven’t seen him run this fast since January 6, 2021.

NEW: The Senate version of One Big Beautiful Bill is one big ugly transfer of wealth from low-income families to the rich.

Americans struggling to get by will pay more for groceries & health care so the highest income families can get big tax cuts. This isn’t shared sacrifice.

Congressional Republicans constantly say that we need to pass One Big Beautiful Bill—and make low-income families pay more for health care and groceries—to avoid raising taxes on families.

But the tax cuts go far beyond the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts for families

Congressional Republicans constantly say that we need to pass One Big Beautiful Bill—and make low-income families pay more for health care and groceries—to avoid raising taxes on families.

But the tax cuts go far beyond the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts for families

(The magnitude of the spending cuts is roughly similar between the House and Senate versions--perhaps somewhat larger Medicaid cuts in the Senate version but somewhat smaller SNAP cuts)

We do not yet have a full distributional analysis of the Senate GOP leadership's One Big Beautiful Bill, but here is a *rough* guess of the combined spending and tax cuts.

Low-income families being asked to sacrifice on behalf of tax cuts for high-income families.

🥰

Will be on shortly!

👀

GOP Senators Dealt Setback on Medicaid Cuts in Trump Megabill The GOP’s “provider tax” changes are out of bounds, the Senate parliamentarian rules.

TONIGHT: @brendanvduke.bsky.social talks to @lawrenceodonnell.msnbc.com on The #LastWord at 10pm ET.

This would also inevitably be a huge roadblock for negotiating funding for next fiscal year. Discretionary funding is always carefully negotiated over—the Admin using impoundment to invalidate this year’s agreement will make it much harder to reach an agreement for next year

Folks are rightfully focused on Rs deeply unpopular plans to strip healthcare and food assistance from millions to help pay for tax giveaways to the rich. But continued withholding of $$$ from medical research, disaster prep and response, etc, will only grow in importance.

DOGE Interference in Federal Grantmaking Adds Burden, Uncertainty, and Risk | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Federal grantmaking is becoming less efficient, more uncertain, more political, and more open to corruption.

Finally, the article runs through steps Trump Admin is taking to make sure $$$ isn’t spent before they can impound.

Cristin Dorgelo and Jacob Leibenluft ran through myriad ways Trump Admin has politicized and interfered in federal grant making to date.

www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

Sometimes Trump Admin willingness to just say they are going to break the law gets treated as less scandalous because they are public about it (like when OMB says in the article that “impoundments remain an option at the president’s disposal”) but it shouldn’t.

Also, the lawbreaking has already CLEARLY been underway. WH denies any funds have been impounded but the article notes “the disbursement of funds has slowed, stopped or been delayed…with little clear legal justification.”

Guess what that is? That’s impoundment!

First, the story carefully describes OMB’s plan as “push[ing] the boundaries of the law” but let’s be clear, as @davidasuper.bsky.social lays out, their legal case on impounding funds through the end of the fiscal year is “entirely vacuous” and a “fantasy.”

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/06/pock...