Thursday, July 10, 2025
PMT: Hidden treasures?
Like many people-- perhaps even most people-- I was disappointed with a lot of things in the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed last week. In terms of spending money, it pretty much went the complete opposite of my own priorities: Big tax breaks for the most wealthy, cuts in support to those with the least among us, and big money for the military and ICE. Sigh.
Still, I sifted through the huge bill looking for some kind of bright spot (for people who feel the way I do, anyways). Here is what I found:
-- $4.8 billion to the Bureau of Prisons for hiring, training, and facilities. The BOP has been a rolling disaster for a while, and a lot of it boils down to a lack of staffing and decrepit facilities. So long as these funds don't go to increasing capacity (which is unlikely, since crime is way down, as is incarceration), this is a good investment for those in prison. A lack of staff and poor training has led to real deprivations, including lockdowns caused by nothing other than a lack of staff.
-- Allowing Pell grants for shorter-term vocational training-- $300 million. This is a good thing, as good vocational training will follow people's ability to pay for it. The bill also allocates $11 billion to continue to fund regular Pell grants.
-- $6.8 billion to expand Medicaid to more people to fund in-home care. Those most of the news on Medicaid is bad, this is probably good.
-- $2 billion for something relating to tax breaks for bicycle commuters. Which, as a bike commuter, I did not know about.
-- Allowing health care savings accounts to be used to pay for primary care outside of insurance.
-- Extension of a tax credit (set to expire) for investing in low-income communities.
I'm sure there are more. And I'm kind of dreaming that it was a Small Beautiful Bill that contained only these provisions....
