Thursday, July 03, 2025
PMT: It might not be beautiful, but it is big
The "Big Beautiful Bill" is knocking around the House again as Republicans try to get everyone in line to buy into the Senate version.
There is a LOT going on in that bill, much of which may end up being a surprise even to the people who vote for it. In the broad sweep of things, it does three important things:
-- It gives tax breaks which by dollar value will overwhelmingly go to the relatively wealthy.
-- It will cut safety net provisions, primarily Medicaid and what used to be called food stamps (now it is usually referred to as SNAP).
-- Because the tax breaks will be so much more than the savings scraped from the poor and the working class, the deficit will rise by $3-4 trillion, depending on the estimate.
So, basically, it has one positive aspect-- tax breaks, but even those will go mostly to the people who need it the least.
If we are to avoid raising the debt even further in the future, hard choices have to be made. Basically, we can (1) cut entitlements, (2) cut military spending (though this is less money to work with than entitlements), and/or raise taxes.
Which would you choose?
