WHAT’S INSIDE THE “BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL Josimar Salum

 

WHAT’S INSIDE THE “BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL

Josimar Salum 

July 3, 2025

The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” of President Donald J Trump that Congress approved today proposes sweeping tax and budget changes affecting millions of Americans. Here is a concise summary of its main provisions:

Key Highlights

• Deductions for overtime pay and tip income, excluding these earnings from taxable income

• Child Tax Credit increased to $2,200 per child

• Permanently expanded standard deduction

• Senior tax break raised to $6,000 through 2028

• SNAP (food stamps) work requirement extended to age 64 for able-bodied adults

• SALT (State and Local Taxes) deduction boosted to $40,000 for couples earning up to $500,000

• $737 billion in corporate and business tax deductions, plus expanded estate tax relief

• Expanded credits for childcare and paid family leave

• Auto loan interest deduction of up to $10,000 annually for U.S.-made vehicles

• Expanded Social Security income break for seniors

• $5 trillion debt ceiling increase through reconciliation

• Rollbacks of green energy incentives, including cuts to credits for wind, solar, electric vehicles, and infrastructure

• $175 billion in border security funding, $150 billion for defense equipment

• $25 billion for rural hospitals and regional SNAP adjustments

• Approximately $186 billion in SNAP reductions

Medicaid Cuts: $930 Billion, a big concern 

A $930 billion reduction in Medicaid funding over ten years would likely have major impacts:

• Enrollment: states could impose stricter eligibility rules, reducing the number of people covered

• Benefits: states might cut services, such as prescription coverage, mental health care, or preventive care

• Hospital strain: more uncompensated care, especially in rural areas, could lead to closures or higher private insurance costs

• Uninsured rates: many who lose Medicaid eligibility may not afford other coverage

• State budgets: states could be forced to find new funding or cut other programs to preserve minimum health coverage

In short, these cuts would almost certainly shrink the program’s reach, pressuring state budgets, hospitals, and low-income families.

Summary of Impacts

• Spending cuts: Medicaid, SNAP, student loans, green energy

• Spending increases: defense and border security

• Deficit: projected to rise by $3–4 trillion over the next decad

Key Permanent Tax Relief Provisions, a big relief.

• Individual tax rates and brackets extended indefinitely

• Permanently doubled standard deduction

• Child Tax Credit set at $2,200 per child

• SALT (State and Local Taxes) deduction cap raised to $40,000 for joint filers earning under $500,000

• No-tax rules on tips and overtime pay

• Senior $6,000 annual deduction preserved, with phase-outs

• Permanent small business deductions for equipment and R&D investments

Temporary Features (Through 2028)

• Auto loan interest deduction up to $10,000 per year

• Tips and overtime deduction caps limited to $25,000 annually

Why It Matters

This bill delivers permanent tax relief and aims to shift the tax burden away from lower- and middle-income earners while scaling back incentives for green energy.

The bill increases defense and border spending by hundreds of billions of dollars (for example, $175 billion for border security, $150 billion for defense equipment, plus ongoing military operations), which represents new spending. Estimates suggest the net deficit effect of the entire package would be roughly $3–4 trillion over ten years, depending on economic growth rates.

Supporters argue the bill will:

• put more money in people’s pockets, boosting spending and investment

• encourage business hiring and productivity

• increase cash flow to lower- and middle-income earners, supporting economic growth

This reflects dynamic scoring, the idea that growth can partly offset revenue losses.

Critics argue that while past tax cuts under Reagan, Bush, and Trump did stimulate growth, they failed to close budget deficits, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that the current bill’s tax reductions will similarly expand the deficit. Combined with increased defense and border spending and cuts to social programs, these measures could further deepen the nation’s fiscal imbalance over the next decade.

In summary, while lower taxes generally support economic growth, maintaining a balanced budget will still depend on spending discipline and achieving sufficient growth to replace lost revenue — a challenge not always met in previous tax cut cycles. Since this bill is not yet fully implemented, current forecasts rely on economic models rather than proven results. 

However, supporters are confident that its combination of tax relief, pro-growth incentives, and regulatory rollbacks will fulfill President Trump’s campaign promises of boosting jobs, empowering American workers, and strengthening the nation’s economic future.

The SNAP Debate and the Trump Tax Cut Bill: Facing the Truth About Dependency and Dignity by Josimar Salum

 

The SNAP Debate and the Trump Tax Cut Bill: Facing the Truth About Dependency and Dignity

Josimar Salum 

July 3, 2025 

In the current debate surrounding the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” also known as the Trump tax cut bill, one of the most controversial features is the reduction of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, commonly known as food stamps. While some see these cuts as heartless, I believe they are long overdue and fundamentally necessary to confront a culture of dependency that is crippling American society.

Let’s be honest: America’s welfare state has moved far beyond its original purpose of protecting the truly needy — the elderly, the disabled, and children — and has become a system of permanent assistance for millions of able-bodied, working-age adults. That is not compassion. That is a form of bondage.

We are witnessing a society where too many people rely on public benefits not because they are truly incapacitated, but because it is more convenient and less risky than striving for self-sufficiency. This dependency culture has been reinforced for decades by politicians who argue that any reduction in benefits will cause “unnecessary harm,” even for those who are physically and mentally capable of working.

Yet, the reality is that harm does not come from encouraging work — it comes from chaining people to a welfare check, killing their initiative, and robbing them of dignity.

The Illegal Workforce: A Revealing Contrast

Here is a hard truth no one wants to say out loud: millions of undocumented immigrants manage to find work in this country, often in the toughest, most grueling, lowest-paying, and least-protected jobs imaginable. They pick crops, clean buildings, slaughter animals, lay roofs, and scrub floors — with no safety net, no public assistance, and often under the constant fear of deportation.

Yet they do it. They find work. They survive.

Meanwhile, millions of able-bodied American citizens on SNAP, with far more protections, far more options, and far more legal rights, do not. They stay on the program year after year, citing barriers that, while real in some cases, are not insurmountable.

Why? Because it is easier to depend on SNAP than to step out and take a risk.

If undocumented immigrants can find a job — despite language barriers, legal status issues, zero benefits, and constant fear — why can’t an able-bodied American adult do the same?

The answer is not a lack of opportunity alone. It is a lack of willingness, shaped by a system that rewards passivity and punishes initiative through benefit cliffs, endless red tape, and political rhetoric that excuses idleness as “protection.”

The Broken Welfare State

America’s welfare safety net was never meant to become a lifestyle. It was intended as a bridge, a helping hand, a stepping stone. Yet for millions of able-bodied, childless adults, it has turned into a permanent foundation, stripping them of motivation and pride.

Yes, some truly cannot work due to serious physical or mental disabilities. They deserve help. So do the elderly and young children. But the overwhelming argument used by politicians to protect SNAP in its current bloated form is ideological: they see a large welfare state as a moral obligation of government.

But a welfare state does not free people. It enslaves them. It makes them permanently dependent on government. It removes personal dignity, weakens families, and encourages generational cycles of poverty.

In contrast, work builds pride. Even hard, low-wage work, the kind undocumented immigrants do every day, fosters resilience, skills, networks, and self-worth. Work teaches responsibility, discipline, and initiative. Public assistance, when it becomes permanent, kills those virtues.

The Trump Tax Cut Bill and SNAP Reform

The Trump tax cut bill’s proposals to tighten SNAP eligibility and raise work requirements are being attacked as cruel. In truth, they are a wake-up call. They draw a clear line:

• protect those who genuinely cannot work

• push those who can work to actually do so

The bill aims to ensure able-bodied adults work 30 hours per week to keep benefits. Critics call this harmful. I call it liberating. It will challenge people to do exactly what undocumented immigrants are forced to do — take whatever work is available, even if it is tough, inconvenient, or unpleasant. That is how people rise, step by step, out of poverty.

Yes, some people will struggle with childcare or transportation. But these are not immovable obstacles. Millions of immigrants prove every day that where there is a will, there is a way. The difference is they have no backup plan — no SNAP, no fallback. That desperation becomes motivation.

Restoring Dignity Through Work

Work is dignity. Work is growth. Work is freedom.

A system that cushions able-bodied adults indefinitely from work does not protect them — it destroys them. It removes their ability to stand tall, to struggle, to achieve, to fail and try again. That is why the welfare state, as currently built, is a broken system. It does not lift people up; it chains them down.

The Trump tax cut bill’s SNAP reforms will not solve every problem, but they are a crucial start. They send a message: government will help those who cannot help themselves, but it will no longer endlessly carry those who will not help themselves.

That is not cruelty. That is justice — and a restoration of human dignity.

If America is to remain strong, it must break these chains of dependency and trust its people — all of its people — to work, to struggle, to succeed, and to stand on their own feet, as every free person should.