Latest news with #WhartonBudgetModel
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Big Beautiful Bill to take from poor and give to rich.' That's not Christian.
Recently President Trump signed Executive Order 14202, establishing the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. (Those who want to eradicate other kinds of bias are on their own, apparently.) The stated purpose was to identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices or conduct. Although I am not a federal employee, I am willing to do my civic duty and expose such conduct when I see it. We need look no further than the omnibus budget bill that has passed the House and is currently before the Senate (often referred to as The Big Beautiful Bill.) This bill is a massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Americans in the highest 10% of income would gain the equivalent of $12,000 a year, while the lowest 10% would lose nearly $1,600 a year. This despite some 'populist features' such as the elimination of taxes on tips and a $4,000 tax credit for low income folks on Social Security. These 'features' expire at the end of Trump's term, when, apparently, poor people won't need them anymore. The tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy are permanent. The Wharton Budget Model predicts that those in the top 10% of income will receive 65% of the bill's benefits, while increasing the deficit by $3.2 trillion over 10 years. The Yale Budget lab estimates that, under the provisions of the bill, only the richest 20% would be better off. Working people who are sick had better pray for good health, because this bill is going to leave them high and dry. Between the expiration of subsidies for those enrolled under the Affordable Care Act, and cuts in Medicaid, the CBO estimates that 3% of Americans, or 16 million people, will lose their health coverage. This includes 520,000 people in North Carolina. The bill also cuts food assistance programs like SNAP. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would cut as much as $300 billion from SNAP, the largest cut in the program's history. An estimated one in four aid recipients may be affected, many of them children. Some states that cannot afford to make up for federal cuts may eliminate the program entirely. In other words, this bill takes from the poor to give to the rich. Takes from our children and gives to the rich. Takes from the sick and hungry and gives to the rich. That seems anti-Christian to me. I am no Biblical scholar, but I majored in philosophy and comparative religions as an undergraduate. I even read the book(s.) Jesus, especially, was a champion of the poor. 1 John 3:17. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Prov. 19:17. He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed. Besides the rich, who are the winners in this budget? The legislation provides $46.5 billion to build Trump's wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, $4 billion to hire an additional 3,000 new Border Patrol agents, 5,000 new customs officers, and funds for 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and investigators. We need more people to round up folks at Home Depot, hunt them down in farmer's fields, and stow undocumented people in torture prisons overseas with no due process. Doesn't the Bible tell us to welcome immigrants? Leviticus 19:33– a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. You don't have to take my word for this. The Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church and the Lutheran Church are among those urging senators not to accept the budget as adopted by the House. America Magazine, a Jesuit publication, says 'the legislation is anything but beautiful, at least from the perspective of Catholic teaching.' The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has sent a letter to Congress 'strongly encouraging them to reconsider provisions that harm the poor and disadvantaged, our immigrant brothers and sisters, and the environment.' I am proud to highlight this issue for those in the Trump administration concerned about anti-Christian policies. Thank you for your attention to this matter. More: Opinion: Republicans' new 'budget framework' will still add trillions to national debt More: Opinion: Fallout from Big Beautiful Bill voted for by Chuck Edwards would be far-reaching C.S. Chima is a writer and retired health care administrator in Asheville. This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Big Beautiful Bill tax cuts for wealthy to hurt poor
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Is Right. The 'Big Beautiful Bill' Is a Bad Deal.
Elon Musk says he's "disappointed" to see the House pass a major tax bill that will require the federal government to borrow trillions of additional dollars in the coming years. The bill, which faces an uncertain future in the Senate, "undermines the work that the [Department of Government Efficiency] team is doing," Musk told CBS News on Sunday. He's right. While DOGE has not been able to fully deliver on the grand promises Musk made during last year's campaign and during the transition process, President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act moves the federal budget in the complete opposite direction. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the bill would add $2.3 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years—and that's a rosy projection that includes several gimmicks meant to reduce the apparent impact of the bill. Estimates by independent entities like the Yale Budget Lab and the Penn Wharton Budget Model expect it to add over $3 trillion to the deficit, as written, and potentially as much as $5 trillion once the gimmicks are stripped away. By comparison, DOGE expects to trim federal spending by about $170 billion this year, and it looks like Congress may only implement a tiny fraction of those cuts. The bill does include some sizable spending cuts, largely aimed at Medicaid, which provides health insurance for the poor. The bill would establish new work requirements for Medicaid recipients who are childless adults without disabilities. It would also close a loophole that states have used to collect larger sums of federal Medicaid payments by taxing nursing homes and other medical facilities. Those are worthwhile maneuvers—and despite Democratic talking points about Medicaid "cuts," overall Medicaid spending will keep growing under the bill. However, those cuts are swamped by the budgetary consequences of extending the 2017 tax cuts and adding to them—the bill would include Trump's chaotic plans to exempt tips, Social Security income, car loans, and overtime from federal taxes. It would also create new tax-sheltered savings accounts, and it would increase spending on a number of conservative priorities like the military and border enforcement. "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful," Musk told CBS News. "But I don't know if it can be both." In a lot of ways, the Big Beautiful Bill is simply the latest version of an intra-Republican debate that's been ongoing for decades: Is fiscal responsibility a talking point or a serious policy goal? The specifics change, but when push comes to shove, the GOP has consistently (though not always) chosen spending increases and tax cuts, even when those proposals will make the budget deficit worse and add to the national debt. Against that backdrop, Musk's criticism of the bill seems significant. Though he has stepped back from his public role in the Trump administration, Musk remains a star in the broader conservative movement and one of the few people who might be able to get away with openly disagreeing with the president. I've been critical of Musk and his DOGE project, but I think it's now clear that Musk's strongest skill (at least within government) is diagnosing problems that people within the political system might not see or choose to ignore. The underwhelming performance of DOGE as a budget-cutting entity has several causes—which Reason has detailed at length—but Musk was absolutely right when he said federal spending needs to be slashed and that the government wastes too much of taxpayers' dollars. He's right, again, to say that the Big Beautiful Bill makes those problems worse. And by speaking up, he might give some cover to the senators who will decide the bill's fate. At least one of them is already sending the same message as Musk. "I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill, even with wimpy and anemic cuts, if they weren't going to explode the debt," Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) told Fox News on Sunday. "The problem is the math doesn't add up." The post Elon Musk Is Right. The 'Big Beautiful Bill' Is a Bad Deal. appeared first on
The Hill
09-04-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Republicans' dishonesty on deficit reduction
Republicans would like you to believe they're committed to reducing the deficit. The truth is, they aren't. Every time someone questions the Department of Government Efficiency's outsized and incompetent dismissals of government employees, the talking points of congressional Republicans apparently direct them to talk about the pressure exerted by the deficit — they all do. Every time one questions their massive cuts to important programs, whether it's the exercise of soft power internationally or health care at home, Republicans' standard response is the need for deficit reduction. And interviewers tend to let them get away with it. But Republicans' professed commitment to deficit reduction is not honest. They aren't telling the truth. Last week, every House Republican but one and every Republican senator but two voted to vastly increase the deficit. House Republicans voted for a budget that cut spending by $2 trillion while instructing House committees to cut taxes by $4.8 trillion. Basic arithmetic tells us that this bill would increase the deficit by $2.8 trillion over the 10-year budget window. So House Republicans, who would like to wear the mantle of deficit reduction, actually voted to increase the deficit by $2.8 trillion. That's without counting additional interest payments on the debt, and only if the Republicans' overly rosy economic assumptions pan out. Otherwise, the deficit will increase further. The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Budget Model estimates the deficit will be closer to $4.9 trillion than to the $2.8 trillion assumed by House Republicans. Whichever projection proves more accurate, Republicans voted for a huge increase in the deficit despite their stated commitment to reducing the budget shortfall. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the House budget bill would add more to the deficit than any legislation enacted in the past decade — more than the American Rescue Plan Act, twice as much as Trump's original tax cuts, and seven times more than the bipartisan infrastructure law. Much of the problem arises from what the Republicans are actually committed to — not deficit reduction but rather tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. The top 1 percent was doing quite well when, during his first term, Trump gave them even more breaks on a temporary basis. Republicans now want to make those additional tax breaks permanent at a 10-year cost of over $4 trillion. And who gets the benefits? The top 1 percent, who make about $1 million or more per year, would save about $70,000 a year, while middle-income households would get a tax cut of only $1,000, according to the Tax Policy Center. Why not make the tax cuts permanent for the 99 percent and reduce the deficit by having millionaires pay what they did a few years ago? Republicans say 'no,' because their true priority is helping the very wealthiest — not reducing the deficit and not helping the middle class and those struggling to join it. And then there is the Senate, where leaders gave Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) the power to abrogate the laws of 3rd grade arithmetic. Even with his fraudulent accounting, and despite the party's rhetorical commitment to deficit reduction, every Republican senator but two voted for a $2 trillion increase in the deficit. Those who actually abide by the laws of addition and subtraction know senators are, in fact, adding about $5.8 trillion to the deficit. When these Trump tax cuts were first passed in 2017, federal debt was equivalent to 76.5 percent of gross domestic product. Today, it's 100 percent of GDP. If the tax cuts expire as scheduled, the deficit will still grow to about 117 percent by 2034. If the House budget is implemented, debt would grow to 125 percent of GDP. The Senate resolution would be even worse. When Republicans justify their efforts to cut programs that help ordinary people by referencing the need to reduce the deficit, they are not just being hypocritical. They are also being dishonest. If Republicans truly cared about the deficit, they may still back the program cuts, but they could never support the budget bills almost all of them voted for. Republicans are cutting health care and education to help fund more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. Deficit reduction is a red herring. Mellman is president of The Mellman Group a consultancy that has helped elect 30 U.S. senators, 12 governors and dozens of House members. Mellman served as pollster to Senate Democratic leaders for over 20 years. A member of the American Association of Political Consultants' Hall of Fame, he is also president of Democratic Majority for Israel.
