That Big Beautiful Bill that Just Passed? Well it is a big one, but . . . .what beauty is there in running up huge fiscal deficits, putting U.S. government’s creditworthiness at risk, all to give billionaires more tax breaks and cutting back health and food benefits for the needy? In business ethics, the “pointy headed intellectuals” (thank you, George Wallace) will talk about “distributive justice.” The basic idea is that we have a social contract between the people and the government and the governed, where government policies work to benefit the greatest number of people. (Actually, that sounds more level-headed than “pointy headed,” no?)
Distributive justice theory focuses on the fair allocation of resources and opportunities within a society. It examines how goods, services, and benefits are distributed among individuals and groups, aiming for an equitable balance that meets basic needs of citizens while also recognizing meritorious contributions.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive
But that big, beautiful bill? More like distributive in-justice, in so many ways.
Medicaid Work Requirements: The bill imposes new work requirements (80 hours per month) on able-bodied adults aged 19–64 without dependents. Many will lose coverage if they cannot meet these requirements, especially those in unstable or low-wage jobs. And the paperwork is burdensome; many who should qualify will be dropped from the Medicare rolls. One astute commentator said that it would be like having to file income tax forms monthly. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which has historically been non-partisan, estimates the changes in this Big Beautiful Bill (the BBB) could result in nearly 12 million more people losing health coverage by 2034.
The legislation eviscerates Medicaid stripping it of $1 trillion in financing and shrinking it by more than 10 million enrollees. Studies have shown that Medicaid work requirements do not raise the employment rate because most adults on Medicaid already work if they can.
It is likely to trim Medicare savings programs which help poor seniors afford care. An older couple earning $21,000 a year could spend another $8,340 a year on premiums and out of pocket costs according to one projection; according to researchers at Yale, this legislation could kill 51,000 Americans each year.
Impact on Hospitals and Providers: Hospitals, especially in rural areas, will see a surge in uninsured patients, leading to higher uncompensated care costs. Some facilities may be forced to cut services or close, reducing access to care for entire communities.
SNAP (Food Assistance): The legislation slashes funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), tightening eligibility and shifting costs to states. This could force millions of vulnerable Americans off food assistance, especially if states cannot make up the funding gap.
The Fiscal Cliff is Now a Yawning Abyss One of the least beautiful parts of this bill is that it massively increases the federal deficit. GOP leaders, including Trump, claim that the bill is fiscally responsible, but nonpartisan analyses project that the bill will add between $3.3 and $4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, largely due to the extension and expansion of the 2017 “Trump tax cuts.” This increased debt could lead to higher interest rates, more expensive loans for families and businesses, and less fiscal flexibility for the U.S. government in future crises.
An Unfair Tax Code
The bill makes permanent and expands the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit high-income earners and corporations. The tax code would become more regressive. By one estimate, households in the top 0.1% of the income distribution would get a $296,000 annual tax break. Families in the top 1% would retain $78,650 a year. The average family in the lower fifth of the income distribution would get a tax cut of $160. The Medicaid funding Is likely to be cut by billions of dollars as well even though Trump swore several times that he would not touch the program.
This bill is “Robin Hood in reverse.” Robin Hood, the scourge the Sherrif of Nottingham, would take from the rich to give to the poor. As you will recall, Trump campaigned on a populist promise to take down the elites (though he didn’t mention his billionaire donors), saying “I am your retribution.” But so far, the retribution has been against the media (lawsuits against CBS, Paramount) books in school libraries that might mention a history of racial and social injustice in the U.S. (the anti-woke agenda), higher education (Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Brown, and Northwestern), law firms that represent people or causes he doesn’t like (Perkins Coie, Wilkie Farr, Covington and Burling, Skadden Arps, Paul Weiss –– which are essentially attacks on the independence of the legal profession and the rule of law), LGBTQ people, the environment that God gave to us (with Trump’s EPA appointees gutting protective regulations), as well as companies and industries investing in cleaner energy by rolling back solar power, wind power, and EV incentives. It is also retribution against the voters who trusted him to to reverse decades of economic discrimination, who had given up on the Democrats or saw them as representing elite interests.
So it really is a terrible bill, even anti-American, assuming you believe in the U.S. as a land where everyone has a fair shot at economic and social success: the “American Dream.” That dream is a kind of foundational ideal for the United States, rooted in the belief that anyone—regardless of their background, social class, or circumstances of birth—can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and personal fulfillment through hard work, determination, and initiative.
The BBB is perfectly legal, of course, as it did pass by the narrowest of margins (51-50) in the Senate and a close vote in the House (218-214), but you have got to be very much “far right” or “radical right” to see it as anything but wrong for the U.S. Of course, those Demonic Democrats who “hate America,” the “radical left lunatics” that Trump loves to represent as a threat to ordinary Americans, all voted against it.
But who are the actual demons here? There are obvious reasons why this is a most unpopular piece of “legal but wrong legislation.”