Big Beautiful Bill breakdown: Part 2
More orgs analyze Trump’s spending bill while Congress has the week off
Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is over a thousand pages long, and it was passed so rapidly that many people did not know all the things that were in it. We covered it briefly last week, laying out some of the more egregious elements of the bill.
In the last week, there have been a number of outlets that have now had a chance to look at the bill closely. In general, the analysis seems to be similar across the board: the bill cuts benfits for the poorest Americans while given the biggest tax breaks to the wealthy.
Many of the cuts already exist as part of Trump’s original tax cuts, but not everything is staying. Some analysis shows that pro-growth elements of the original tax cuts have been stripped, at the same time that spending is expected to increase for things like immigration.
The bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate because there are three groups of Republicans that have reservations: fiscal hawks that don’t like the spending, blue state Republicans and moderates that thing the cuts go too far, and Republicans that don’t like the elimination of green energy provisions that originated in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Nevertheless, this week, we’ve made a list of organizations and publications that have produced studies and analysis. We also list what some notable papers and magazines are saying.
Studies and White Papers
Congressional Budget Office: Breaks down the fiscal impact of every spending bill and is arguably the most authoritative analysis of the bill. Speaker Mike Johnson says that the CBO is underestimating economic growth, but the Tax Foundation (below) points out that many pro-groth provisions from the original Trump tax cut bill have been removed.
Tax Foundation: Emphasizes tax policy and economic aspects of the bill, such as the lack of pro-growth provisions and the increasing deficit spending of over $4 trillion over the next ten years.
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: Another thinktank that looks focuses on taxes. This one also compares the Trump tariffs with the tax bill and shows that, not only does the tax bill help the rich primarily, the tariffs create a tax burden that will disproportionately affect the poorest Americans.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: This breakdown lists each budget item individually and how much it will add or subtract from the deficit.
KPMG: A professional services firm specializing in audits and taxes, which has a very neutral analysis that breaks down all the main provisions in the bill and is interactive.
Feeding America Action: Advocacy group that focuses on food and healthcare aspects of the bill, such as the impacts of cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.
Mintz: Provides legal and financial services, so its analysis breaks the bill down based on how it applies to individual business owners, investors, domestic and foreign businesses, and renewable energy businesses.
Center for American Progress: Uses analysis and data from multiple places and looks at how benefit cuts will affect different states.
Moody’s: Not an analysis per se but very important because they announced that they were downgrading the credit rating for the United States government because of Trump’s bill.
Commentary and Analysis
USA Today: Uses analysis from Tax Policy Center and Penn Wharton
CNN: Emphasizes why the BBB is essentially a huge transfer of wealth from the lower class to the upper class
Huffington Post: Also focuses on the wealth transfer from poor to rich
Forbes: Talks about the bill’s “Big Red Flags”
Politico: “A bit of a mirage” (evaluates the lack of growth promised by the bill)
Fortune: “Robin Hood in reverse”
The Atlantic: “Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History”
New York Times (Ezra Klein): “Trump’s budget bomb”