So confident is Donald Trump in the sweeping tax and spending legislation that Republicans are trying to push through Congress by the slimmest of margins that he refers to it as his “big, beautiful bill”.
The measure, which the House of Representatives could pass on Wednesday, is centered on making permanent tax cuts created during his first term, creating new exemptions for tips, overtime and car loan interest, and funding mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. To lower its price tag, Republicans have proposed the largest cuts ever to Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and to the food assistance program known as Snap. They have also included provisions to phase out tax incentives meant to encourage the expansion of clean energy technologies that were created under Joe Biden.
Does that sound beautiful to the president’s supporters? The Guardian asked, and here’s what they told us.
Kyle Hansen, a 41-year-old IT professional in Wisconsin, said the measure would bring “absolutely beautiful, critical, important, and responsible fiscal changes that our overly bloated bureaucracy of a government is way overdue for, and in desperate need of”.
“The disgusting career politicians have been extremely fiscally irresponsible for many decades, and all the US citizens will pay the price for it. This needed to be addressed a long time ago, and finally there is a politician willing to be ridiculed for doing what is needed. It may not be what everyone thinks will be nice, fuzzy, and warm feeling, but it is the responsible thing to do,” he continued.
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill would increase the deficit by $3.3tn through 2034.
In New York, 60-year-old grandmother Dee said: “I believe this will greatly help heavily taxed middle class and lower class and lift us out of the debt we have been inundated with by the Biden administration!”
“This bill is a no-brainer! Americans first!” she added.
A Montana Republican, William King, described the bill as “great”, particularly the tens of billions of dollars it dedicates to stepping up deportations.
Others who backed Trump last November said the bill was not what they voted for.
“It’s very bad,” said Teddy Johnson, 40, of Phoenix. He objected to the cuts to Medicaid and “hard workers”, saying: “they need to tax the wealthy.”
A 39-year-old in Pennsylvania who asked to remain anonymous said: “I think [it] is a scam to the American people. We cut all the programs for poverty-stricken kids and raise the national debt anyway. Where is all the money going?”
Their recipe for making the bill better. “Remove cuts to Snap and Medicaid, cut the defense budget, and cut all these handouts to the rich.”
There was more skepticism to be found among voters who usually back the GOP, but did not support Trump’s re-election.
An Oklahoman who voted for the Libertarian party’s candidate called the bill “a nightmare for now and future generations”, and said it should be rewritten to raise taxes on the rich and corporations, and lower them for poor and middle-class tax payers, without increasing the national debt.
Texas resident Steven K said: “I think the bill is a slap in the face to all of us that have been paying into these systems all our lives.
“Trump’s lies that he campaigned on to lower the deficit and [make America great again] was all a smokescreen to get the country’s vote so he wouldn’t go to prison,” he continued.
M, a 65-year-old Detroit Republican who declined to share their full name and voted for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, said the bill was “a fiscally irresponsible, mean, mess. It increases our deficit, undermines the health and safety of this nation, reduces states’ rights, and harms those who most need help so they can continue to contribute to this great nation. This is a filthy giveaway to ultra-rich people who are not paying their fare share.”
North Carolina resident James Walker, 63, said the measure should be renamed “the big bankruptcy bill”. “The world’s biggest Ponzi scheme, otherwise known as the economy of the United States of America, comes closer to the point of no return. No politician is going to make the necessary cuts required to pay down the debt.”
The bill would be better, he said, if it focused on paying down the country’s debt, improving the Department of Veterans Affairs and allocating money meant for research and development of military technology towards improving housing for soldiers and their families.
“How many times over DO we need to destroy the world?” Walker asked.
