Hopefully the Democratic party is working on its messaging since that is the area in which it fell short during the prior administration. We can’t wait until next year’s mid-term election cycle or 2028 to start pumping out explanations about how both parties aren’t “the same” and the ways the republican party’s policies are harmful to anyone who isn’t a multi- million or billionaire. Now that the “Big Beautiful Bill” (its actual name) was signed into law, those opposed to it with wide access to the media need to begin the process of peeling back the layers of deception the legislation contains.
Republicans are hoping we don’t catch on, and they have an entire billionaire-funded right-wing hate media infrastructure at their disposal to ensure we don’t. Contrary to all the rhetoric about how much the legislation abomination is “fiscally responsible” and “strengthens work requirements for welfare recipients while averting $4 trillion tax increase,” it really does give away $4 trillion in tax breaks to the morbidly rich, adding to the $1.5 trillion given away under the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”, George W. Bush’s “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act” and the “Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act”, and both Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts, responsible for a total of $50 trillion dollars of wealth transferred from the pockets of average working Americans into the morbidly rich’s money bins over the past four decades.
As The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recently explained:
The Senate bill as written would increase debt by $4.1 trillion through 2034, with more than $3.5 trillion of borrowing from the Finance title (taxes and Medicaid), nearly $300 billion of borrowing from other deficit-increasing titles, about $500 billion of savings from deficit-reducing titles, and nearly $700 billion from interest. If various temporary tax cuts and spending increases were made permanent, the bill would add more than $5.3 trillion to the debt.
So much from the party of “fiscal responsibility,” right?
But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and many of those details are deliberately written so average Americans won’t start feeling the pinch until next year—just in time for mid-term elections and far enough away from the bill’s passage to get buried in political amnesia.
That is exactly what republicans are counting on so Democrats take the heat for the tax increases on the working class and the theft of healthcare services.
It doesn’t have to spell the death knell for Democrats, though, if they message things appropriately.
Writing for The Bulwark, Lauren Egan explained:
The bill’s polling is toxic. And the prospect of spending the next sixteen months attacking Republicans for voting to cut Medicaid and food-assistance programs, all to give tax breaks to the ultra-rich, is deeply enticing. Democratic operatives, for the first time since the election, were discussing whether they could flip the Senate by winning seats in red states like Nebraska and Alaska. And, frankly, it didn’t feel like total delusion.
That sense of opportunity, while not entirely gone, has clearly begun to fade. The euphoria Democratic leaders felt is now colored by fear that Republicans may not pay that steep a political price for the bill—or, rather, that focusing campaigns on the law may not be as surefire a strategy as they hoped.
She added:
Driving the change in mood are two factors. The first is how the bill itself is structured. The most politically toxic policy changes, like the cuts to Medicaid, won’t be fully implemented until after the midterm elections, while the more popular elements—such as $1,000 investment accounts for newborn children—will go into effect immediately. Some Democrats are concerned that their posture could alienate those parents aided by the new accounts.
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake commented, “It’s a very clever bill. And I really worry about voters ultimately concluding, ‘Well, Democrats cry wolf again’”.
One of the bill’s enticing elements is “no tax on tips”. That sounds pretty good for a tipped worker, and it speaks to a promise the convicted felon made repeatedly on the campaign trail. However, if we drill down into the language of the bill, we recognize the bait and switch.
Only the first $25,000 in tips are exempt from income taxes.
How many are banking that much in tips?
According to a 2024 report from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, two-thirds of tipped restaurant workers earn too little to even be expected to file income taxes. The Yale University Budget Lab explained that in 2023 the median weekly wage for tipped occupations was $538; non-tipped occupations, on the other hand, made $1,000.
Tipped workers will still be required to pay 7.65% in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the provision in the bill does not apply to all tipped workers. The exemption applies "only to certain lines of business".
Undocumented workers—responsible for $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022—are ineligible since the law requires workers to provide their and their spouses’ Social Security numbers.
Another attractive feature to the “beautiful” bill is the increase in state and local tax (SALT) deductions.
Under the 2017 “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” property owners in high-taxed states like New York and California saw the costs they were allowed to deduct off their property taxes reduced to $10,000. This punished property owners in mostly Democratic enclaves.
The new bill quadruples the amount to $40,000.
Great, right?
Here’s the rub: it expires in 2029.
Which means, unless extended, it will revert back to the $10K cap in five years.
According Market Watch:
During that five-year span, the deduction will increase slightly. The income limit this year is $500,000 modified adjusted gross income for individuals and married couples filing jointly. Beyond that point, the deduction phases out. For married couples filing separately, the 2025 limit for the full deduction is $250,000.
According to certified public accountant Jeff Levine, this will likely create an artificially high tax rate, or “SALT torpedo”, requiring people with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) between $500,000 and $600,000 to pay a 45.5% federal tax rate.
The House version of the bill would have made permanent the $40,000 cap for taxpayers earning less than $500,000.
What might appear in the legislation as a gift to people with car loans is also clever legerdemain.
Car buyers who finance will be able to deduct up to $10,000 a year in car loan interest—but only for those who claim on their income taxes the standard deduction and those who itemize.
The caveat: the deduction applies only to new vehicles, the vehicle must have domestic final assembly, and must be used only for personal use, excluding commercial vehicles and leases.
According to Nerd Wallet:
The deduction begins phasing out at a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $100,000. Phase-out begins at a MAGI of $200,000. For every $1,000 of income over the single and joint filer threshold, the available deduction declines by $200.
Oh, and if you were planning on taking advantage of the $7,500 credit available for electric vehicle purchase under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, better act now, as in today. This legislation abomination will phase out many zero-emissions energy projects like geothermal, nuclear, and hydropower.
An Energy Innovation analysis explained, “The bill would result in $170 in additional annual energy costs per household in 2035, on average.”
Energy Innovation senior director of modeling and analysis, Robbie Orvis, added:
Our modeling found that any decrease in fossil fuel prices from increased fossil fuel production is way more than offset by higher electricity costs with the net costs of energy to households and businesses rising dramatically.
A REPEAT Project analysis states the bill would increase average annual household energy costs $284 per household by 2035.
So you’ll be able to deduct more property taxes if you live in a high-tax state while paying more for energy that should cost less. Bait and switch much?
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Democratic politicians—and we—need to start sharing these facts TODAY—not next year with one eye on the polls.
They need to begin explaining to the American public they just got screwed—again.
The right-wing hate media was designed to deliver the propaganda necessary to maintain the white-male wealth-dominated status quo, and it will continue touting this “Big Beautiful Bill” even as people perceive they are getting poorer.
It’s up to us.
Elections aren’t going to “save” us.
The courts aren’t going to “save” us.
Let’s not “hope” Democrats win back Congress in the midterms.
Let’s make sure they do.
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