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Illustration by Sam Whitney/The New York Times

Hidden in plain sight but maybe not as Trump's Big Beautiful Bill contains big plans to turn America into something unimagined prior to the reelection of Agent Orange, the luckiest man on planet earth.

To whit ...

Whatever else can be said against the One Big, Beautiful Bill, the 1,037-page legislation carrying President Trump’s domestic agenda, at least the grandiosity of its name reflects the grandiosity of its ambition. Far more expensive than the pandemic stimulus package Mr. Trump signed in his first term, the bill would provide some $3.8 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy, paid for by cutting over a trillion dollars from government programs and borrowing most of the rest.

As the Senate takes up the legislation after its passage in the House last month, Mr. Trump and his allies have worked hard to conceal the true impact it would have on the country, falsely casting it as a golden deal with no downside for the American people. Times Opinion asked seven writers with a wide range of policy expertise to reveal its potential repercussions.

A presidential power grab

Typically, if parties refuse to comply with court orders such as temporary restraining orders, judges can threaten to hold them in contempt. It’s one of the main ways that the courts enforce their rulings. If this bill passes, courts would be able to make such interventions only if plaintiffs first provided security, or a bond.

A sicker America

The current draft of the Republican tax bill would reduce the federal Medicaid budget by at least $600 billion over a decade. That would be the largest cut the program has faced since its inception.

Immigration, a blueprint for nationwide fear

This bill would pave the way for the largest investment in federal immigration enforcement since the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 — one that would turn that department into a Trojan horse for an assault on the civil rights of all Americans.

The United States already spends more on immigration enforcement than on all other federal criminal law enforcement agencies combined. This bill seeks an additional $175 billion for Mr. Trump’s restrictionist agenda, including deportations in the interior of the country, as well as border barrier construction and surveillance technology. The bill has $45 billion earmarked for detention infrastructure alone. It would also give billions of dollars to border states for assisting in border security operations.

More economic turmoil and isolation

Mr. Trump has made clear that foreigners are not welcome here. He has sought to prevent them from selling their goods and services here. And now Republicans have a plan to discourage them even from investing in the United States.

Dirtier, more dangerous air

The bill would prevent America from innovating in the energy sector and make the country poorer — but Americans, by and large, wouldn’t feel that.

What they would feel is what this bill would do to their air. By slowing the rollout of renewable energy and by removing incentives for Americans to buy electric vehicles, the bill would increase the amount of coal, natural gas and oil burned nationwide, making pollution far worse. (Power prices may also rise.)

A weaker military

The bill seems as though it would fulfill Mr. Trump’s promise to make the U.S. military “bigger, better, stronger and more powerful than ever” — until you look closer.

The bill would add $150 billion to the Pentagon’s top line, and the administration claims this would be the first $1 trillion defense budget.

But the $150 billion in the measure is a one-time increase rather than a permanent change and one that the submitted budget wouldn’t sustain: My colleague Todd Harrison calculates that when you strip away the financial gimmicks, Mr. Trump’s claimed trillion-dollar defense budget would actually be a $31.5 billion reduction from the last one under President Joe Biden. That’s roughly the annual cost of 10 Army brigades.

Factoid

Mr. Trump’s policy bill would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. That estimate was all but certain to inflame concerns over the fiscal consequences of the legislation.

And we haven't even talked about the negative impact of this bill on science, research and tech. Seems this administration has no competency whatsoever save for the lust for money and the power it accrues as grifting and surveillance as art form is the one thing this administration know how to do well without question. 

Read the very long NYTimes Op piece, you will learn a lot, I know I did.

Divisions among Republicans threaten President Trump’s policy bill, which includes cuts to taxes, Medicaid, food assistance and clean energy programs, and additional money for border security and the military.
Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times