Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8 July 2025
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column Founded 1932
It’s the taxes, stupid
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
WASHINGTON – James Carville got it right when, months ago, he predicted the Trump-aligned GOP would self-destruct. The Democratic strategist famous for his winning slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid,” took some heat from his party for suggesting Democrats stand aside and let history take its course, but the OBBB (One Big Beautiful Bill) has given Democrats and betrayed Republicans a lot to work with.
It's the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in our history. It will increase the number of people without health insurance by many millions, forcing rural hospitals to close due to Medicaid cuts. It is a death sentence for sustainable energy, eliminating subsidies for solar, wind, and electric vehicles, and it will hasten the effects of climate change.
It puts another $4 trillion on the nation’s credit card, a number analysts across party lines say is a dangerous tipping point where debt will become unsustainable.
All of this is being done in the service of extending the 2017 tax cuts for the top 1 percent of wage earners. This is the population that cheered President Trump at Mar-a-Lago after he signed those tax cuts into law and then boasted to his pals at the Florida resort he owns, “You all just got a lot richer.” For example, a married couple earning $10 million a year will receive a $253,883 tax benefit per year from the new law or $2,538,830 over 10 years (the actual benefit will be impacted up or down based upon individual financial circumstances and inflation-adjusted brackets)
The OBBB just made those tax cuts permanent when they were meant to expire next year due to their exorbitant cost, so Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, offered an amendment to the Senate bill that would have struck only those taxes on the top earners, making the legislation somewhat more palatable.
The amendment failed, and Collins voted no on the OBBB, confirming the Democrats’ view of her as “always there when we don’t need her,” since the Republicans could lose her vote and two others without impacting the bill’s passage.
The two other Republican “no” votes came from Kentucky’s Rand Paul, a Libertarian, and Thom Tillis from North Carolina, whose vote was followed by his decision to retire rather than run for reelection.
There are no profiles in courage here, though Tillis comes close.
Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fierce opponent of the OBBB, floated the idea that she might become an Independent and caucus with the Democrats. Trump and his allies were not going to let that happen, so they bought her off.
Buried in the OBBB is a provision that quintuples the amount of tax-deductible expenses that whaling boat captains can claim from $10,000 to $50,000. The sweetener brought Murkowski along. She did not like the bill, she said. She hoped the House would fix it and make it less onerous to the more vulnerable parts of the population.
But when the Senate version went back to the House, the House did not change a thing, and Murkowski hates the bill she voted for.
She was defensive about it, saying her job in Congress is to serve and represent Alaskans. Actually, her job is to honor her oath of office to “bear true faith and allegiance” to “support and defend the Constitution.” True, politicians strive to bring home the bacon, but when confronted with a choice between what is best for the nation and what is best for their home state, they have sworn to serve the Constitution, and the choice is clear.
Now comes the implementation. People who rely on Medicaid will be the first to feel the impact of reduced services and an increased amount of paperwork to make it harder to qualify for health care and food assistance. 
Clean energy projects in red states will feel the hit with federal subsidies abruptly withdrawn.
With all due respect to Carville and how right he is about Republicans over-reaching, Democrats cannot simply sit back and let the horror show begin. Opponents of the OBBB must bring the stories to the forefront so there is no denying what Trump and his congressional sycophants have wrought.
The negative impacts of this bill will be felt in the immediate future and in the decades ahead. It is a betrayal of the people who voted for Trump, and it is up to the Democrats and what remains of mainstream Republicans to counter the assertions coming from the Trump White House that this legislation will make America safer and more prosperous. As Carville might say, “It’s the taxes, stupid.”
 
See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
© 2024 U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
Distributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND