Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” Funnels Trillions to the Rich Amid Economic Crisis

Lilliana Rodriguez

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, a federal spending bill, narrowly passed the House of Representatives in May and now awaits a vote in the Senate. The multi-trillion dollar bill proposes sweeping changes from increased tax breaks, cuts on social programs, and pouring money into deportations and the armed forces. This legislation sets to enact some of the ultra-reactionary polices Trump campaigned on and continues the reactionary polices of the former administration.

The bill allots over $1 trillion to military and defense spending. The money is for the U.S. to maintain its military dominance as the sole hegemonic imperialist superpower and achieve what Trump has called “Peace through Strength”—a farcical slogan particularly at a time of record armed conflicts in the world and following the US’s defeat by Yemen’s Ansar Allah despite being the strongest military superpower. The increased military budget has large allotments for weapons programs such as shipbuilding, munitions production, and the “Golden Dome”—a scientifically impractical missile defense system that has weapons contractors vying to make billions off the scam.

The legislation sets aside nearly $50 billion to continue the construction of the border wall along the U.S.–Mexico border and over $11 billion to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations. The bill also seeks to restrict incoming immigration by charging fees. Immigrants would be charged thousands of dollars to apply for asylum, obtain work authorization, sponsor an unaccompanied child, and apply for temporary protected status, highlighting the farcical nature of bourgeois democracy where democratic rights are for those who can afford them.

The bill proposes a slew of tax breaks, including the pseudo-populist campaign promises aimed to sway the working class while primarily benefiting the ruling class. The tax breaks for the rich include raising the cap on the estate tax, state and local tax (SALT) deductions, and dollar-to-dollar tax credits on donations that can help fund school vouchers. Some of the tax breaks that Trump had championed on his campaign trail to “help” the working class, such as eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and increasing the Child Tax Credit, are included as well but end at the conclusion of Trump’s term.

A few tax breaks are removed as well, including a large scale-back of the tax credits for clean energy—a point of contention now with EV monopolist Elon Musk—and allowing the tax credits used to subsidize Affordable Care Act premiums to expire.

Medicaid spending will be cut by roughly $700 billion and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by about $300 billion, the largest cuts in the history of the programs. Both programs will add new work requirements and are expected to affect coverage for several million, forcing many to work for more hours and low wages in order to remain eligible for the programs.

The over 1,000-page bill comes as no surprise—it is the direct implementation of polices outlined in the Presidential Transition Project, otherwise known as Project 2025. The legislation is in response to the deepening economic crisis and aims to bail out imperialists from their own crisis by funneling more money from the working class into their pockets, handing them trillions of dollars to further exploit and oppress the working class and masses while cutting much of what remains of the meager social programs.

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