The Big Beautiful BS Bill… for a few.

TAT readers,

This week is another crazy one. First, my oldest and her spouse are coming to visit from overseas and most of my time will be spent with them. Then we all head into what used to be my second most favorite holiday, the Fourth of July. Thanks to the ongoing Trump/ GOP insurrection, my fervor for our founding values is at an all-time high, while that my confidence in the safety of our constitutional republic is hanging on by a thread. I will though, still find time to write shorter essays about our most recent, acute national security threats.

As we get into the week, the Republican’s BBB “Big Beautiful BS Bill” is making its way through congress in an effort meet the deadline set by our COUP president in the Oval Office. The entire Republican congress is servile to Trump, and equally as spineless. Not one of them is honoring their oath to, “protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” I really have very little patience for the entire Republican Party and their voters these days, so you may encounter a little more terse language in this short essay.

Here’s my succinct overview of the catastrophic bill pushed by the GOP. As a spoiler alert… it is a disaster for anyone that isn’t earning elite level wealth. This isn’t just my opinion, but the opinion of some of our nation’s finest experts and organizations. Among them is the CBO, Congressional Budget Office whose expert, non-partisan analysis is part of every budgetary pursuit by the US Government.

CBO’s last analysis was on June 12th and before the Senate finished their markup. In the interim, they have not analyzed the latest version, exclusively because Senate Republicans wouldn’t let anyone see what is in this beast of a bill. Tonight, the bill is being physically read by the senate because that’s the only way that the other side of the aisle, would know what was in it. I have spent time all day long, watching and listening to the Senate hearings on the bill. Without exceptions, Cabinet members testifying, lied, obfuscated and attempted to change the subject to some other unrelated MAGA talking point.

Now that we more or less know where we are in this process, I will take a short look at why no reasonable voter would tolerate this bill. First and foremost, this is a bill with a hidden agenda that supports oligarchy at the expense of working Americans. There are also cuts in the bill against parts of US society that the GOP laughingly, calls “woke.”

1. For an administration that claims to be cutting government costs, this bill in its current form, will add an estimated 3.8 trillion to the debt. If they had actually saved any real money with their DOGE fiasco, why are they adding nearly four trillion to the deficit?

2. The tax structures in the bill are to become permanent, and they almost exclusively benefit the very wealthy.

   

3. The few benefits to most Americans, are so complicated that they are likely not worth the effort

   "The bills spend far too much money on political gimmicks and carveouts. For example they introduce tax exemptions for overtime pay and tips, a deduction for auto loan interest, and an additional standard deduction available for some seniors, all of which violate basic tax principles of treating taxpayers equally. Combined, the four provisions cost more than $350 billion over the four years they are in effect, and if eventually extended beyond that date, the cost would more than double over the next decade. Complicated eligibility restrictions reduce the cost somewhat, but it would be better to not introduce bad ideas in the first place."
   
   "The bills further complicate the tax code in several ways, sending taxpayers through a maze of new rules and compliance costs that in many cases likely outweigh potential tax benefits. No tax on tips, overtime, and car loans comes with various conditions and guardrails that, if enacted, will likely require hundreds of pages of IRS guidance to interpret."
   
   - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the Senate Finance’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”
   - Tax Foundation.org
   - Daniel Bunn, Alex Muresianu, William McBride
   - June 20th, 2025
   

   

4. Despite being a “budget bill” this one also includes (against Senate Reconciliation rules) non-budget threats to our constitution.

   1. A deeply buried item makes it nearly impossible to hold Federal authorities in “contempt” for disregarding the law

5. The bill includes a 10-year moratorium on state regulation of artificial intelligence. The so-called “techbros” are delighted here. This gives them the opportunity to exploit citizens in a wide variety of ways.

6. Estimates for the number of Americans that will lose their healthcare, range from on the low end, 10.8 million to 16 million, depending on who is doing the calculating.

7. Critical programs for children, the destitute, disabled, etc. are either being fully cut or reduced dramatically

For an administration that falsely claims to be “saving” our tax dollars, they are also asking to raise the debt ceiling, between four and five trillion dollars.

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Summary

As I noted at the beginning, I’m squeezing in shorter essays through the Fourth of July holiday. This one is exemplary of my intent.

The bottom-line to today’s article is that the 1000 page, big beautiful BS bill is, that it further limits our rights, contains constitutional threats, costs us all nearly 4 trillion dollars in debt and does enormous damage to millions of US citizens, least fortunate. The sheer cruelty of the cuts to critical programs, dramatic increases to the deficit and slyly added unconstitutional pieces, such as protecting the Executive Branch from judges enforcing rulings, such as contempt charges, an AI moratorium and permanently enshrining tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, make this a once in a lifetime disaster imposed onto the American people. All of this will be exceptionally difficult to undo once it passes.

If there was ever a time to massively and repeatedly protest at your local congressman’s home office, it is now. The threat of not being reelected is the worst fear politicians have. This bill portends so much distress for the nation and our people, that all sitting GOP congressmen, who are already terrified of the public anyway may just fold on their support for this monstrosity.

I do wish that I was offering a more inspiring essay tonight, but being honest about this threat, is the best I can do. My friends, there are far more of us honest Americans than there are of the MAGA crowd. We must not let this immoral majority, intimidate us into submission.

My very best to all,

Paul