Republican Party leadership, heavily backed by the Trump administration, is attempting to push through the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” escalating divisions within the Party itself as opposition to what has been dubbed the “Reverse Robin Hood Bill” grows.
The bill, which passed in the House of Representatives on May 22, includes what has been called the largest transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor in US history through the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which decreases federal tax revenue by USD 4.5 trillion from 2025 through 2034. It also proposes the deepest cut to the nation’s largest food assistance program, SNAP, in US history. Additionally, proposed cuts to Medicaid, the largest public health insurance program in the country, are estimated to kick an estimated 7.6 million people off of health insurance. Public health researchers at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania have sent a letter to the Senate warning that the bill’s provisions, which include loss of insurance, could lead to over 51,000 deaths.
Opposition grows
The bill, which has received nonstop promotion and support by the Trump administration, has been met with widespread popular support. A CBS News/YouGov poll from earlier this month found that 43% of those polled believe that the bill would hurt them and their family, while only 26% believed it would help them. 49% of those polled believe it will hurt working class people. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that a majority – 53% – of voters oppose the bill, with only 67% of voters in Trump’s own party are in support.
The bill is currently in the Republican-controlled Senate, where it is expected to be amended due to the divisions it has stirred within the right-wing party. Most notably, the bill is credited with causing the Elon Musk-Donald Trump feud. Musk publicly lambasted the bill for increasing the budget deficit and launching a full-fledged smear campaign against the US President – going as far as accusing Trump of being involved with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and calling for his impeachment. Musk has since scaled back on some of the worst insults he hurled at Trump.
Apart from the sensationalism of the Trump-Musk feud, many within Trump’s own party are also skeptical about the bill’s spending. Some more fiscally-minded conservatives within the US Senate are seeking to save money on the enormous bill, given the hefty price tag on Trump’s tax cuts for the rich. Instead of seeking to limit tax cuts to the wealthy, however, some Senate Republicans are looking to cut spending on one of Trump’s few popular policies, namely the “no taxes on tips” and “no taxes on overtime” proposals within the bill.
Some Senate Republicans have also become weary of the bill’s proposals for hefty cuts to social programs like Medicaid, especially after Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ersnt faced backlash after her defense of these cuts, in which she callously said to constituents concerns about deaths from lack of healthcare coverage, “well, we all are going to die.” Some more moderate Republican Senators, like Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Jerry Moran of Kansas, have expressed concern about Medicaid cuts.
Bill proposes billions for additional immigration enforcement
While Republican Senators spar Medicaid, tax policies, and other proposals within the bill, the Trump administration has used the growing protest movement against ICE raids to bolster support.
The bill proposes USD 46.5 billion for the US-Mexico border wall, and USD 4.1 billion for hiring new border patrol agents and new customs officers. Amid growing protests against immigration enforcement, some on the right see these as increasingly important provisions in the bill.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote after protests broke out in LA against immigration raids on workplaces: “The riots in Los Angeles prove that we desperately need more immigration enforcement personnel and resources… That’s why President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill funds at least one million annual removals and hires 10,000 new ICE personnel, 5,000 new customs officers, and 3,000 new Border Patrol agents.”
