Senate Republicans Have Made Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Even Worse

As Senate Republicans move to pass President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” they have made the legislation even worse. 

It’s been clear from the start that the bill would primarily benefit the wealthy, and partially finance another round of tax cuts for the rich by screwing the poor. The degree to which the bill harms the poor has only been boosted in the time since the Big Beautiful Bill passed the House of Representatives. The Senate version is now expected to cut $930 billion from Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans. 

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) shared the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimate of how thoroughly Trump’s signature legislation will gut Medicaid on Saturday, as Senate Republicans moved to start voting on the Big Beautiful Bill. 

“While Republican senators are securing baubles and trinkets for their political donors, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the Senate bill will cut $930 billion from Medicaid,” Wyden said in a statement. “Just as before, these cruel cuts to Americans’ health care will strike a mortal blow to rural health care, and threaten the health and safety of kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities, and working families across the country.”

The Big Beautiful Bill is projected to cause nearly 11 million Americans to lose their health insurance. Many of these people will lose their coverage based on the bill’s provision to impose work requirements on all able-bodied adults on Medicaid under the age of 65. Most Medicaid recipients already do work, though; the point is to force coverage losses by burying recipients in red tape and bureaucracy. The bill would additionally reduce funding that states use to help pay health care providers who treat patients on Medicaid, a provision that could significantly harm rural hospitals. 

On Saturday, the Louisiana hospital industry warned that the Senate bill’s Medicaid cuts “would be historic in their devastation.”

Democrats have demanded that the legislation be read in its entirety on the Senate floor, which means the Big Beautiful Bill will likely come up for a final vote in Congress’ upper chamber on Monday. Trump has repeatedly demanded it be passed before July 4.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reflects the shared priorities of both the Congress and the Administration,” the White House said in a statement on Saturday. “Therefore, the Congress should immediately pass this bill and send it to the President’s desk by July 4, 2025, to show the American people that they are serious about ‘promises made, promises kept.’ President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.”

The legislation attempts to fulfill some of Trump’s key 2024 campaign pledges to workers. The Senate version of the bill includes limits on proposed tax deductions for tipped wages and overtime pay. The bill would allow people to deduct $25,000 for tip wages and $12,500 for overtime pay through 2028. Those deductions would be less for people who make more than $150,000. 

Yet, the poorest 30 percent of American households are expected to see their after-tax incomes decline as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill. The Medicaid cuts are a major reason why; another factor is that the bill would expand work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides food assistance to low-income families. It would require able-bodied adults up to age 64, with an exception for some parents, to work in order to receive the aid. It would also require states other than Hawaii and Alaska to pay a share of the program. More than 40 million people receive SNAP benefits. 

The Big Beautiful Bill is packed with provisions ranging from toxic to asinine. 

The legislation includes a new tax on wind and solar projects. The tax “will kill the industry, raise costs for everyone even more than we thought, and cause shortages,” according to Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). Solar and wind energy projects aren’t only essential for reducing climate change — they provide cheaper electricity than fossil fuels. On the other hand, Trump hates wind energy. 

The bill would help turbocharge Trump’s mass deportation agenda and allow the administration to replicate its aggressive raids and arrests in Los Angeles in blue cities throughout the country. The bill allocates $45 billion for new immigration detention centers. Another $30 billion would go toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), so that Trump can hire another 10,000 agents. This funding would also be used to provide “performance, retention, and signing bonuses” for ICE agents. 

The Senate version of the Big Beautiful Bill attempts to maintain the House’s effort to ban states from regulating artificial intelligence; the latest version would condition access to a $500 million broadband program to states that do not regulate AI. 

Senators also added back language to slash taxes on gun silencers, a provision that was offered in the House by a Republican congressman who owns a gun store.