The bill, a cornerstone of Trump's second-term agenda, cleared the House 218-214, with two Republicans, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, joining a united Democratic front in opposition. Earlier in the week, the Senate narrowly approved the measure, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.
At nearly 900 pages, the legislation is a mammoth rewrite of U.S. economic and social priorities. It combines $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, deep reductions in Medicaid and food assistance, a record $350 billion for immigration enforcement and border wall construction, and ambitious spending on military modernisation, including $25 billion for a new missile shield called the Golden Dome.
But with a projected price tag of $3.3 trillion added to the national deficit over the next decade, the bill has set off alarm bells among fiscal watchdogs and drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, who call it a 'reverse Robin Hood' policy.
A tax revolution, but at what cost?
At the heart of the bill is a permanent extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which were set to expire later this year. It introduces new deductions on tips, overtime, and auto loans; expands the child tax credit slightly from $2,000 to $2,200; and eliminates taxes on Social Security benefits for many older Americans. Businesses also gain immediate write-offs for research and equipment costs.
But according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill will give the wealthiest Americans an average annual tax cut of $12,000, while the poorest may lose $1,600 a year due to cutbacks in federal aid.
'This is not a middle-class tax cut. It's a windfall for the rich funded by taking food and health care from the vulnerable,' said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Republicans insist the tax reforms are essential to avoid what they call an 'automatic tax hike' come December and argue the changes will unleash unprecedented economic growth.
Safety net restructured
To offset some of the cost, the bill imposes sweeping new restrictions on Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps), including 80-hour monthly work requirements for most adult recipients up to age 65 and new $35 co-pays for Medicaid services. Parents with children aged 14 and above would also be required to meet the work thresholds.
The CBO estimates that 11.8 million Americans could lose Medicaid coverage by 2034, and another 3 million could lose access to SNAP. States will also begin sharing the cost of SNAP by 2028 if their payment error rates exceed 6%, a provision softened after a push from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
Border wall, mass deportation plans receive major boost
Fulfilling a signature Trump promise, the bill allocates $350 billion for immigration enforcement. That includes funding for 100,000 migrant detention beds, the hiring of 10,000 ICE agents with $10,000 signing bonuses, and infrastructure for the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history, aiming to remove 1 million undocumented immigrants per year.
Immigrants applying for asylum protections will now face additional processing fees.
Military, space, and symbolic add-ons
Beyond domestic and economic policy, the bill delivers a massive windfall to the Pentagon: billions for shipbuilding, munitions systems, and the new missile defence program. It also includes $1 billion in Defence Department border spending, $40 million for Trump's long-touted 'National Garden of American Heroes,' and billions for space exploration, including the Artemis moon mission and future Mars landings.
The bill also introduces 'Trump Accounts,' a new federal savings plan for children, seeded with a $1,000 Treasury deposit.
The bill also includes several controversial provisions. It ends federal funding for Planned Parenthood for one year and rolls back clean energy tax credits, including those for electric vehicles, which will now expire on September 30. It imposes a new 1% tax on remittances and university endowments, eliminates the $200 tax on gun silencers and certain rifles, and expands compensation for individuals affected by nuclear testing.
A new fiscal frontier or a mirage?
The bill raises the U.S. debt ceiling by $5 trillion to cover past and new spending. However, Republican senators argue that since many tax cuts were already 'current policy,' their extension should not count as new spending â€" a controversial accounting method that, they say, turns a $3.3 trillion deficit increase into a $500 billion reduction.
Democrats and independent economists have called this 'budgetary sleight of hand.' The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget labeled it 'an accounting gimmick that would make Enron executives blush.'
Holiday signing
House Speaker Mike Johnson hailed the bill as a sweeping effort to reverse what he called the 'disaster of the Biden-Harris regime.'
'Everything was broken â€" we tried to fix it all, in one big, beautiful bill,' he said after the vote.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the measure as 'the largest middle-class tax cut in American history' and a 'commonsense agenda that nearly 80 million Americans voted for.'
President Trump is expected to sign the bill at a high-profile ceremony at the White House on Friday at 5 p.m. ET, coinciding with Independence Day celebrations, symbolising, as the administration put it, 'the beginning of America's Golden Age.'
Wycliffe Nyamasege
Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/trump-s-3-3-trillion-gamble-house-approves-one-big-beautiful-bill
