New analysis shows GOP tax bill would decrease resources for poorest Americans

Yahoo

22-05-2025

WASHINGTON - Republicans' massive bill to enact President Donald Trump's agenda would help the wealthiest Americans while diminishing resources for the poorest, according to a preliminary analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
On average, the bill to enact sweeping tax cuts, fund Trump's deportation plans and increase defense spending would increase resources for the average U.S. household, the CBO found.
But resources would decrease by about 2% by 2027 for people in the lowest tenth (decile) of the income distribution and increase for people in the highest tenth of the income distribution due to cuts in Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That loss would grow to 4% by 2033, CBO estimated.
In comparison, household resources for Americans in the top ten percent would increase by about 4% by 2027 and 2% in 2033, mainly due to tax cuts.
According to a 2022 CBO report, the baseline household income for Americans in the lowest tenth of the distribution is $32,200, after taxes and transfers. That figure increases to $444,600 for Americans in the highest tenth of the distribution.
The analysis was requested by Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
'This is what Republicans are fighting for—lining the pockets of their billionaire donors while children go hungry and families get kicked off their health care,' Boyle said in a statement.
But Texas Republican Jodey Arrington, chairman of the House Budget Committee, shrugged off Democratic concerns about CBO's analysis in a statement.
"First, they're not measuring economic benefits to low-income earners, they're measuring federal resources distributed. For instance, there are fewer transfer payments to people on welfare if you prohibit illegal immigrants from accessing these programs and enact common sense work requirements to stop trapping people in dependence," he said.
"Second, when you allow Americans from every walk of life to keep more of their income, you lift millions out of poverty, just as we witnessed in President Trump's first term," he added.
The report comes as House Republicans are gearing up to pass a sweeping policy bill geared at advancing Trump's legislative priorities. The bill would make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, boost border security funding and implement stricter requirements for SNAP, among other things.
Republicans have argued that average Americans would benefit from the bill's proposals, which would prevent a tax increase on all income brackets and, they contend, eliminate "waste, fraud and abuse" from benefit systems like Medicaid and SNAP. They point to policies like a temporary end to tax on tips and overtime, a new tax deduction for seniors and a boosted child tax credit, as indications they are fighting for working-class families.
"Everything (Trump) does – and every policy he fights for – is rooted in what Americans have told us over the past two years," House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Missouri, wrote in a Fox News opinion piece on May 21. "These are communities that have long been overlooked, who have struggled to gain a foothold in an economy rigged against them."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, is expected to hold a vote on the bill Wednesday. Trump visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to rally support around the bill, and told his allies not to 'f--- around' with Medicaid.
Another analysis from the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, in mid-May found that low-income families stand to lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars in income while wealthy ones will gain even more. The analysis is based on the assumption that the tax cuts are extended while there are $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and $230 billion in cuts to SNAP.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CBO: GOP tax bill would decrease resources for poorest Americans