Trump's tax and spending bill faces Senate scrutiny amid public discontent
The Senate will return from recess next week to consider the fate of Donald Trump's big tax and spending bill which the House of Representatives passed just before Memorial Day.
The break doesn't mean all is quiet on the fiscal front. The few MAGA members who are brave enough to meet their constituents are getting an earful of hostility and scorn. Meanwhile, Democrats and progressive groups are airing TV ads against the cuts to the tune of millions of dollars.
The president likes to call it his 'big beautiful bill,' but many Americans and even some GOP senators find it oversized and ugly. The House bill which only passed by one vote extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts for wealthy Americans and large corporations for another ten years. It pays for the tax breaks with sharp reductions in spending for health care and nutrition programs.
Even with the deep cuts, the nonpartisan analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the plan would increase the national budget deficit by almost $4 trillion.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says he doesn't expect any major surprises from his party colleagues in the upper chamber. He is either willingly ignorant or completely delusional. Concerns about the deficit have frightened MAGA budget hawks like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Conservative Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who opposes the Medicaid cuts in the House legislation described them as 'morally wrong and politically suicidal.' I rarely agree with the senator from the Show Me State but this time he's dead right.
Supporters of Trump's reckless fiscal plan aren't doing themselves any favors either. Back in her home state during the recess, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) lamely tried to defend the indefensible last week when she responded to constituent concerns about deaths caused by health care cuts. She said, 'Well, we are all going to die anyway.' Her snide comment betrays GOP indifference to the suffering of the Americans who will die before their times because they can't afford care.
The public outrage over the cuts and her callous comment is exactly why congressional Republicans are reluctant to do town meetings and why Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) are trying to fill the void to capitalize on the hostility.
The Economist and YouGov conducted a national survey in mid-May which shed considerable light on attitudes towards the draconian proposal. A plurality of Americans opposed the bill but the really striking thing about the survey is how strongly attached Americans are to specific government agencies and their programs.
Americans are philosophical conservatives but operational liberals. Trump plays on fears of big government but ignores the public's deep devotion to specific federal programs.
Crap rolls down, not up the food chain. Trump aristocrats and plutocrats will do just fine, but his budget requires severe cuts in food aid and health care for the poor that will insidiously work their way down to struggling families in the middle.
Meanwhile, three out of every four Americans want to maintain or even increase spending on Medicaid. Seven tenths of the population want to maintain or increase funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The president would reduce the Department of Education to a pile of rubble but two thirds (67 percent) of the public wishes to expand (42 percent) or maintain (25 percent) it. Hardy anybody (5 percent) supports Trump in his quest to gut the department.
In contrast, less than half (47 percent) of the public wants to expand or maintain Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Musk got out of DOGE last week and on his way out blasted the president's deficit raising tax and budget bill. Americans share Musk's concerns. Most people don't believe Trump's riverboat gamble will drain the sea of federal red ink. But in the last month, the number of people who think the big beneficiaries of the budget blaster will primarily be the rich has risen significantly.
Why are Trump and congressional Republicans feverishly pushing such a massive piece of legislation that has so little public support? The answer is they are blind ideologues who are hell-bent on destroying the good works of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal regardless of the pain and suffering the ruin rains on the American people. The president may not pay the price for his ignorance, but some GOP members of Congress will in 2026.
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