In the early hours of July 3, the House of Representatives passed the Senate-revised “Big Beautiful Bill,” with President Donald Trump signing it into law the next day. The White House claims the sweeping budget bill is “historic.” But the truth is this: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act represents the single largest upward wealth transfer in U.S. history, with massive tax breaks for the rich subsidized by steep cuts to social welfare programs. At the same time, it allocates hundreds of billions of dollars toward ICE and border enforcement. The budget bill is nothing but a brutal, calculated attack on the working class. What’s actually in the bill?
Immigration enforcement on steroids:
- $140 billion for border security and interior enforcement (source)
- $45 billion for detention capacity to house over 100,000 people daily — an 800% increase (source)
- $29.85 billion to ICE to hire 8,500 new officers (source). ICE will have more officers than the FBI (source)
Gutting of social safety net:
- First-ever Medicaid work requirements starting December 2026 (source)
- $930 billion in cuts to Medicaid funding over the next 10 years (source)
- Includes a one-year block on Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood, effectively defunding it (source)
- The deepest SNAP cut in history: $267-$300 billion over 10 years (source)
- States forced to pay 5% of SNAP benefits, 75% of admin costs (currently the program is 100% federally funded) (source)
- Single parents must work 80 hours a month for SNAP; married couples need only one working parent (source)
- Non-U.S. citizens now barred from claiming child tax credit, even if their child is a citizen (source)
Forcing students into deeper debt:
- Phases out federal Grad PLUS loan program, which helps graduate students finance their studies (source)
- Eliminates income-driven student loan repayment plans by July 2026 (source)
- Borrowers of student loans can no longer defer repayments due to unemployment or economic hardship (source)
- New student loan borrowing caps which may force some to seek out private lenders (source)
Tax handouts, militarization, climate disaster:
- Permanent extension of Trump tax cuts for the wealthy (source)
- $153 billion toward military funding, including $25 billion for Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system (source) and $2.2 billion toward acceleration of hypersonic missiles (source)
- Electric vehicle tax credits eliminated by September 2025 (source)
- Rollback of renewable energy tax credits (source)
Feature image: President Donald Trump talks to the press in 2019. Credit: Rawpixel (public domain)
