Is Donald Trump a champion of working people as he portrayed himself to be in his second run at the presidency? All along large segments of the American electorate to begin knew this was a farce and just a campaign gimmick. Now, with Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” becoming law and Americans digesting the features in it, there should be no doubt that Trump is not a populist.
*His signature One Big “Ugly” Bill will have at least 17 million Americans losing their health insurance because of changes to Medicaid.
*Because of cuts to Medicaid, hospitals and clinics, especially those in rural communities could experience high financial stress or close.
*Changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid are expected to lead to increased premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses for most health insurance.
*Reduced Medicaid and increased uninsured is expected to cause over 500,000 healthcare job losses.
*The Center for American Progress and Arc said the bill will eliminate Medicare eligibility for certain groups of lawful immigrants who had previously contributed to the program.
*Millions – estimated between 3.2 to 22.3 million families nationwide – could lose some or all their SNAP (food stamp) benefits.
*Utility costs for American households are expected to rise significantly. According to Climate Power, the bill’s policies, particularly the rollback of clean energy tax credits, are projected to raise average annual electricity costs by $110 per household by next year, with some states seeing increases of over $200.
These are only a few anti-populist features found in the “Big Ugly” bill that Trump signed into law. And the most convincing feature in the bill that shows Trump is not a populist president is all these features hurtful to average-to-poor Americans were made possible to give billionaires, the richest Americans and corporations a whopping $4.45 trillion in tax breaks, which politicos are calling the greatest transfer of wealth in modern American history.
Even more shocking and unconscionable is that this was done at a time when average and poor Americans are having the most difficult time financially with skyrocketing grocery prices, childcare, rising interest rates on credit cards, college loans, unaffordable housing and as job losses are creeping up nationwide.
The trail of misery and hardship this bill will leave will be heartbreaking. What will happen to chronically ill patients who cannot afford expensive life-saving medication as soon as their Medicaid gets cut? Where will rural Americans go whose closest hospital is 50-plus miles away and suddenly that hospital must be forced to close? In emergency situations, what happens? In both these examples, this bill literally could be a death sentence.
What about the working poor who already have jobs but do not earn enough to buy food for their children when their food stamps get reduced or cancelled? In the U.S., the richest nation in the world, we’ll be seeing increasing numbers of families go hungry.
Get a job? Supporters of the bill might say. Over 60% of Medicaid recipients already have jobs but jobs that do not offer medical insurance. A large percentage of others on Medicaid are disabled or who are caretakers to elderly or disabled persons cannot get a job.
The problem isn’t that people don’t want to work. The problem is that they can’t live off what work pays in many situations.
The unwritten social contract
This reality of millions falling through the cracks speaks to the heart of our capitalistic system. There’s always been an unwritten understanding that Americans will support capitalism and the free market as long as there are safeguards in place to ensure that the most vulnerable – an inevitability in such an economic system – have in place some safety nets available through our government. The idea behind this is that we want to maximize prosperity and uplift fellow Americans left behind in an often-exploitive system. It’s been a kind of unwritten social contract. This “Big Ugly” bill undermines this social contract and longstanding unwritten understanding. In fairness to Trump and Republicans in this Congress, this undermining has been an ongoing process or erosion even while Democrats were at the helm.
But this specific bill unmasks the fact that the superrich have the power (via our corrupt political system) to do whatever they want and no longer be a party to any social contract that would benefit the workers they exploit.
A betrayal to Americans
There is no lucid way to describe this “Big Ugly” bill than to say that it is a betrayal to the American people. In fact, millions of MAGA themselves on Medicaid (many of them in districts with the highest rates of Medicaid) have been betrayed by the man they voted for.
There must be accountability
Trump is a lame duck president and “not expected” to run again if the Constitution holds. Who made the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill possible? Republicans. And there must be accountability to those who made possible this disastrous, immoral bill beginning in the next midterm election.
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