Dorothea Lange’s famous image of a destitute man during The Depression. (Public Domain via Picryl)
After a few days of Mendacity Theater in late June and early July, Congress passed and the President signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
Rundowns of what is in the OBBBA are available from Fortune, the AP and elsewhere.
This will be old news by the time you read this post. Some highlights worth remembering:
The OBBBA will do some nice things for the middle class at the start. For instance, state and local tax deduction (SALT) will be increased from $10,000 to $40,000 for five years and increasing the child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200 per kid.
Those on the lower end of the economic scale will be hit hard. OBBBA cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), significantly increases Medicaid work requirements (in such a way that makes it more likely that children as young as 14 will be home unsupervised), reduces benefits for noncitizens and rolls back clean energy tax credits.
It is estimated that 10 million people or more will lose their healthcare insurance and that premiums will rise for others, including those with private insurance
The deficit will increase by about $3 billion.
The OBBBA also will give $350 billion to border security and defense spending. Most notably, the bill provides $45 billion for migrant detention beds and hiring of 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The impact of the OBBBA will be felt quickly, experts say. One of the effects will be the closing of rural hospitals due to cuts in their funding. That’s already happened in Nebraska.
The takeaway from the Center for American Progress is that almost no part of our lives will be untouched:
Not only will the OBBBA’s cuts to health care and food assistance programs increase poverty, hunger, and costs for millions of Americans, but the bill also kills clean energy incentives and further subsidizes the oil and gas industry, resulting in even higher costs and health burdens for American families. The OBBBA will gut pollution-reduction programs, worsening air quality and public health, while putting Americans at greater risk from a less reliable power grid as extreme weather rises. From an energy and environment perspective, this column explains how the OBBBA will affect Americans’ wallets, health, and safety.
It is just beginning. NBC News:
Rural hospitals across the U.S. say they’re being forced to consider tough choices — like cutting services for children or cancer patients — after President Donald Trump signed into law a sprawling domestic policy bill that includes sweeping cuts to not only Medicaid but the Affordable Care Act, as well.
The OBBBA will cause suffering to people already leading hard lives. Those with lots of money will get a little more but not enough to notice. Chances are many of them weren’t even in favor of it.
Continue reading after the music break…
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Folks of a certain age (old, in other words) were particularly saddened by the recent passing of Sylvester Stewart, who was better known as Sly Stone. Sly and the Family Stone was a pioneering funk band that bucked the standards of the time in being integrated and featuring female instrumentalists. It was clear from recent videos that Stone had a very rough time of it.
This is a great video of three songs (one of which has a word in the title I can’t use) culminating in “I Want to Take You Higher.” It was recorded in 1969, the same year the band electrified Woodstock.
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It will lead to deaths. It’s impossible to take meals away from hungry kids, leave them home unsupervised while parents and guardians fulfill a random work requirement, ending health care insurance for almost millions of people and close hospitals without killing people. It isn’t debatable. It also will lead to U.S. citizens who have committed no crime being deported to prisons with deplorable conditions and many other bad outcomes.
The OBBBA is the law. The only thing that can be done is elect people who will fight to moderate its most objectionable provisions. If common sense and common compassion prevail, the OBBBA eventually can be overturned.
The first step is to kick those who voted for the OBBBA out of office. Most of us won’t have that opportunity for about a year and a half. Please remember and take it when it comes.
