On July 1st, local time, the U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive tax and spending bill and submitted it to the House of Representatives.
U.S. President Donald Trump referred to this massive tax and spending bill as the “big and beautiful” bill.
What exactly does the “big and beautiful” bill contain?
According to the Republican side that introduced the bill, it is an extension and upgrade of Trump’s first term tax reduction policy, as well as a reduction and adjustment of Biden administration policies on “green new deal”, welfare and spending.
The bill plans to reduce taxes by $4 trillion over the next decade and cut at least $1.5 trillion in spending.
The bill introduces several tax relief measures, including exemptions from overtime pay and tips, as well as significantly increasing the exemption for estate and gift taxes, which will continue to be adjusted based on inflation index in the future.
—Reduce expenditures on healthcare, welfare subsidies, and “green subsidies”
In terms of “cutting costs”, the “big and beautiful” bill will cut nearly $1 trillion in medical assistance funds, raising the threshold and standards for receiving medical assistance.
The bill also tightens eligibility requirements for the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” (SNAP), raising the age requirement for Americans to receive food assistance from 54 to 64, which is expected to save $230 billion in funds over the next decade.
The “big and beautiful” bill also cancels or reduces “green subsidies” during the Biden administration, from building clean energy facilities to purchasing new energy vehicles, all of these projects face the risk of losing tax incentives.
—Increase debt ceiling, increase military spending
On the other hand, these reduced expenditure items will be used to increase military spending and border security expenses. The Senate version of the bill draft also proposes to raise the federal debt ceiling by another $5 trillion.
According to an analysis report released by the Congressional Budget Office on the 29th, this version of the bill will increase national debt by $3.3 trillion over the next decade.
Trump’s “big and beautiful” bill tears apart America