President Trump signs 'Big, Beautiful Bill' into law (use this) |
On Friday, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping tax and spending bill into law
in a high-profile White House ceremony. Celebrated as a major legislative win,
the "Big Beautiful Bill" extends most of Trump's 2017 tax cuts and
adds deductions for tips, overtime, and seniors. The bill, which the
Congressional Budget Office estimates will aid $3.4tn to federal
deficits over the next 10 years, is being partially paid for by significant
cuts to health care and nutrition programs, including Medicaid, and the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food
assistance to over 13m children and makes kids automatically eligible
for free meals at school. It also largely terminates numerous tax
incentives from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act for clean energy, electric
vehicles, and energy efficiency programs, ending tax credits for new and used
electric vehicles, the installation of home EV charging equipment, and for
insulation and energy efficient heating and cooling systems. It creates a new
voucher-like program that will pay for private school scholarships, although
states will be allowed to opt out if they wish. Individuals can subtract $1,700
off their tax bill if they donate that amount to an organization that awards
scholarships to kids who attend private school. The cuts to Medicaid, the
fourth-largest source of federal funding for schools, have caused
alarm; Jessie Mandle, the national program director at the nonprofit
Healthy Schools Campaign, said it is the equivalent of cutting district
budgets, adding: “School districts are very much aware of how important
Medicaid dollars are to serve students with disabilities, address the youth
mental crisis, [and] address students’ behavioral health needs.”