On Tuesday, February 26th, the House of Representatives pushed through Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ on a vote of 217-215. The budget resolution is certainly big, but it’s far from beautiful. We’re now a few congress votes away from cutting benefits for millions of poor Americans and raising taxes on regular people. The Trump-Musk Administration’s crusade to steal from the less fortunate has and will continue to cause irrevocable damage. This bill may just be the final nail in the coffin for US hegemony.

Healthcare for None

Republicans plan to effectively gut Medicaid, the government system that provides healthcare to more than 72 million Americans.¹ Unlike citizen-funded Medicare, Medicaid is paid for by the states and the federal government. This makes it a prime target for the billionaires looking to cut ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ - although we’ve yet to see any convincing evidence that this program is anything but necessary.

For millions, Medicaid is the only way to seek care without losing everything. After all, Medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States.² What’ll be the replacement for these people? Letting them get sick and die when they can’t afford private healthcare seems to be the plan. Trump looks to destroy a safety net that people need to survive without offering any viable alternatives. The consequences of this bill may not be noticeable right away, but the collapse of the already broken US healthcare system will be inevitable and devastating.

Snapping SNAP Benefits

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, formerly known as food stamps, have a long history in the United States. Starting in 1939, food stamps were a way for the government to subsidize food costs for families during the Great Depression.³ American politicians have long come after food stamps and their recipients. Famously, Ronald Reagan’s popularization of the racist term “welfare queens” nearly 50 years ago was an early attack on the program. The taboo created around the use of food stamps still hinders the program to this day.

While not as lucrative as the Medicaid cuts, the budget resolution needlessly would cut $230 billion from SNAP. Millions of Americans will no longer be able to afford to feed their families. It’s estimated that around 1 in every 5 children in America don’t have enough food to eat.⁴ Without SNAP that number will skyrocket. This is especially true with the cost of food rapidly rising without signs of stopping.

What’s in it for Us?

Republicans aim to slash the budget by over $1 trillion from Medicare and SNAP alone. Are they trying to reduce the national debt with these “savings”, or will we get funding for other government programs? The answer is neither - unless the $100 billion increase to the defense budget will be used for social safety nets.⁵ The Republican Party has long campaigned on cutting the national deficit, however, the resolution would increase the debt ceiling by $4 trillion and allow for more spending. This goes to show that deficit hawking has always been about cutting essential programs for working and middle-class Americans.

The majority of these newly freed-up funds will go towards expanding the 2017 tax breaks pushed by Trump in his first term. The new budget calls for an estimated $1.1 trillion in tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. Most Americans will see their taxes increase in the coming years, and the billionaire thieves will reap the benefits. In a functioning society, our tax money would go to our schools, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. The reality instead is that we pay to make the rich richer and fund our military to commit atrocities and genocide.

The omnibus bill created from this budget resolution will likely pass both the House and Senate. In the meantime, Americans need to use the political leverage they have to fight back. Members of Congress from across the country have received a surge of calls since Trump retook office. The budget should be another item to berate them about. We’ve also seen countless anti-fascist protests here in D.C. already. We can use this grassroots movement to oppose the bill, but people need to understand it first. Spread the word.

Notes

1. https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-enrollment-data/report-highlights/index.html

2. https://www.abi.org/feed-item/health-care-costs-number-one-cause-of-bankruptcy-for-american-families

3. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/history

4. https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/child-hunger-facts

5. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2025-02-25/house-budget-resolution%C2%A0military-spending-trump-16955380.html