The One Big Beautiful Bill Act: "They'll get over it"
Senate Republicans are scrambling to pass a 1,100-page bill by July 4th that gives permanent tax cuts to the wealthy while offering temporary relief to workers - and several senators are just now discovering what it would actually do to their own states.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina has been handing out flyers showing his state would lose $38.9 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade.¹ Tillis appears to have discovered this impact only after the House vote, suggesting that even senators helping craft the legislation didn't fully understand its consequences for their own constituents.
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska calls the Medicaid work requirements "very, very, very challenging if not impossible" for her state to implement, citing outdated payment systems that cannot handle the complex new mandates.² Senator Susan Collins of Maine is pushing for a $100 billion hospital support fund to offset cuts that would force rural hospitals to close their doors.³
This is the Senate's dilemma: they're being pressured to quickly pass legislation that restructures who pays taxes in America, cuts healthcare for millions, and fundamentally alters federal court powers - but they're discovering the details as they go.
What the Senate Is Actually Voting On
The bill makes tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations permanent while setting an expiration date of 2028 on tax relief for workers.⁴ The estate tax exemptions that benefit the wealthiest families never expire. Business tax deductions continue forever. But no taxes on tips? Gone after 2028. No taxes on overtime? Expires. Enhanced child tax credits that might help families afford groceries? Temporary.
This structure reveals the bill's true priorities. Wealthy donors get certainty - their tax benefits never disappear. Working families get campaign promises designed to expire just after Trump can no longer run for president. The temporary nature of worker benefits means future politicians will face the choice of either extending expensive programs or taking the blame for tax increases on their constituents.
Meanwhile, cuts to Medicaid and food assistance are permanent. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 8.6 million Americans will lose health coverage, with no mechanism for restoration when the worker tax benefits expire.⁵ This creates a one-way ratchet where benefits for the wealthy lock in forever while support for the poor disappears permanently.
One of the most troubling provisions strips federal courts of funding to enforce contempt citations when government officials defy judicial orders.⁶ This doesn't just limit judicial power - it potentially eliminates it. Courts can issue all the restraining orders and injunctions they want, but if the executive branch ignores them, judges would lack the resources to compel compliance. This affects over 170 existing court orders against the Trump administration, rendering them essentially meaningless.⁷
The bill also imposes a 10-year ban on state regulation of artificial intelligence. More than 20 states have already enacted laws to prevent AI-generated election misinformation and manipulation.⁸ This legislation would override all of those protections during a crucial period when AI capabilities are expanding rapidly, giving tech companies a decade-long regulatory holiday during the most important phase of AI development.
The cuts to food assistance would deepen hunger among America's children. Nearly 18 percent of American children already live in food-insecure households - that's about 13.8 million kids who don't have reliable access to adequate nutrition.⁹ The bill would cut $280 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over 10 years, affecting a program that currently helps over 42 million Americans monthly, with two-thirds of benefits going to households with children.¹⁰
Beyond these major changes, the bill creates "Trump Accounts" that would provide $1,000 from the federal government for every American baby born between 2025 and 2028 - another temporary benefit that expires just as Trump leaves office.¹¹ It eliminates 19,000 recently hired IRS positions, undermining tax enforcement precisely when the government is cutting revenue.¹² The Department of Education would lose 50% of its staff as the agency "winds down operations," representing a fundamental shift in federal education policy implemented through budget language rather than explicit legislative debate.¹³
Senate Complications and What They Mean
The Senate parliamentarian has rejected numerous provisions from the original House bill, forcing Republicans to rewrite sections.¹⁴ Many of the eliminated items - state immigration enforcement authority, automatic environmental approvals for oil projects, elimination of financial regulatory agencies - had little connection to budget policy. Their inclusion reveals how the bill was designed as a vehicle for sweeping policy changes that couldn't pass through normal legislative processes.
Several senators' specific objections illuminate the bill's real-world consequences. When Murkowski says Alaska's systems cannot implement Medicaid work requirements, she's acknowledging that the bill's mandates exceed state administrative capacity. Senator Thom Tillis's belated discovery that North Carolina would lose nearly $39 billion in Medicaid funding demonstrates how the bill's national averages disguise severe regional impacts. Tillis appears to have discovered this impact only after the House vote, suggesting that even senators helping craft the legislation didn't fully understand its consequences for their own states. Rural states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act face disproportionate cuts precisely because they made the decision to provide healthcare to more low-income residents - a penalty for compassion written into the fiscal structure.
The push for a $100 billion hospital support fund by Senator Collins reflects the healthcare system's vulnerability to these cuts. Rural hospitals operate on margins so thin that Medicaid reimbursement often determines whether they can keep their doors open. When 40 to 60 percent of a hospital's revenue comes from Medicaid, even modest cuts can force closures that leave entire communities without emergency care.¹⁵
The nursing home crisis would be equally severe. Medicaid pays for 60 percent of all nursing home residents nationally.¹⁶ When that funding shrinks, facilities cut staff, reduce services, and close wings. The millions of elderly Americans who would lose institutional care would need family or other community support for their highly dependent needs - care that many families cannot provide and communities cannot afford.
Why Senators Are Discovering Problems Now
The chaos in the Senate stems from how this legislation originated. The House passed the bill by a single vote after releasing the final text at 10:40 PM and voting at 7 AM - giving lawmakers eight hours if they stayed up all night to review 1,100 pages.¹⁷
At least three House Republicans now admit they didn't know what they were voting for. Representative Mike Flood was unaware he had voted to limit courts' contempt powers.¹⁸ Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene discovered she had approved the 10-year AI regulation ban.¹⁹ Representative Andrew Garbarino missed the vote entirely because he fell asleep.²⁰
The artificial eight-hour deadline wasn't an accident - it was a deliberate strategy to prevent analysis that might generate opposition. Now the Senate faces the same pressure, with Majority Leader John Thune pushing for a July 4th vote despite the chamber being designed for deliberation, not panic-driven lawmaking.²¹
The Leadership's Response to Concerns
The breakdown isn't limited to lawmakers not understanding what they're voting for. Sometimes it's a callous, calculated dismissal of what's best for the people they're elected to represent. When Senator Joni Ernst was confronted by constituents worried about losing healthcare coverage, she responded, "Well, we're all going to die."²²
More recently, Senator Mitch McConnell told fellow Republicans in a closed-door meeting about concerns over Medicaid cuts: "I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid. But they'll get over it." McConnell represents Kentucky, where 1.4 million people are enrolled in Medicaid.²³
People are unlikely to "get over" having no emergency care when rural hospitals close, elderly relatives becoming homeless when nursing homes shut down, or tax relief disappearing in three years while billionaires keep their permanent cuts. These aren't political inconveniences that fade with time - they're permanent changes to people's lives that McConnell apparently expects constituents to simply accept.
Timeline and Stakes
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning they can afford to lose only three members. The July 4th deadline serves no legislative purpose beyond preventing thorough review that might generate opposition.
If the Senate makes changes, the bill must return to the House for final approval. Given the original one-vote margin and subsequent revelations about what House members didn't know they were voting for, final passage remains uncertain.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation would add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over ten years - potentially rising to $5 trillion - making this one of the largest debt increases in American history despite deep cuts to social programs.²⁴
What happens in the Senate over the next week will determine whether American democracy retains the basic safeguards that prevent governance from becoming an exercise in deceiving lawmakers and the public about what government is actually doing.
Lessons from On Tyranny
Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" offers guidance for recognizing and resisting authoritarianism based on how democratic societies have fallen to tyranny in the past.²⁵ The legislative process surrounding this bill - rushing through unread legislation, eliminating judicial oversight, and dismissing public concerns - follows patterns Snyder identified in his study of how democracies collapse.
Note that resistance is always guided by Lesson 20: Be as courageous as you can. We are not all positioned to take each of these actions, but consider what of these you can given your circumstances. Know that for every action of resistance you engage in, you are also representing those who are not able to stand up due to vulnerability, ability, or means.
Lesson 8: Stand out. Someone has to break the spell of conformity and silence. When senators like McConnell dismiss public concerns by saying people will "get over it," they're counting on constituents staying quiet and accepting whatever they decide. The democratic process depends on representatives hearing from the people they serve.
How to resist: Contact your senators directly about this bill. Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 daily. Make sure they hear from you, feel the pressure of your opposition, and see that constituents are paying attention to what they're voting for. Attend town halls and public events where you can speak directly to your representatives.
Lesson 10: Believe in truth. Republican leaders are lying when they claim this bill only removes "undocumented aliens" from Medicaid. Undocumented immigrants are already largely ineligible for Medicaid, making this claim factually false.²⁶ The 8.6 million Americans who would lose coverage are overwhelmingly U.S. citizens - working families, elderly Americans, and people with disabilities. They're also lying when they claim this isn't about benefiting billionaires, while designing permanent tax cuts for the wealthy and temporary relief for workers.
How to resist: Research the facts about who actually receives Medicaid benefits and share this information with others. When politicians make false claims about the bill's impact, correct the record publicly. Use nonpartisan sources to verify what the legislation actually does versus what officials claim it does.
Lesson 13: Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Democracy requires physical presence and real-world action, not just online engagement. When senators dismiss public concerns by saying people will "get over it," they're counting on constituents staying home and expressing frustration only through social media rather than showing up in person.
How to resist: Join or organize protests at senators' offices and public events. Make your opposition visible and vocal through physical presence in public spaces. Attend town halls where you can speak directly to your representatives. Write letters to local newspapers about the bill's impact on your community. Talk to your neighbors, coworkers, and family members face-to-face about what this legislation would actually do. Your physical presence in public spaces and civic activities demonstrates that democratic engagement is alive and active in your community.
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Sources
BTM Democracy Project. "Not Just Another Crisis. This Bill Is THE Crisis." May 25, 2025.
Murkowski, Lisa. Interview with CBS News. "Murkowski says she has been 'pretty clear' about her concerns with Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.'" CBS News, June 22, 2025.
The Hill. "GOP looks to win over Collins, Murkowski on Trump bill." June 3, 2025.
Tax Foundation. "'Big Beautiful Bill' Senate GOP Tax Plan: Preliminary Details and Analysis." June 24, 2025.
Congressional Budget Office. "Estimated Budgetary Effects of H.R. 1: One Big Beautiful Bill Act." May 2025.
Campaign Legal Center. "These Hidden Provisions in the Budget Bill Undermine Our Democracy." May 2025.
Ibid.
Ibid.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. "Food Security in the U.S. - Key Statistics & Graphics." 2023.
Food Research & Action Center. "Hunger & Poverty in America." September 2024.
Axios. "What to know about 'MAGA accounts,' a $1,000 pitch for every baby in America." May 15, 2025.
Government Executive. "The biggest takeaways from Trump's cut-filled FY26 budget." May 2, 2025.
Ibid.
The Hill. "These Hidden Provisions in the Budget Bill Undermine Our Democracy." Various dates, May-June 2025.
The Hill. "GOP looks to win over Collins, Murkowski on Trump bill." June 3, 2025.
Kaiser Family Foundation. "Medicaid's Role in Nursing Home Care." 2024.
CBS News. "House passes Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' in razor-thin vote after dramatic all-night session." May 22, 2025.
NBC News. "Republican lawmaker Mike Flood grilled during town hall." May 28, 2025.
Fox News. "Marjorie Taylor Greene sounds alarm over AI provision in One Big Beautiful Bill Act." June 3, 2025.
Newsweek. "Republican Missed Key 'One Big Beautiful Bill' Vote Because He Fell Asleep." May 23, 2025.
Roll Call. "GOP weighs canceling recess to wrap up Trump's budget bill." June 24, 2025.
New Republic. "MTG Shocked by Terrible AI Rule in Budget Bill She Voted For." June 3, 2025.
Newsweek. "Mitch McConnell Says People Worried About Medicaid Cuts Will 'Get Over It.'" June 24, 2025.
Congressional Budget Office. "Estimated Budgetary Effects of H.R. 1: One Big Beautiful Bill Act." May 2025.
Snyder, Timothy. "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." Tim Duggan Books, 2017.
Kaiser Family Foundation. "Medicaid Eligibility for Adults as of January 1, 2025." 2025.