the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
May 26, 2025
Trump’s budget, which he humbly calls the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed the U.S. House and awaits passage by the Senate. Ultimately, what’s in it will be much more beautiful for the very wealthy and the big corporations than for the working class and the poor.
Much of the bill makes permanent the tax cuts that were part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed during Trump’s first term in 2017. That bill, over time, increased the estate tax and gift tax exemption from 11 million dollars to 28 million dollars, and the new bill increases that even more to 30 million dollars next year. That will mean the wealthiest estates will each receive a tax cut of 6.3 million dollars next year, and fewer than 1 in 1,000 estates will be taxed at all.
The new bill also looks beautiful for big corporations as it makes permanent the cut in the corporate tax rate in the 2017 bill from 35% to 21%. Trump claimed in 2017 that the corporate tax cut would lead to more jobs and higher wages. Instead, the corporations passed the huge tax breaks on to their stockholders through stock buybacks, expected to reach one trillion dollars this year, according to Goldman Sachs. The top 11 consumer-goods corporations alone paid out 463 billion dollars in stock buybacks since 2017, and the new bill promises more of the same.
Wealthy taxpayers will also benefit from an increase in deductions to federal income taxes, for state income taxes they pay, from the current $10,000 to $40,000.
The tax cuts for the working class will be much smaller, with an increase of $1,000 in the standard deduction on federal income taxes, and this increase will be temporary. There will also be an increase in the child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,500, but only until 2028 when it will go back to $2,000.
Some workers will benefit from tax breaks on tips and overtime, but these deductions will also end in 2028.
Trump’s so-called “beautiful bill” takes from the poor to pay for the tax cuts mostly benefiting the rich. It expands work requirements for those receiving Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid by raising the mandatory working age from 54 to 64. While those caring for children under 18 are currently exempt from SNAP work requirements, the new bill cuts that exemption to only those with children under 7. The bill also will make it more difficult for people to receive SNAP benefits by putting five percent of the benefit costs on the states, which currently pay none, and 75% of the administrative costs, for which the states currently contribute only 50%.
The bill also imposes work requirements for Medicaid recipients of at least 80 hours of “community engagement” per month and requires that they verify their eligibility twice a year, compared to once a year currently.
Despite cutting programs that benefit the poor to pay for tax cuts to the rich, the new budget still manages to find an extra 150 billion dollars for the military, nearly 47 billion dollars more for border wall construction, and over 6 billion more for the Border Patrol and Customs Enforcement.
While Trump, like others before him, claimed in the elections that he would cut the U.S. budget deficit, this bill will simply add to it. The tax cuts to the wealthy and the corporations are expected to cost over 4.6 trillion dollars over the next 10 years.
Trump’s is certainly not the only administration to shift the tax burden from the rich to the working class and the poor. Since 1980, the tax rate on the highest income brackets dropped from 70% to 37%.
Trump is simply continuing the redistribution of wealth from the working class and the poor to those at the top, and claiming it is something “big” and “beautiful.”