The liberals in the Senate over the weekend unanimously voted to allow the tax equivalent of a nuclear bomb to detonate.
Stephen Moore: Unleash Prosperity Hotline – While we all have concerns about what made it in and what got taken out of the Senate Big Beautiful Bill, the media and even some Republicans have buried the lead:
This bill prevents the biggest tax increase in American history scheduled for January 1, 2026.
Killing the tax increase is an enormous achievement for the country and our economy.
Period. Hard stop.
What a sad state of affairs for the Left, that even though about two-of-three Americans support avoiding the tax increase, the liberals in the Senate over the weekend unanimously voted to allow the tax equivalent of a nuclear bomb to detonate.
Remember, earlier this year, every Democrat in the House voted for the tax hike on millions of middle class workers, small businesses, and families with children.
Here are the taxes they voted to raise on January 1:
What’s in and What’s Out of the Big Beautiful Bill
Congrats to Senate Majority Leader John Thune for pulling out this big victory over the weekend. It wasn’t pretty and in the days ahead, we will dissect what we don’t like. But we will take the W for the reason cited in Item 1.There were so many late additions and deletions over the weekend in the near 1,000 page Senate bill that we are still raking through them all.
We thought this chart from the New York Post was a handy CliffsNotes version of some major elements of the bill, although we would caution that what they call "cuts" are relative to Biden's pumped up baseline.
Good News and Bad on Medicaid
The good news is we were wrong when we reported on Friday that the Senate parliamentarian ruled out Medicaid work requirements. They are in. This is an essential reform to lower costs and get able-bodied Americans of working age into the workforce.
The bad news is that we neglected to mention that the parliamentarian vetoed a provision that requires Medicaid participants to verify their citizenship for eligibility.
The parliamentarian also nixed a prohibition on Medicaid funding for "gender affirming care" - such as sex-change procedures. Not sure who would be in favor of taxpayers paying for that.
Kudos to Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for finding a way around the parliamentarian’s veto of reforms to the provider tax scams that states use to enrich hospitals with billions of federal tax dollars. Big win here.
