A Nation of Owners, Not Earners
A $4.5 trillion tax cut, a $3.3 trillion deficit hike, and 11.8 million uninsured. All wrapped in the language of patriotism.
Republicans passed a nearly 900-page bill packed with tax cuts, military spending, and work requirements for the poor — just in time for Independence Day. The numbers are staggering:
$4.5 trillion in tax cuts
$350 billion for mass deportations
$50 billion to rescue rural hospitals
11.8 million more uninsured
A $3.3 trillion hit to the deficit
And yet, the official line is that this bill saves money.
This isn’t fiscal conservatism. It’s something else entirely.
For decades, the Republican brand was limited government. Today, it’s selective government: generous to asset owners, punitive toward wage earners, and militarized at the border.
They aren’t shrinking the state. They’re weaponizing it.
The drift is moral as much as mathematical. We’ve moved from debates about “how much to tax” or “what to fund” to a more fundamental question: Who counts as part of the nation?
1. Permanent Cuts for the Top, Temporary Relief for the Bottom
The wealthiest households get a $12,000 tax break.
Older adults making under $75,000 get a $6,000 deduction — temporary.
The child tax credit rises to $2,200 — but not all families qualify.
Work requirements are expanded for Medicaid and SNAP recipients, many of whom already work.
This isn’t tax policy. It’s class policy dressed up in tax language.
2. Mass Deportation as Infrastructure
100,000 detention beds.
10,000 new ICE officers.
$10K signing bonuses.
Target: 1 million deportations per year.
This is the most ambitious state-building project in the bill. It has its own budget, workforce, and public messaging campaign — and it’s aimed at expelling people, not serving them.
3. Accounting Gymnastics
The CBO says the bill will increase deficits by $3.3 trillion. Senate Republicans say it cuts the deficit by $500 billion.
How? By pretending that current tax breaks are the “baseline,” not new costs.
They’re redefining arithmetic — not to balance the books, but to make redistribution upward look like prudence.
As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget put it: “An accounting gimmick that would make Enron executives blush.”
4. Erosion of the Safety Net
Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP for the poorest.
$35 Medicaid copays introduced.
Work requirements extended to age 65.
States penalized for high error rates, but exceptions granted to secure votes.
Every part of the safety net is being recast as a liability — unless it serves a political purpose (see: $50 billion in rural hospital aid added to win over GOP holdouts).
5. Reversing the Energy Transition
Wind and solar tax credits rolled back.
EV credits set to expire this year.
A production tax credit expanded for metallurgical coal.
The tax on silencers? Eliminated.
The National Garden of Heroes? Funded.
Environmental policy is being remade not on science, but on symbolism. The future being built is retrofitted for grievance.
This bill is being marketed as patriotic, pro-growth, and pro-family.
But here’s what it actually does:
Cuts taxes for the rich
Expands detention for immigrants
Reduces health coverage for the poor
Makes clean energy more expensive
Makes guns quieter
Builds a monument to dead presidents
There is no coherent economic theory here. There’s only a hierarchy of belonging.
The contradiction is that the government is not being dismantled. It’s being repurposed — to exclude, to punish, and to preserve the illusion of fiscal discipline while redistributing wealth upward.
Don’t look at the headline numbers. Look at the logic underneath.
This bill isn’t about how much government we have. It’s about who the government serves. Who gets protection. Who gets punished. Who is seen as a citizen, and who is treated like a burden.
Every tax break is a signal. Every cut is a choice.
And every choice tells you who counts.