Everything you need to know about Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”

President Donald Trump has achieved his biggest legislative victory yet: his “one big, beautiful bill” — the massive tax- and Medicaid-cutting, immigration and border spending bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday — has now been passed by the House of Representatives. It goes to his desk today to be signed into law.

It’s a massive piece of legislation, likely to increase the national debt by at least $3 trillion, mostly through tax cuts, and leave 17 million Americans without health coverage — and it’s really unpopular. Majorities in nearly every reputable poll taken this month disapprove of the bill, ranging from 42 percent who oppose the bill in an Ipsos poll (compared to 23 percent who support) to 64 percent who oppose it in a KFF poll.

Republicans in Congress have passed President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” a move that will make major changes to Medicaid through establishing a work requirement for the first time and restricting states’ ability to finance their share of the program’s costs. The Senate approved the plan on Tuesday; the House gave its approval on Thursday. Once the bill receives Trump’s signature, American health care is never going to be the same.

The consequences will be dire.

The first solar cell ever made was built in the United States. Tesla, based in the US, was once the largest EV manufacturer in the world. The lithium-ion battery was codeveloped in the US.

But today, China — not the US — is the largest manufacturer of solar cells and batteries. China’s BYD — not Tesla — is the largest EV manufacturer in the world. And China is starting to outrun the US on research and development investment.

To hear many smart AI observers tell it, the day of Wednesday, June 25, 2025, represented the moment when Congress started to take the possibility of advanced AI seriously.

The occasion was a hearing of Congress’s “we’re worried about China” committee (or, more formally, the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party) focused on the US-China AI competition. Members of both parties used the event to express concern that was surprisingly strident and detailed about the near-term risks posed by artificial general intelligence (AGI) or even artificial superintelligence (ASI).

Republicans are barreling ahead to try to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — legislation that somehow manages to combine massive fiscal irresponsibility with devastating spending cuts.

The bill would keep the “Trump tax cuts” originally passed in 2017 in place, while adding some new tax breaks and new spending on immigration enforcement and the military.

Three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans in Congress are poised to further erode access to abortion and reproductive care.

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would not only directly threaten reproductive care by defunding Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, it would also incentivize insurers for Affordable Care Act plans in some states to drop abortion coverage or make it significantly more expensive.

The Republican Party’s saving grace is supposed to be its commitment to economic growth and consumer abundance.

Sure, the GOP may see unemployed cancer patients as shiftless mooches — and the Lorax as literature’s greatest villain — but for precisely those reasons, Republicans are allegedly able stewards of industrial development: Unconstrained by concerns about inequality, the environment, or social justice, the GOP will unleash the private sector’s productive potential. Republicans won’t balance Americans’ hunger for cheap gasoline against their enlightened interest in cleaner air or a cooler planet — they’ll get you the cheap fuel now. And they won’t weigh America’s stake in technological supremacy against the risks of unregulated innovation — they’ll give cutting-edge companies whatever they need to achieve global dominance.

While public attention has largely been focused on the Middle East and on President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, Republicans in Congress are on the verge of passing massive Medicaid cuts as part of a budget bill that could lead to millions of Americans losing their health insurance benefits and, according to one recent estimate, thousands of unnecessary deaths every year.

While the GOP’s so-called “big, beautiful” bill is a smorgasbord of policy — potentially including everything from blocking AI regulation to restricting the power of the federal courts — perhaps the most consequential changes would be to Medicaid. The program, which covers low-income Americans of all ages, is now the country’s single largest insurer, covering more than 70 million people. The legislation approved by House Republicans, which is now being debated and amended by the Senate, would cut Medicaid spending by $793 billion over 10 years. The upshot is that 10.3 million fewer people would be enrolled in the program by 2034.

For more than half a century, the American right has preached the virtues of free markets and low taxes and deregulation. But a new wave of conservative thinkers are now arguing that Republicans have been wrong — or at the very least misguided — about the economy.

This new economic thinking represents a break from what we’ve come to expect from the American right. Its proponents argue for a new strain of economic populism, one that departs from the GOP’s past allegiance to big business and focuses instead on the working class.

The fight over President Donald Trump’s so-called big, beautiful bill is turning ugly.

After passing the GOP-controlled House, the bill has moved to the Senate, where Republicans are facing a bitter divide over how to balance their competing priorities.

Editor’s note, July 3, 4:10 pm ET: The following post was originally published on June 9. On July 3, the House passed an amended version of the Big Beautiful Bill that included some changes from the version described below.

If the “big, beautiful bill,” President Donald Trump’s signature legislative priority, eventually becomes law, it would gut some social programs that many people rely on. As my colleague Dylan Scott wrote in a thorough explainer, the package, which House Republicans passed last month, could result in millions of people losing their health care because of proposed work requirements on Medicaid.

To pass a law in the United States, you need to jump through a lot of hurdles.

A bill has to first clear a committee in the House or Senate. (In the case of Republicans’ tax legislation this year, its components had to clear 11 different committees.) The House Rules Committee has to agree for it to come to the floor for a vote. It has to pass that vote. In the Senate, it has to get 60 votes to beat a potential filibuster, or else obey a set of byzantine rules allowing it to pass with a simple majority.

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.

Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump is one step closer to getting his “big, beautiful bill” after it passed the House in a close vote early this morning.

Editor’s note, May 22, 8:30 am ET: The House passed a version of Trump’s bill early Thursday morning. It now goes to the Senate, where Republicans say they want more changes to the bill. This story was originally published on Monday.

President Donald Trump’s second term has so far been dominated by his aggressive use of executive power — but now, he’s finally trying to get something through Congress.

With President Donald Trump’s second administration just weeks away, congressional Republicans are gearing up to execute on a wide-ranging legislative agenda touching on everything from taxes to immigration to fossil fuels. In a Monday interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump noted that his preference for doing so was “one big, beautiful bill,” but said he’d be open to two.

To accomplish that, Republicans intend to use a process known as budget reconciliation, which allows them to approve budget-related legislation with a simple majority in the Senate. Doing so enables them to bypass filibuster rules, which would otherwise require a bill to garner 60 votes to advance in the upper chamber. (In this case, with the Senate divided 53-47 in favor of Republicans, passing a bill through normal order would also require Democratic votes.)