After Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries’ record-setting 8-hour “magic minute” speech on the House floor calling out the opposition for supporting Donald Trump’s spending bill, the Republican-controlled legislature did what everyone expected them to do and passed it. The so-called “big beautiful bill” was carried in the House of Representatives 218-214, with only two Republicans voting against it. All seven of New York’s House Republicans voted for the bill.
Numerous analyses of the legislation in recent weeks raised alarms over deep cuts to social programs built into the legislation, such as an $800 billion cut to Medicaid and a $230 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, i.e. food stamps). House Speaker Mike Johnson, answering reporters questions after the vote, appeared unfazed: “I think a lot of the estimations about what this legislation would do in a negative manner to communities in my state or any other are far overblown.” Johnson’s home state of Louisiana has the second-highest poverty level in the country, with about 18.4% of its population participating in SNAP (some 847,100 people) and over 32.4% enrolled in Medicaid.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that around 17 million people nationwide will lose their health care coverage over the next ten years due to this legislation, and a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine estimates that the cuts in this bill will lead to 16,000 preventable deaths annually.
Beyond the cuts to social programs, the extension of Trump’s unfunded tax cuts from 2017 are estimated to balloon the deficit to the tune of $3.8 trillion over the next ten years. This aspect of Trump’s “big beautiful bill” was already causing negative consequences before the law even passed on Thursday, as ratings agency Moody’s downgraded US debt from AAA to AA1 in May, issuing a statement that said in part: “while we recognize the US’s significant economic and financial strengths, we believe these no longer fully counterbalance the decline in fiscal metrics.”
Speaking on MSNBC, Texas Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro framed House Republicans’ vote on Thursday as an act of political cowardice in the face of President Trump. “They’re too scared of Donald Trump, because they believe if they betray him, if they had voted no, that he would end their political careers, or at least their jobs in Congress,” he said in an phone interview on air. “And so they had a choice to make. They could either choose to protect their jobs or they could choose to do the right thing for their constituents and vote no. And they chose their jobs.”
President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday, July 4th.
