Big Beautiful

What’s in the Big Beautiful Bill, and why should we care?

I woke up this morning in a cold sweat, my mind reeling with the sheer audacity of the Big Beautiful Bill, that monstrosity of a budget reconciliation bill currently festering in the 119th United States Congress. This behemoth of a bill, a Frankenstein’s monster of legislative hubris, threatens to upend the fragile balance of our already-tattered social safety net and channel yet more lucre to the fat cats and robber barons who’ve been feeding at the trough of our plutocratic system for far too long.

As I stumbled through the wreckage of my hotel room, nursing a pounding headache and a lingering sense of dread, I couldn’t help but think of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that great and wonderful boondoggle which this bill seeks to extend ad infinitum. The TCJA, as it was so blandly and euphemistically known, was a masterclass in legislative trickery, a shell game of tax cuts and loopholes designed to fleece the American people and line the pockets of the already obscenely wealthy.

And now, with the Big Beautiful Bill, we have a proposal that would make the TCJA look like a mere warm-up act. This bill would slash non-military government spending, a euphemism for “starving the beast” of social services and vital infrastructure, all while tightening the screws on the most vulnerable among us. The Medicaid and SNAP programs, those last vestiges of a bygone era of social conscience, would be subjected to a withering assault of stricter eligibility requirements, designed to squeeze out the undeserving poor and leave them to rot in the gutter.

But let’s not kid ourselves, folks. This bill isn’t about budgetary responsibility or fiscal prudence. No, this bill is about one thing and one thing only: the unbridled pursuit of wealth and power by the 1%. It’s about perpetuating the grotesque inequality that has come to define our society, and ensuring that the beneficiaries of our system remain the same old suspects: the CEOs, the hedge fund managers, and the K Street lobbyists who’ve been running the show for far too long.

Experts tell us that the Big Beautiful Bill would create the largest upward transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history. I say, “Experts” is a nice way of saying “the people who actually know what they’re talking about.” This bill is a recipe for disaster, a toxic cocktail of austerity and inequality that would leave our most vulnerable citizens begging for scraps from the table of plenty.

And yet, despite the clear and present danger that this bill poses, our politicians seem hell-bent on pushing it through, no matter the cost. They’re either too stupid or too corrupt to see the writing on the wall, or perhaps they’re simply too scared to stand up to the special interests that are driving this agenda.

As I sit here, nursing my drink and staring out at the bleak and desolate landscape of our nation’s capital, I’m reminded of the wise words of my old friend, the inimitable George McGovern: “When I served in the Senate, I was a liberal. When I was governor, I was a liberal. And when I ran for president, I was a liberal. But I was always a conservative when it came to spending other people’s money.”

Ah, but those days are long gone, my friends. Today, we have a crop of politicians who seem hell-bent on spending other people’s money on the most profligate and extravagant projects imaginable, all while slashing the vital services that our most vulnerable citizens depend on.

The Big Beautiful Bill is a monstrosity, a Frankenstein’s monster of legislative excess that threatens to consume us all. We must rise up and reject it, with all the fervor and passion at our command. For if we don’t, I fear that we may be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, and consign our children and grandchildren to a future of poverty, inequality, and despair.