While we were planning our summer activities, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) — an approximately 1,000-page “tax” bill which virtually no person in Congress has had the time to read — had already passed the U.S. House of Representatives (by one vote) and is under consideration in the Senate. This is truly a “house on fire” moment. The president wants it on his desk to sign into law prior to the July 4 holiday.
Why does this matter to us?
There is almost no aspect of society that will be untouched by this bill: weakening of existing federal gun laws, immigration, LGBTQ matters — you name it and it will be touched, mostly in ways that will harm people. Rarely have tax packages hurt low-income Americans so directly nor has legislation that guts the safety net simultaneously handed gains to the wealthy. Below are just a few highlights.
The OBBBA establishes a national school voucher program to be administered by third-party “scholarship granting organizations” (SGOs) certified by the U.S. Treasury and IRS — this, when the majority of the population opposes vouchers. It further establishes a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, not to be confused with a tax deduction, that comes with some limits —thereby landing a blow to traditional nonprofits and making fundraising even harder.
The brutal effects
Think cuts to Medicaid, the ACA (Affordable Care Act), SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Plan) don’t matter much to Texans? Consider the following:
Medicaid pays the delivery cost of 48% of babies born in our state, provides medical care for 36% of Texas children and reimburses nursing facilities for the care of 61% of seniors receiving that care. That’s but a part of what it pays for.
SNAP helps provide food for 3.2 million Texans — 10.2% of our population. The OBBBA also offloads much of the SNAP cost to states for the first time, which will cost Texas approximately $1.2 billion annually.
The ACA currently provides insurance for about 4 million Texans. An estimated 1.7 million of those will likely lose coverage, and those who keep it will likely see a sharp increase in premium costs.
CHIP provides health insurance to over 1.1 million Texas children whose parents cannot qualify for Medicaid. Together, Medicaid and CHIP provide health coverage to over 50% of Texas children.
Not only do all of these plans face financial cuts, but the OBBBA also creates a thicket of new red tape and roadblocks for current and future enrollees. Eligibility requirements will be greatly complicated, and heaven forbid that you’re a refugee or DACA participant; those folks will mostly be frozen out of all the safety nets.
What you can do
Call your U.S. legislators this week.
There is still time to make a difference. If you don’t want fellow Texans irreparably harmed by this bill, call, write or email your two U.S. Senators. Since the bill will go back to the House to iron out differences, contact your House representative too.