The day after Christmas 2024, as Donald Trump and his team prepared to return to the White House, The Washington Post published a memorable report on low-income voters who’d supported the Republican ticket a month earlier. The article specifically referenced a middle-aged Pennsylvania woman who had struggled to make ends meet despite receiving food stamps and Social Security benefits, who explained why she voted to put Trump back in power.
The then-president-elect, she told the Post, “is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of just the rich.” The woman added, “I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.”
I often find myself wondering about that Pennsylvania voter, especially as the president and his party take steps to hurt people like her. This week, for example, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a revised analysis of the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill Act, concluding that the far-right GOP package will deliver for the richest Americans, while leaving the poorest Americans worse off. The Associated Press reported:
The CBO estimates that the 10% of poorest Americans will lose roughly $1,200 a year as they experience restrictions on government programs like Medicaid and food assistance, while the richest 10% of Americans will see their income increase by $13,600 from tax cuts.
While it’s true that the CBO found that middle-income households are poised to get a little more from the Republican tax breaks, it’s also true that (a) the increases would amount to less than 1% of their annual income, which isn’t enough to keep up with inflation; and (b) the largest beneficiaries of the Republicans’ law are the top 10% of earners.
There is no modern precedent for such a regressive redistribution of wealth. Traditionally, elected officials have feared a public backlash if they try to take from the poor to give to the rich, but shortly before the Fourth of July, Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and their GOP cohorts did it anyway.
“I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.”
If only that prediction had come true.
The latest CBO findings come roughly a week after the budget office concluded the Republican megabill is on track to add roughly $5 trillion to future budget deficits over the next decade.
GOP policymakers could’ve waited to pass their signature domestic policy legislation until they had these analyses in their hands, but Republicans decided not to bother.
