The Big Ugly Bill Passed the Senate

How to Talk to Your Friends and Family About It

Photo by Matthew Bornhorst on Unsplash

With a tie-breaking vote from VP Vance, Republicans in the Senate have passed its version of Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, sending it back to the GOP-controlled House for a final vote ahead of the president’s July 4th deadline.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was in tears as she shared how Republicans erupted in applause when the vote passed.

Cheered for 17 million people losing health care.

Cheered for cuts that will close rural hospitals.

Cheered for eliminating nutrition programs for hungry families.

Cheered for the wealthy no longer paying their fair share.

It’s unconscionable to think about the ways these Republicans are selling out their constituents. Like Project 2025, the details of the Big Ugly Bill are wildly unpopular among those who know what it is. But that’s the problem. Priorities USA reports that nearly half of all Americans haven’t even heard of Trump’s budget bill and of those who have heard of it, only 8 percent knew that it included cuts to Medicaid.

Republicans are counting on voters’ unawareness. They think they can sell us out time and time again and their betrayal will go unnoticed.

But we aren’t going to let that happen, are we Democracy Defenders?

Here are some of the most hideous parts of the Big Ugly Bill:

1. Tax Cuts for the Ultra Wealthy

   This plan permanently extends the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts, which overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent. While most of us are worrying about what price we’ll see the next time we try to buy eggs from the grocery store, the ultra wealthy are worried about their next yacht. If you’ve ever wondered how Jeff Bezos will buy out another major European city for his next grotesquely lavish wedding, don’t fret. Donald Trump and Republicans have his back!

2. Soaring Federal Deficit

   This bill adds roughly $2.8 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. Where are the fiscal conservatives?

3. Slashes Vital Nutrition Programs

   Much of the funding for food programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been eliminated in this bill. SNAP provides benefits to working families with low-paying jobs. In 2024, SNAP helped about 41 million low-income people per month afford a nutritionally adequate diet. If you think the dad who cleans your kids’ school or the mom who works at your local gas station doesn’t deserve a nutritional meal, then you might be a Republican.

4. Pays ICE More Than Any Other Federal Agency

   Once again, I am relieved I’m not dumb enough to believe immigrants are the cause of all of my problems and not Republicans taking away my health care and access to hospitals. Speaking of that, the ugly bill…

5. Endangers Rural Hospitals

   

   This is an inconvenient truth for Republicans who need the support of rural voters in order to win, but Trump’s bill is going to torpedo their hospitals. This is literally life and death. When a farmer in Malta, Montana is having a heart attack and can’t make it 45 miles to the nearest large town he’s going to wish his local hospital didn’t close.

   Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey introduced a motion to the bill to protect more than 300 hospitals that risk closure or a reduction in services due to the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. His list included 8 hospitals in my home state of Montana. Nevertheless, Senators Daines and Sheehy followed the lead of other Republicans and voted against the protection.

6. Removes Health Care Funding for the Deserving

   I watched my senator smugly chuckling about kicking people off their health care so he can give himself a tax break. We don’t call him Shady Sheehy for nothing.

7. Harsh New Work Requirements and Eligibility Checks Will Kick Vulnerable People off Medicaid

   Children, low-income families, people with mental illnesses, and seniors will have to find a way to navigate onerous red tape or lose their health care. This one hits close to home. My brother lives with a mental illness severe enough that he can’t be in the workforce. While he lives with a lot of support at home, he needs Medicaid so that he has health care. Trump’s bill means that people like him are going to have to figure out how to demonstrate that he can’t work and hope and pray that he’s not one of the people who loses coverage.

   Which is why I had a hard conversation with my mom about contacting her representatives. Politics has made our relationship tenuous in the past, and I had made a promise to myself not to push my mom, who has mostly voted for Republicans throughout her life, to act outside of her conscience. But the conversation went surprisingly well, especially after I explained how Trump’s ugly bill would make life harder on my brother and herself as his caretaker.

That’s what we all have to do: have hard conversations with people in ways they are open to.

The list I composed is hardly comprehensive. If you want to read the details of Trump’s budget bill, subscribe to The Panicked, Unpaid Writer. Ellie has been simplifying the pieces of the Big Ugly Bill that actually affect your life, breaking it down piece by piece so that people can understand it. She did what Marjorie Taylor Greene wouldn’t do, which is actually read the thing.