The “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that passed through Congress is a raw deal for working-class Americans. It should be called the “Billionaire Bailout Bill.” At the center of the bill is a cruel tradeoff: deep Medicaid cuts that rip healthcare away from millions in exchange for tax breaks and corporate handouts to the top 1 percent. It spurs a massive transfer of wealth from those who can least afford it to those who need it the least.

The bill’s supporters call it a “fiscally responsible” package, but that’s questionable when it adds $3 trillion to the deficit. The truth is, this bill demands sacrifice only from one side of America: working families, rural communities, seniors, and people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to survive.

By capping Medicaid spending and shifting costs to states, the bill sets the stage for devastating coverage losses, longer wait times and fewer services. It is death by a thousand bureaucratic cuts — and it is intentional.

These cuts aren’t about efficiency. They’re about making room for massive tax breaks at the top. While families struggling to pay for insulin or mental healthcare are told to tighten their belts, the wealthiest Americans and the corporations they own are handed billions in tax giveaways. We’ve seen this trick before. The same people telling us the country “can’t afford” to care for our most vulnerable somehow find endless room in the budget for private jets and stock buybacks.

Let’s be clear: Medicaid is not a handout. It is a lifeline. Nearly 80 million Americans rely on it — including children, pregnant women, people with disabilities, the elderly and workers in low-wage jobs that don’t provide health insurance. Slashing this program doesn’t just harm those directly affected. It weakens hospitals, especially in rural areas, where Medicaid dollars keep the lights on. It forces families to choose between medicine and groceries. It erodes the very foundation of public health.

And what are we getting in return? The Billionaire Bailout Bill is filled with loopholes and giveaways to industries that already rake in record profits. Hedge funds, private equity firms, and pharmaceutical giants get sweetheart deals while community clinics prepare for layoffs and service cuts. Private-equity moguls, whom Trump promised to target, still get to pay lower tax rates than truck drivers and nurses. This isn’t bad policy — it’s theft. It’s taking from those with nothing to spare and giving it to those who already have everything.

This kind of wealth transfer isn’t accidental. According to Americans for Tax Fairness, “The tax provisions of this legislation cannot be viewed in isolation from the rest of the legislative package. In its entirety, this reconciliation package proposes the most radical transfer of wealth from low- and middle-income families to wealthy households in American history.”

And with this bill adding trillions of dollars to our national debt, it is now the burden of younger Americans to pay for it.

We should be furious, not just at what’s in this bill but at the process itself and our representatives who act remorseless in the face of the American hardship they just voted for. (See my Iowa senator Joni Ernst, who told her constituents, “We all are going to die” when questioned at a constituent town hall about the life-threatening effects of Medicaid cuts.)

Real democracy doesn’t happen when billion-dollar policies are rushed through with little scrutiny. It happens when elected officials face the public and explain their votes clearly and honestly. It occurs when healthcare is viewed as a human right, rather than a budgetary issue. And it happens when we say enough is enough to backroom deals that enrich the few by punishing the many.

I agree with the Catholic bishops who condemned the bill stating, “The Catholic Church’s teaching to uphold human dignity and the common good compels us to redouble our efforts and offer concrete help to those who will be in greater need.”

The One Big, Beautiful Bill may be beautiful to multinational corporations and CEOs, but it’s a disaster for the rest of us. We need to stop pretending that austerity for the poor and abundance for the rich is “reform.”

It’s not reform — it’s theft.

_____

ABOUT THE WRITER

J.D. Scholten, D-Iowa, is a professional baseball player for the Sioux City Explorers and is a candidate for the U.S. Senate. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

_____

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC