

Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill Is Great for the "Stealthy Wealthy"
117 snips May 28, 2025
Eric Zwick, an economist from the University of Chicago specializing in tax policy, joins Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, to dissect the recent tax and spending bill. They discuss its sweeping impact, from eliminating certain taxes on overtime and tips to creating new child savings accounts. The duo critically examines how this legislation extends tax cuts benefitting the wealthy while slashing funding for Medicaid and SNAP, raising pressing questions about inequality and its implications for national debt.
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Bill's Massive Fiscal Impact
- The tax and spending bill combines a $5 trillion tax cut primarily benefiting the wealthy and corporate sector.
- It reduces Medicaid and food stamps by $1 trillion and will increase the national debt by several trillion over 10 years.
Tax Cuts Boost Investment Modestly
- The 2017 corporate tax cut caused firms receiving bigger cuts to invest more, especially large multinationals.
- However, the effect on wages and GDP growth was modest and slower to manifest than proponents predicted.
Limits of Corporate Tax Cuts
- Despite being the largest business tax cut in history, the 2017 cut mainly returned money to shareholders rather than fueling large economic growth.
- Cutting corporate taxes yields diminishing growth returns the lower the starting rate and when the economy faces capacity constraints.