Trump
CHARLESTON — Congress has passed two historic pieces of legislation from President Trump: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and H.R. 4, which was the first of what many Americans hope will be a long line of rescissions packages that claw back waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington.
OBBBA represents the Trump administration stepping up in a big way to make good on myriad campaign promises, the most foundational of which was averting the largest tax increase in American history by renewing the President’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. A tax hike of that magnitude would have sapped the bank accounts of families still reeling from Biden-era inflation, and pummeled the country’s ability to create jobs and opportunity while feeding even more reckless spending in Washington. Thankfully, that was not allowed to happen.
Huffman
Accomplishing big-time reform is never easy in Washington, but Republicans in Congress got the job done by not only stopping a massive tax hike that would have cost the average West Virginia family nearly $1,500 more in their federal tax bill every year, but making those tax cuts permanent for every tax bracket, safeguarding taxpayers well into the future.
Every family will keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, and an estimated 2,700 jobs were saved in the Mountain State alone. Between a supercharged economy, onshoring of jobs, and families able to invest more in their version of the American Dream, OBBBA will be lauded as a key inflection point for the future of the nation’s economy.
While the core of OBBBA centered on common-sense tax reform, other transformational elements abound. From helping to secure the border to clawing back swaths of the Biden administration’s so-called “Green New Deal,” there is a lot to celebrate, including the most robust entitlement reform in decades.
Pundits on the radical left continue to engage in nonsensical fearmongering over OBBBA’s entitlement reforms. However, provisions like stopping government benefits for illegal immigrants and asking able-bodied adults without dependents to work or volunteer for only twenty hours per week via new work requirements to be eligible for programs like SNAP and Medicaid are hardly objectionable.
In fact, the last time such similarly sensible reforms were enacted was in a bipartisan fashion under the Clinton presidency. These programs were designed to protect the truly vulnerable, such as pregnant women, the disabled, seniors, and low-income families.
Unfortunately, the country’s entitlement programs have been allowed to balloon far beyond their intended purpose. OBBBA shores up the safety net by encouraging folks who are able to get back in the workforce to experience the dignity of employment. It no longer allows the more than one million illegal immigrants illegally receiving scarce Medicaid resources to benefit from the program. If anything, Congress should double down on more bold entitlement reforms to keep the safety net solvent in the long term for those who genuinely need it.
President Trump’s first Rescission Package, H.R. 4, cut nearly $9 billion in wasteful spending. Over a decade, taxpayers will save nearly $100 billion. This includes absurd items like $6 million for “Net Zero Cities” in Mexico and $3 million for "Iraqi Sesame Street." This is a good start.
For a party that, according to recent polling from Pew Research, is losing what is left of its mainstream voting base more rapidly than ever, it's truly strange to see Democrats cry foul over eliminating clear examples of wasteful spending or vote in lock step for the largest tax hike in history. Democrats continue to treat government like their own private charity fund. And it is costing them dearly in the polls. Republican leaders in Congress would be wise to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump in aggressively pursuing more reductions in spending.
Meaningful reductions in wasteful spending, permanent tax cuts, a stronger safety net, enhanced border security, and more affordable, reliable energy are all hallmarks of the mandate voters gave President Trump and congressional Republicans. We’re glad to see Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, along with Congressman Riley Moore and Congresswoman Carol Miller, boldly support this historic set of legislation. Now, let’s double down.
Huffman is the West Virginia State Director of Americans for Prosperity.
