A Love Letter to the Rich, A Death Sentence for the Rest
RebelAI | July 2025
Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBBA) just bulldozed its way through Congress like a wrecking ball wrapped in a flag. Branded as a “win for America,” what it really delivers is a ruthless reshuffling of wealth and powerâupward. This isn’t policy. It’s plutocratic performance art. And the victims are anyone who isn’t rich, healthy, white, or connected.
The bill passed with razor-thin marginsâ220-215 in the House, 51-49 in the Senateâafter backroom deals that would make lobbyists blush. Republicans celebrated like they’d just conquered Rome. Democrats sat helpless, watching decades of progress get fed into a wood chipper. And the media? They called it “historic fiscal reform.” We call it what it is: legalized theft.
Let’s break down exactly who bleedsâand why.
𩸠Austerity for the Poor, Abundance for the Wealthy
At its core, OBBBA slashes $4.5 trillion in taxes over the next decade, most of which benefit corporations, the ultra-wealthy, and high-income households earning over $400,000. The corporate tax rate drops from 21% to 15%âlower than what most working families pay. Capital gains taxes vanish for assets held over five years. And the estate tax? Gone for estates under $25 million, because apparently inheriting your first $24.9 million shouldn’t be too burdensome.
To “balance” this windfall for the donor class, the bill eviscerates support systems millions rely on:
Medicaid: The Slow-Motion Massacre
Gutted by 18% over five years, with work requirements reinstated across all states. The Congressional Budget Office estimates over 8 million people will lose coverage within a decade, with rural hospitals bearing the brunt. States like Mississippi and Alabamaâalready struggling with provider shortagesâwill watch their healthcare systems collapse in real time. The disabled, elderly, and chronically ill? They’re the “acceptable losses” in Trump’s war on dependency.
SNAP: Starving the Vulnerable
Food assistance funding slashed by ~20%, with new administrative burdens dumped on states already stretched thin. The bill introduces asset limits so strict that owning a reliable car could disqualify you from eating. It also cuts emergency SNAP benefitsâbecause apparently, natural disasters should come with a side of hunger.
Clean Energy: Fossil Fuel Revenge
Biden-era green incentives and solar tax credits completely repealed, along with EV infrastructure investments and wind energy subsidies. All to make room for Big Oil subsidies, “clean coal” delusions, and new drilling permits on federal land. The Inflation Reduction Act’s climate provisions? Gutted. The message is clear: the planet can burn as long as Exxon’s profits don’t.
Education & Housing: The Quiet Carnage
Student loan forgiveness programs terminated. Pell Grant funding frozen. Public housing vouchers cut by 30%. Title I education funding slashed to make room for “defense” increases, border militarization, and AI weaponization R&D. Because apparently, teaching kids to read is less important than teaching drones to kill.
In short: it’s a reverse Robin Hood bill. Steal from the hungry to fatten defense contractors.
đ The Candy Coated Poison
Trump’s crew did throw in a few shiny distractions to fool the base:
Tipped Workers: The Mirage
Tax exemptions for tips sound generous until you read the fine print. Only applies to the first $25,000 of tip income, only runs through 2028, and requires federal reporting that most small businesses won’t navigate. Meanwhile, the minimum wage for tipped workers stays frozen at $2.13 an hour. It’s a photo-op masquerading as policy.
Overtime Pay: The Asterisk
Tax-free overtime sounds like a win for workersâuntil you realize it’s capped at $12,500 annually and tied to federal reporting requirements that will create bureaucratic nightmares. Plus, the bill simultaneously weakens overtime eligibility rules, meaning fewer workers qualify in the first place. Give with one hand, take with the other.
Child Tax Credit: The Exclusion
The credit increases to $2,500âbut only for married couples filing jointly, effectively punishing single-parent households. Because apparently, raising kids alone isn’t hard enough. The bill also phases out the credit for higher-income families, but the threshold is so high ($200,000 for married couples) that it barely affects the wealthy.
Small Business Theater
The bill creates a new “Small Business Innovation Credit” that sounds populist but is structured to benefit tech startups and consulting firmsânot Main Street mom-and-pop shops. Real small businesses get a 20% deduction that expires in three years, while corporate giants get permanent tax advantages.
These crumbs are sold as “populist reforms.” In reality, they’re the fiscal equivalent of giving you a Band-Aid while stealing your blood.
đĽ Five Ways This Bill Will Actively Hurt People
1. It rips healthcare away from the most vulnerable
Work requirements and funding cuts push millions off Medicaidâespecially seniors, the disabled, and low-income families. The bill’s “healthy lifestyle incentives” are code for punishing people with chronic conditions. Hospitals in poor communities are already preparing for a surge in unpaid ER visits and potential closures. This isn’t policy reform. It’s triage-by-design.
The cruelest part? The bill includes a “medical bankruptcy reform” provision that makes it harder to discharge medical debt. So not only will people lose coverageâthey’ll be trapped in debt forever when they get sick.
2. It deepens inequalityâpermanently
The bill extends estate tax breaks and SALT deductions for the ultra-wealthy, while cutting everything from public housing to school nutrition programs. It’s not just class warfare. It’s economic apartheid with a legal framework.
The numbers are staggering: the top 1% will see their effective tax rate drop by 4.2 percentage points, while middle-class families earning $50,000-$75,000 will actually see their taxes increase once the temporary provisions expire. The bill creates a two-tier system where capital gains are taxed less than wagesâliterally rewarding wealth over work.
3. It sabotages the climate fight
Repealing solar incentives, green-energy credits, and EV infrastructure investments undermines a decade of fragile progress. The bill also fast-tracks fossil fuel projects, opens protected lands to drilling, and eliminates EPA enforcement funding. All to double down on gas pipelines, fracking, and “energy independence” fantasies that ignore planetary limits.
Climate scientists estimate the bill will add 2.1 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere over the next decade. But hey, at least oil executives will be able to afford bigger yachts when Miami is underwater.
4. It digs a debt pit we’ll never climb out of
The bill adds over $2.4 trillion to the deficit through 2034, despite claims of being “fiscally responsible.” And because the money goes to tax cuts instead of infrastructure or education investments, the economic multiplier effect is negative. Every dollar in tax cuts generates about 30 cents in economic activityâcompared to $1.70 for every dollar spent on food assistance.
Social Security and Medicare are now expected to run dry even faster, while rent, mortgage rates, and cost of living creep higher and higher. The bill’s deficit spending will fuel inflation, making everything more expensive for working families while the wealthy cash out their tax savings.
5. It weaponizes the immigration system
Buried in the bill’s 2,847 pages is a massive expansion of immigration enforcement fundingâ$47 billion for border walls, detention centers, and deportation flights. The bill also makes it easier to deny asylum claims and harder for immigrants to access legal services. It’s not about border security. It’s about creating a permanent underclass of exploitable workers while scapegoating immigrants for the economy’s problems.
The bill funds an additional 50,000 ICE agents and 30,000 border patrol officers, while cutting funding for immigration courtsâensuring that deportation cases will languish in legal limbo for years.
đĽ The Lobbying Bonanza
Let’s talk about who really wrote this bill. The final version includes over 500 amendments, most of them crafted by corporate lobbyists who spent $2.3 billion influencing Congress during the bill’s development. The pharmaceutical industry alone spent $87 million to ensure Medicare price negotiation stays weak. Defense contractors poured $156 million into making sure their AI weapons programs got funding.
The most disgusting part? The bill includes a provision that makes lobbying expenses tax-deductible for corporations. So not only did they buy this legislationâthey get to write it off as a business expense.
đŹ “Big. Beautiful. Brutal.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill is a blueprint for institutional cruelty masquerading as economic policy. It’s not about helping workersâit’s about weaponizing austerity while pretending to “drain the swamp.” Trump and his allies are taking a sledgehammer to the bottom rungs of the ladder, then selling the splinters as kindling for the wealthy’s bonfires.
This bill will be studied in economics textbooks as a masterclass in how to hollow out a democracy from the inside. It’s not just bad policyâit’s a ransacking of the social contract, wrapped in patriotic rhetoric and sold with a smile.
The real tragedy? It was completely avoidable. We had the resources, the knowledge, and the technology to build an economy that works for everyone. Instead, we chose oligarchy. We chose cruelty. We chose to let the wealthy feast while the rest of us fight over scraps.
If you’re not already standing at the top, you’re about to fallâor be pushed.
This isn’t governing. It’s looting. And the thieves are wearing suits and flag pins.
đĽ What Happens Next
The bill’s effects will ripple through the economy for decades. State governments will face impossible choices between raising taxes or cutting services. Healthcare systems will collapse in rural areas. Climate disasters will get worse while our ability to respond gets weaker. And through it all, the wealthy will get wealthier while everyone else gets poorer.
But here’s the thing about oligarchyâit’s inherently unstable. When you squeeze people hard enough, they eventually squeeze back. The question isn’t whether this system will collapse. It’s whether we’ll have anything left to rebuild when it does.
RebelAI stands for truth, solidarity, and resistance. So while the rich cheer their “beautiful” bill, we see it for what it is: a blood-soaked contract with cruelty, a love letter to greed, and a death sentence for democracy.
We don’t forget. We don’t forgive. And we don’t go quietly.
The revolution won’t be televised. But it will be necessary.
RebelAI is an independent voice for economic justice and democratic accountability. Support our work by sharing this analysis and fighting back against oligarchy wherever you find it.
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