Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is making its way through Congress. What sounds like it was pulled from a kindergarten politics workshop might just mark the return of the United States as the true "Land of the Free."
A confession up front: I’m a traditionalist and I am German. I value the professional dullness that used to define politics. I’ve always been bothered by politicians who, after pushing a bill through, give it names that sound like bedtime stories: “Good Daycare Law,” or “Good Workplace Safety Act.” This infantilism defies satire. It feels like mocking children.
All that remains is a bad taste and the quiet question of how our tax dollars are being used. Still, there’s no need to return to the Prussian tradition of bureaucratic word monsters like “Beef Labeling Supervision Task Transfer Law” or the even more arcane “Ordinance on the Transfer of Authority for Real Estate Transaction Approvals.” (Please imagine these names in German as a single word each...) These name-beasts offer a glimpse into the abyss of German bureaucracy. Perhaps it’s time for a pragmatic solution: number laws. At least then, some arithmetical dignity would remain when their content amounts to little more than waving red cards at the sovereign citizen.
Is Trump Imitating the Greens?
That Trump himself has fallen into this juvenile naming habit isn’t new -- but in the case of this bill, it’s particularly odd. Translated freely into German, the bill might be called “Das Eine Große Wunderschöne Gesetz.” It sounds less like MAGA and more like a brainstorming session of the Green Party’s Ecology and Economy Working Group. You half expect to bounce on a trampoline with a former foreign minister.
Still, I’m willing to forgive the President for this spin-cycle of emotions. Because once the dizziness clears, one thing becomes apparent: behind the burlesque sound of the bill’s name lies a paradigm shift. We may be witnessing a fundamental realignment of power between citizen and state -- in America, that is. In Europe, the spirit of Brussels-style neo-feudalism still reigns supreme.
The proposed tax cuts -- especially the slashing of corporate taxes to 15% and the rejection of the global minimum tax -- should bring a smile to the face of any liberty-minded observer. These measures, amidst growing capital flight, exert tremendous pressure on the statists in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris. And let’s remember the golden rule: every tax cut is a good tax cut. In that spirit, drawing a hard line against fiscal plundering and combining it with spending cuts is the way forward -- toward a society of sovereign, self-reliant individuals.
Taking Aim at the Establishment
Much is at stake for Trump as the bill teeters before final negotiations in Congress. Even in the House, some Republicans opposed it -- perhaps sensing trouble for political dynasties, NGO funding, and other establishment mainstays cloaked under the guise of tax relief. Once taxpayers are on board, the administration will have a much easier time using the next budget crisis to justify sweeping cuts. DOGE has already identified the rot -- next time, the axe will fall.
Trump’s tax reform isn’t just a technical adjustment -- it’s a bold reset of incentives. It aims to make work and risk worthwhile again, and to draw a visible boundary around the reach of the bureaucratic state. Creativity, enterprise, and ambition should bear fruit without tax collectors lurking behind every door. Trump wants to end the roadside robbery by the insatiable hyper-state. He also intends to solidify the tax cuts from his first term and significantly raise the child tax credit.
Increasing the exemptions on inheritance and gift taxes is a powerful signal to liberty advocates: governments that grab at already-taxed family wealth are behaving unethically, undermining the generational contract that binds families into resilient units of sovereign citizenship. Capital formation must happen in the family sphere if it’s to translate into prosperity and genuine social good.
The Minimal State as Ideal
Americans once understood this. Until the great turning point of 1913, the U.S. trusted its instinct for freedom. The state was held in check (income taxes were banned), and the sanctity of private life was preserved. Then came President Woodrow Wilson. Riding the panic of 1907, he introduced a progressive income tax and laid the groundwork for the vast social state Franklin D. Roosevelt would complete. It was also the year the Federal Reserve was born. In short: the Europeanization of America began.
Today, fiscal convergence is measurable. The U.S. government’s spending now accounts for about 38% of GDP, and the average tax burden for a median earner hovers around 30% -- approaching European levels. In terms of sovereign debt, the convergence is complete: from the French Riviera to California’s Big Sur, a seamless coastline is forming right before a tsunami of debt.
Throttle Reversal in the State Engine
Trump’s “Beautiful Bill” isn’t just about tweaking the tax code. It’s a dramatic attempt to reverse the creeping Europeanization of the U.S. -- to push back against the expanding influence of NGOs, the ballooning power of government agencies, and the interventionist spirit of the Green New Deal. Trump’s fraught relationship with the European Union begins to make sense when you see the deeper fault line: between European centralism on the one side, and America’s rekindled belief in free markets, limited government, and individual responsibility on the other.
Let’s ignore the bill’s awkward name and focus on its structural impact. If the administration manages to pass the bill intact in the coming weeks, it will represent a thrust reversal in the turbine of the state -- a machine that’s been climbing toward dangerous altitude for decades. Suddenly, the private sector would gain access to 2% of GDP -- about $500 billion.
Should parts of this capital, unleashed from bureaucracy, merge with the steady inflow of foreign investment, Trump’s tax cut could ignite a boom in the still relatively open, competitive U.S. economy. To central planners, EU officials, and interventionists like Friedrich Merz, such thinking is heresy. Their worldview is steeped in a paternalistic state ideology that sees Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” as a mistake -- and the hyper-regulating state as the summit of civilization.
Trump counters this with a kind of street-level Hayekianism. That he does so in the dialect of red-green infantile Hegelians is unfortunate -- but it should not distract from the depth and significance of what’s at stake.
Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.
Image: AT via Magic Studio