The Big Beautiful Bill is currently in the Senate, where it faces some opposition, at least in the form in which it passed the House last month.

Let’s take a closer look at what is actually in the legislation.

Tax Provisions 

According to the Tax Foundation, the centerpiece of the Big Beautiful Bill is making many of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reforms permanent.

That bill lowered rates for most taxpayers. One provision that was particularly helpful for working Americans was increasing the standard deduction from $6,500 for single filers to $12,000, meaning income earned to that amount was federal income tax free.

It also increased the maximum child tax credit from $1,000 to up to $2,000, based on income level.

????CORRECTING THE RECORD????

Democrats erroneously claim The One, Big, Beautiful Bill is all about tax cuts for the wealthy. This claim is FALSE.

The One, Big, Beautiful Bill cuts taxes for working-class families that need it the most.

→ In addition to stopping a $1,700 tax… pic.twitter.com/V6QOpuolVA

— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) June 13, 2025

The Big Beautiful Bill builds on the TCJA by making the higher standard deduction permanent, and temporarily boosts it by $1,000 for single filers from 2025 to 2028.

The bill also makes the child tax credit permanent and temporarily increases the maximum that can be taken from $2,000 to $2,500 for the same years listed above.

The BBB also increases the standard deduction for seniors by $4,000, meaning most of the Social Security income an average taxpayer receives will be federal income tax free, again for the years 2025 to 2028.

All of these provisions are limited in time to keep the overall cost of the bill down over the 10 years in which it is scored by the Congressional Budget Office for budget reconciliation purposes.

The bill also includes no tax on tips and no tax on overtime pay, both during the four-year period.

The BBB includes immediate expensing for research and development costs of U.S.-based companies and 100 percent expensing for manufacturing facility construction. This provision is designed to encourage companies to manufacture their products in the country.

Medicaid Reform 

The BBB takes Medicaid eligibility back to pre-COVID standards, Just the News reported.

It also imposes a work requirement for able-bodied people who received Medicaid benefits starting next year.

“According to the Congressional Budget Office, the changes will save hundreds of billions of dollars and make at least 7.7 million current Medicaid recipients – including 1.4 million people without verified citizenship status – ineligible for Medicaid coverage by 2034,” according to Just the News.

Border Security 

The BBB provides funding to finish Trump’s border wall, according to the White House, with over 700 miles of new primary wall.

It also provides funding to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, 5,000 customs officers, and 3,000 Border Patrol agents.

Further, it increases detention capacity to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 people.

Biden Green Programs Rescinded 

The BBB repeals several green subsidies found in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The credits go to Americans purchasing electric vehicles and companies producing green energy products.

???? BREAKING: President Trump on Elon Musk:

“Elon is upset because we took the EV mandate which was a lot of money for electric vehicles. They’re having a hard time the electric vehicles, and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy. Elon knew this from the beginning.” pic.twitter.com/VwB7bSapXe

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) June 5, 2025

“Four tax credits related to alternative fuel vehicles, three credits related to home energy efficiency or ‘clean’ energy sourcing, and the clean hydrogen production credit will end by 2026,” according to Just the News.

Cost of the Bill 

The CBO estimated that the BBB will result in $2.4 trillion more in deficit spending, plus an additional $551 billion in interest paid on the national debt over the next decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

However, Trump pointed out that the CBO, which he said is “run by Democrats,” also calculated that his tariffs will reduce deficit spending by $2.8 trillion over the next decade.

The president asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to elaborate on the issue.

“We keep hearing from the CBO that there’s going to be a large deficit from the bill, which we disagree with, but using the CBO scoring, they came out and scored the tariff revenue, we think it will be a minimum of $2.8 trillion over the 10-year window, which actually puts the bill in surplus, if you include the tariff revenue, which they won’t do,” Bessent said.

.@SecScottBessent: “[The CBO] came out and scored the tariff revenue, we think it will be the minimum of $2.8T over the 10-year window, which actually puts the bill in surplus if you include the tariff revenue — which they won’t do.” pic.twitter.com/SxOSsk5kLf

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 5, 2025

Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in a post on X last month that the BBB includes $1.6 trillion in savings over 10 years.

Critics have attacked the House’s One Big Beautiful reconciliation bill on fiscal grounds, but I think they are profoundly wrong. It is truly historic. As a nation, we have had no spending cut victories of any consequence in nearly thirty years. In 1997, the Balanced Budget…

— Russ Vought (@russvought) May 16, 2025

The administration has also been quick to point out that the CBO miscalculated the impact of the TCJA because it did not adequately factor in the impact of economic growth, spurred by tax cuts, on total revenue. In other words, the BBB will likely not be as expensive as the CBO says.

In 2017, before the TCJA’s passage, total revenue was $3.3 trillion. Last year, with the tax cuts largely in place, revenue was $4.9 trillion. This is not surprising because the Gross Domestic Product grew from $19.6 trillion in 2017 to $29.1 trillion in 2024.

Vought concluded, “The House’s One Big Beautiful Bill deserves passage for many reasons… tax cuts, border security funding, eliminating the Green New Deal, work requirements to end dependency… but it should not be lost on anyone, the degree to which it ends decades of fiscal futility and gets us winning again.”

The Senate is expected to pass its version of the BBB by July 4. The two versions will then have to be reconciled before final passage and being signed into law by Trump.

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