Tax Cuts for Billionaires LOOM

Donald Trump wants to make billionaires like Elon Musk even richer, and he plans to decimate lifesaving programs to do it.

It’s an extremely unpopular idea, even among Trump’s own voters, but the GOP plans to use a familiar legislative trick (the process called reconciliation) to get it done.

This morning, congressional Republicans completed the first hurdle in this process: getting the House and Senate to agree on a very loose framework for the final bill. They plan to cut $1.5 trillion in unnamed spending -- a number only achievable by slashing Medicaid, SNAP, and more -- and give the richest Americans $5 trillion in tax breaks.

A refresher on reconciliation

Budget Reconciliation is a Senate maneuver allowing some bills -- namely those related to spending -- to pass with just 51 votes, instead of the 60 normally needed to bypass the filibuster. Put simply, it lets the party in power push bills through the Senate without any bipartisan support. (There’s a full explainer here if you want a deep-dive.)

You may remember Republicans using reconciliation to cram Trump’s billionaire tax cuts down our throats during his first term -- or to try repealing the Affordable Care Act in 2017. (We stopped them.)

This time around, Republicans are using reconciliation to slash Medicaid and give more tax cuts to billionaires like Elon Musk. They’re early in the process right now -- fighting among themselves over how many trillions to cut -- but we know one of the most destructive, partisan bills in American history is coming. And we need to be ready.

What does that mean for everyday Americans like us?

❌	Millions of Americans could lose their healthcare or face medical debt when Medicaid is slashed by hundreds of billions of dollars.
❌	Hospitals and healthcare facilities could close, particularly in rural areas, as federal funding drops sharply and fewer Medicaid patients can afford their services.
❌	Tens of thousands of kids could go hungry due to planned cuts to SNAP and other nutritional assistance programs that help families keep food on the table.
❌	Billionaires like Elon Musk will gain even more power as their massive slice of the pie gets even bigger -- leaving them extra billions to spend on lobbying, political donations, and, in Musk’s case, even shadier behavior.