Reaganomics revived in Trump's "big, beautiful bill," if approved by House
"Not with bigger government. It takes better government. That’s what we owe ourselves and our children."
[Ronald Reagan] If we’re going to stop inflation, we must do it now. Not with bigger government. It takes better government. That’s what we owe ourselves and our children. That’s why I’m running for President.
[narrator] Only one man has the proven experience we need. Ronald Reagan for President. Let’s make America great again.
The official Reagan library describes their namesake as the first true conservative president in more than 50 years, implying no truly conservative president has sat in the Oval Office since before Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Entering office in 1981, the Reagan administration addressed double-digit inflation by reducing taxes in an effort to spur private enterprise. Reagan “vowed to protect certain entitlement programs (like Medicare and Social Security) while cutting the budgets for other social programs by targeting waste, fraud and abuse.” Despite the administration successfully reducing inflation, Reagan also oversaw double-digit unemployment, a significant recession and an ever growing national debt. Moreover, the record annual “budget deficit was exacerbated by a trade deficit. Americans continued to buy more foreign-made goods than they were selling.”
In the midst of an ongoing trade war and consumer inflation, House Republicans are scrambling to pass the Senate’s version of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” by July 4th. With a slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives (220-212), the President is calling some members and inviting others to the White House to get the bill over the finish line by Trump’s self-imposed deadline.
The bill channels “voodoo economics” by adding a projected $3.3 trillion to the deficit and cutting health insurance for nearly 12 million Americans over the next 10 years. If passed, Trump will undoubtedly tout $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, an extra $350 billion in border and national security and $25 billion to build a Golden Dome missile defense system. He most certainly will obfuscate and misrepresent work requirements for Medicaid recipients, curtailed health services in rural districts, higher premiums for those insured by the Affordable Care Act Marketplace and increased out-of-pocket medical expenses for any Medicaid recipient earning above the official federal poverty level ($15,650 for an individual in 2025). And Trump will likely not even mention that already 26 million Americans are without health insurance and that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that number will rise to more than 1 out of 10 Americans by 2034. (*The U.S. Census Bureau projects US population to be 373.5 million by 2040)
Just before the pandemic, an academic research cited medical costs led to nearly two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies in the United States. As of today, only one trade deal has been made with the United Kingdom and another announced with Vietnam. And due in no small part to the ongoing trade war, the U.S. dollar has declined in value plummeting to a 3 year-low, which could further lower American purchasing power.
The Senate narrowly passed Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” thanks to Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) “agonizing” decision to vote yes (while securing Alaska specific provisions) and Vice President JD Vance’s assured tie-breaking vote. And within hours (or days) Republican holdouts in the House will also likely “agonizingly” vote yes, resulting in a wider wealth gap, likely more household bankruptcies and possibly another recession.
Many want to believe that the Constitutional value of “promoting the general welfare” includes securing social services like Medicaid, food assistance programs, education and environmental protection. The “big, beautiful bill” will drastically cut federal funding to all of those initiatives while highly suspect trade revenues could imperil future generations with colossal debt.
In 1984, then President Reagan ran for reelection with an ad campaign claiming:
It's morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?
Reagan won that election in a landslide. Perhaps the definition of “promoting the general welfare” is a moving target?