logo
Key provisions in Donald Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'

Key provisions in Donald Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'

RTÉ News​2 days ago
US Republicans have passed a major legislative package, dubbed the "One Big Beautiful Bill," giving President Donald Trump the biggest legislative victory of his second term.
After weeks of closed-door negotiations over the sprawling text and several day-and-night debates, the House of Representatives narrowly approved a final version of the bill.
Mr Trump is set to sign the bill into law today, Independence Day.
Here are some key provisions in the 869-page text:
Taxes
Income tax cuts passed under Mr Trump's first term become permanent
Creates new tax deductions for tips and overtime pay - a major Trump campaign pledge - but only through 2028
Allows businesses to immediately deduct research and development expenses
Temporarily quadruples a tax deduction for state and local taxes (SALT)
Immigration crackdown
$46.5 billion (€39.5b) for border infrastructure, including wall construction
$45 billion to create an additional migrant detention facilities with 100,000 beds
New funds to hire 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers
Creates new fines for asylum seekers and migrants caught trying to illegally enter the country
Clean energy cuts
Rolls back clean energy tax credits from former president Joe Biden's own marquee spending bill, the Inflation Reduction Act
Phases out federal subsidies for new wind and solar energy projects if they do not enter service before 2028 or if construction begins more than one year after the bill's enactment
Ends a $7,500 tax credit for EV purchases after September 30, 2025 -- drawing particular ire from Trump's former top ally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Creates a tax credit for producing metallurgical coal, used largely in steel production
Debt Limit
Increases nation's borrowing limit by $5 trillion
Creates new restrictions on welfare for the poor and disabled, particularly the Medicaid health insurance program and SNAP food assistance program
Requires able-bodied individuals under age 65 and without young children to work at least 80 hours per month to receive Medicaid or SNAP
Creates $50 billion, five-year fund to support rural hospitals to partially offset larger cuts
Women's health
Blocks federal funding for one year to Planned Parenthood, a nationwide women's health organisation often targeted by Republicans over its abortion services.
Other provisions
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Maureen Dowd: talking past our Foundering Father
Maureen Dowd: talking past our Foundering Father

Irish Times

time33 minutes ago

  • Irish Times

Maureen Dowd: talking past our Foundering Father

I called my brother, Kevin, to ask if he would spend Independence Day with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and me . Monticello has a new tour focusing on the fond and fractious relationship of Jefferson and Adams, which culminated in an exchange of 158 letters in their last 14 years of life. Historian David McCullough deemed this attempt of the fiery Bostonian and reticent Virginian to overcome their political feuds and understand each other 'one of the most extraordinary correspondences in American history'. My favourite anecdote about Adams and Jefferson, who loved Shakespeare and used the Bard's psychological insights as inspiration when they conjured the country, concerned their visit to Shakespeare's house in Stratford-upon-Avon. As Abigail Adams recalled, her husband cut a relic from Shakespeare's chair, while Jefferson 'fell upon the ground and kissed it'. READ MORE [ Musk announces forming of 'America Party' in further break from Trump Opens in new window ] Our family trip to Monticello on Wednesday was suggested by Jane Kamensky, a very cool historian of the American Revolution and the president and chief executive of Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. She thought that my Trump-supporting brother and I might appreciate the new tour, 'Founding Friends, Founding Foes,' as inspiration for 'a thoughtful dialogue across the divide'. Kevin laughed when I told him about the invitation. 'I'm amused,' he said, 'that we are the example of modern-day comity and civility.' Americans are at one another's throats, living in a world of insults, coarseness and cruelty – a world where Donald Trump and JD Vance excel. At Monticello, we talked to Ken Burns, who was giving a preview of his upcoming PBS documentary on the American Revolution. He is finishing it in the nick of time, given Trump's attempts to slash PBS' federal funding. 'The Revolution – no pictures, no newsreels, and more violent than we could possibly imagine,' the film-maker told us. 'The Revolution was not just a quarrel between Englishmen over Indian land and taxes and representation, but a bloody struggle that would involve more than two dozen nations, Europeans as well as Native Americans, that also somehow came to be about the noblest aspirations of humankind.' A year from now is the 250th birthday party for the country. In retrospect, the odds seem impossible. When the patriot militias engaged at sunrise at Lexington Green in April 1775, Burns noted, 'the chances of the success of the operation were zero.' Then, somehow, eight years later, 'we created something new in the world. We were the original anti-colonial movement. We turned the world upside down'. Adams and Jefferson constantly talked about virtue and what virtues would help mold our antimonarchical society. Trump, who plays at being a king, is not interested in virtue; only in humiliation, conflict, enrichment and revenge. (The popular president of the University of Virginia, the school here founded by Jefferson, just announced that he would resign because of Trump's anti-diversity, equity and inclusion pressure campaign.) As Trump rammed through his horrible bill, a humongous wealth transfer, he scoffed at those who suggested there was no virtue in hurting the most vulnerable to make the obscenely rich richer. He keeps insisting that no one will lose Medicaid benefits, but Republicans are cutting more than $1 trillion from the programme, so a lot of people are going to suffer. The Declaration of Independence aspired to equality, while Trump's bill deepens our inequality. He wanted it rushed through for a flashy July 4th ceremony so he could sign this dreckitude on the same day that our soaring origin statement was adopted. He timed it for maximum drama at 5pm, with military planes flying over the White House. I asked Burns if it was possible now to persuade anyone across the aisle of anything, or is everyone just howling into the storm? 'The best arguments in the world won't change a single person's point of view,' he said. 'The only thing that can do that is a good story. Good stories are a kind of benevolent Trojan horse. You let them in, and they add complication, allowing you to understand that sometimes a thing and its opposite are true at the same time.' Reading the Adams-Jefferson letters, I felt that these founders were able to resurrect their relationship the same way I'm able to preserve mine with my siblings. We approach politics carefully, without venom or overblown expectations of changing one another's minds. We look for slivers of common ground: None of us thought Joe Biden should cling to office when he was clearly declining, and none of us like it when Trump belittles people or cashes in with cheesy products like his new $249 perfume, 'Victory 45-47'. We talk about other things, movies and sports, just as Jefferson and Adams discussed wine, books and ancient Greek philosophers, with Jefferson sometimes throwing in Greek phrases. 'Lord! Lord!' Adams exclaimed with exasperation. 'What can I do, with So much Greek?' Burns said that his half-century of making documentaries about America's wars and pastimes has taught him to embrace contradictions. 'The binaries that we set up are the biggest trap, whether they come from the left or the right,' he said. 'When you see somebody making a 'them,' you have to be careful. That's antithetical to what the Declaration is saying. I hope that what we do on the Fourth of July is try to put the 'us' into the US.' – This article originally appeared in The New York Times

Elon Musk says he has created a new political party for the US
Elon Musk says he has created a new political party for the US

The Journal

timean hour ago

  • The Journal

Elon Musk says he has created a new political party for the US

ELON MUSK, AN ex-ally of US President Donald Trump, has said he has launched a new political party to challenge what the tech billionaire described as the US's 'one-party system.' The world's richest person – and Trump's biggest political donor in the 2024 election – had a bitter falling out with the president after leading the Republican's effort to slash spending and cut federal jobs as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has clashed with Trump over the president's massive domestic spending plan, saying it would explode the US debt, and vowed to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it. Now he has created the so-called America Party, on the back of a social media poll on the website he owns, through which to try and achieve that. 'When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,' the Space X and Tesla boss posted on X, the social media platform that he owns. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2025 Musk cited a poll — uploaded on Friday, US Independence Day — in which he asked whether respondents 'want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system' that has dominated US politics for some two centuries. The yes-or-no survey earned more than 1.2 million responses. 'By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!' he posted on Saturday. Musk also shared a meme depicting a two-headed snake and the caption 'End the Uniparty.' - 'Laser-focus' on vulnerable lawmakers - Advertisement It is not clear how much impact the new party would have on the 2026 mid-term elections, or on the presidential vote two years after that. The Trump-Musk feud reignited in dramatic fashion late last month as Trump pushed Republicans in Congress to ram through his massive domestic agenda in the form of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Musk expressed fierce opposition to the legislation, and ruthlessly attacked its Republican backers for supporting 'debt slavery.' He vowed to launch a new political party to challenge lawmakers who campaigned on reduced federal spending only to vote for the bill, which experts say will pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the US deficit. 'They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,' Musk said earlier this week. After Musk heavily criticized the flagship spending bill — which eventually passed Congress and was signed into law — Trump threatened to deport the tech tycoon and strip federal funds from his businesses. 'We'll have to take a look,' the president told reporters when asked if he would consider deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa and has held US citizenship since 2002. On Friday after posting the poll, Musk laid out a possible political battle plan to pick off vulnerable House and Senate seats and become 'the deciding vote' on key legislation. 'One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,' Musk posted on X. All 435 US House seats are up for grabs every two years, while about one third of the Senate's 100 members, who serve six-year terms, are elected every two years. Some observers were quick to point out how third-party campaigns have historically split the vote — as businessman Ross Perot's independent presidential run in 1992 did when it helped doom George H.W. Bush's re-election bid resulting in Democrat Bill Clinton's victory. 'You are pulling a Ross Perot, and I don't like it,' one X user wrote to Musk. With reporting by © AFP 2023 Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal

CNN stops show for 'breaking news' Trump announcement as viewers blast coverage
CNN stops show for 'breaking news' Trump announcement as viewers blast coverage

Irish Daily Star

timean hour ago

  • Irish Daily Star

CNN stops show for 'breaking news' Trump announcement as viewers blast coverage

US President Donald Trump has been "vindicated" following a CNN breaking news report on the economy after his announcement of tariffs. The network interrupted its programming for a report that highlighted the US economy's addition of 147,000 jobs in June and a drop in unemployment rates to 4.1%. Trump declared new tariffs will be imposed on "10 ot 12" nations , stating: "They'll range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs, but they're going to be starting to go out sometime tomorrow." He elaborated: "We've done the final form, and it's basically going to explain what the countries are going to be paying in tariffs." Read More Related Articles Ivanka Trump's 13-year-old daughter towers over family in glam snap ahead of Bezos wedding Read More Related Articles Patricia Arquette says US isn't 'safe for tourists' and calls to cancel the Olympics During the segment, presenter John Berman discussed the economic implications with financial expert Rana Foroohar, who serves as a Global Business Columnist and editor for the Financial Times. CNN issued a breaking news announcement on the US economy (Image: CNN) Berman remarked, "And again since March and before, there were predictions that the tariffs and tariffs policy was going to lead to inflation and job losses, and there was a prediction of doom, and that just hasn't happened yet." Foroohar responded, "It hasn't happened yet, and I have been doing a lot of reporting on this topic a nd what I'm hearing is that last few years really since Covid and even before, is companies have realised that your supply chains can be interrupted for lots of reasons and so they've been using technology to really streamline things, there are systems in place and there is a lot more efficiency in the system now. This is a triumph of business, "That said, when we think about who will do well during this period, it will be big businesses, with smaller businesses likely to struggle to cope with the new tariffs. For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here . "That concerns me, because small and mid-size businesses are what fuels a lot of communities around the country, if you see them going under because they can't take the tariff pressure, that could have some job impact, so again, optimistic right now but maybe some issues on the horizon," she concluded. The clip quickly made waves on social media, with one X user commenting, "CNN reports that President Trump's tariffs haven't tanked the economy, they've done the opposite. Trump is vindicated yet again." Another chimed in, "CNN, trying their hardest to make good news sound bad." A third remarked: "Yet she couldn't get herself to applaud DJT." A fourth expressed frustration, "These idiots still don't understand that tariffs are a negotiating tool. They think he's caved by lowering them when in fact he starts out with the highest knowing they will be lowered in negotiations. Are they this dense?". While a fifth pointed out, "Every negative angle they could dream of was spliced into that. Loved the lie about 'this is years of great jobs reports now' at the end - did I imagine that? Do they not realize that all Biden's jobs reports were fabricated & later discredited?" For all the latest news straight to your inbox, sign up for our FREE newsletters here .

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store