Republicans Jam the Middle Class with the Most Fiscally Irresponsible Bill in American History

2025 Republican Budget at a Glance

• $7 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts: $5.5 trillion that Republicans fraudulently claim are free, plus another $1.5 trillion in additional revenue losses
• $880 billion in cuts that will decimate Medicaid
• $230 billion in cuts that threaten food assistance
• $5 trillion debt limit increase (Senate instruction)
• More than $14 trillion in new debt over the decade 

The budget is full of tax giveaways to those who need them least, harsh cuts to programs Americans depend on the most, and a recipe for economic damage. It paves the way for a permanent, deficit busting expansion of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Estimates suggest that fully extending those provisions will increase inflation, such that over five years household purchasing power falls by $300-$1,250 per household. This is on top of the Administration’s costly tariff plans, which will increase prices by 2.3 percent in the short run, leading to an average loss per consumer of $3,800.  

Furthermore, permanent extension of these tax cuts would cause GDP to fall by 0.3-0.5 percent over a decade, and wages and capital formation to decline between 0.6-0.7 percent. CBO finds that making the tax cuts permanent will increase debt held by the public as a share of GDP by 47 percentage points more than if the law were allowed to expire, reaching 214 percent of GDP by 2054. If interest rates are 1 percentage point higher than predicted, debt held by the public would exceed 250 percent of GDP by 2054. 

The budget includes reconciliation instructions to eleven House and ten Senate Committees:

Driving Up Your Cost of Living... 

Committees are charged with writing their policies to achieve Republicans’ goals by May 9. The instructions do not give details about how committees meet their targets, but Republicans long ago leaked their menu of options. For the following committees this includes: 

• Energy and Commerce — at least $880 billion in cuts absolutely means slashing Medicaid. As CBO confirmed in a letter to Ranking Member Boyle, the Republican budget would result in the largest Medicaid cuts in American history. States would face severe funding shortfalls. Millions of people would lose coverage entirely, while many who remain covered would see reduced benefits and fewer available providers. Seniors, children, people with disabilities, and working families would bear the brunt of these devastating cuts.
• Education and Workforce — at least $330 billion in cuts will target student loan programs, income driven repayment, Pell grants, and school meals.
• Agriculture — at least $230 billion in cuts threatens nutrition assistance during a period of fast-rising food prices.
• Oversight — at least $50 billion in cuts will endanger government employee retirement benefits and exacerbate the misguided DOGE changes to federal workforce.
• Transportation and Infrastructure — at least $10 billion in cuts claws back investments made under the bipartisan infrastructure law, restricts Essential Air Service, increases the “tonnage tax” on cargo, and raids the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
• Financial Services — at least $1 billion in cuts jeopardizes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and funding for financial regulators.
• Natural Resources — at least $1 billion in cuts expands oil and gas leasing and repeals clean energy investments made in the Inflation Reduction Act.

...To Further Enrich Billionaires 

The reconciliation instructions include $4.5 trillion for Ways and Means to increase the deficit.  

• The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that permanently extending TCJA will cost $5.5 trillion (including net interest costs) over the decade.
• The Treasury Department found that the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts would give an average annual tax cut of $32,118 for those in the top 1 percent (family income over approximately $750,000 a year) and an average annual tax cut of $314,266 for those in the top 0.1 percent (making more than $3.5 million a year). Meanwhile, working families will only get a few hundred dollars in tax cuts a year.
• Nearly half the net benefit of extending the law would go to the top 5 percent of households, or those making more than $450,000 a year.
• Senate Republicans make room for the additional Trump demands by using a “current policy” gimmick that pretends the extension of TCJA costs $0 and includes $1.5 trillion for the Finance Committee to deliver additional tax cuts.  
• Additional tax policies President Trump has called for, including no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security and increasing or lifting the State and Local Tax Deduction cap could cost, at minimum, an additional $1.1 trillion.

Local Impacts: Localize the impacts of the House Republican budget using the House Budget Committee’s microsite, which contains important information about health care and food assistance specific to your district: https://democrats-budget.house.gov/legislation/republican-rip-off