Spreading diseases, Medicaid reductions, homelessness, 70,000 lost jobs, and the government shutting down, what should American citizens prepare for? On July 4, President Donald Trump signed and passed the Big Beautiful Bill, which was the “beginning” of the funding cuts the president introduced.
The Big Beautiful Bill brought both benefits and disadvantages for taxpayers. Science and healthcare programs have lost funding that protects Americans from health issues, like disease and deadly conditions. Without the high budgets, it also increases the risk of many lost lives around the country. Millions of low-income and disabled individuals rely on Medicaid. However, new work requirements, increased reenrollment each year, and a decrease in the provider tax from 6.5% to 3% by 2032 are now in effect. This causes a projection of large numbers of citizens losing their medical and health coverage. USAID, established in 1961, is now facing closure. The program was estimated to have saved over 90 million lives in the last 2 decades. PEPFAR is another widely known and helpful healthcare program. It is used to relieve citizens in over 50 countries around the world from HIV/AIDS. It has saved almost 25 million lives from this disease. It is projected that if these cuts to healthcare continue, by 2030, 14 million people could potentially lose their lives. Fortunately, many tax cuts helped individuals, too.
There has been a considerable boost in spending towards defense and border security. The U.S. military has a budget increase of $150 billion, and immigration enforcement has a new budget of $100 billion. The migrant detention capacity has doubled, and more enforcement officers have been hired, continuing to increase, due to these new budgets. These are only a few of the most notable funding cuts, and they have also affected individuals the most. Increasing funding towards defense, while already having a large budget, and taking money away from struggling groups, causes many problems. Nationwide, a sizable population of citizens could lose jobs and their lives because of the cuts. Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. rely on Medicaid and the USAID programs to help provide them with healthcare. Without this, there could be many possible deaths. Without funding for science and medicine, how will the American people be able to ensure they are safe from diseases and illnesses?
In addition to cuts coming from the Big Beautiful Bill, there are federal cuts to U.S. schools, including Cedar Rapids Community Schools. They have received a threat from the Trump Administration to withhold approximately $18 million from their funding due to their DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) program. In January, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate these groups around the country. The threat required the district to sever partnerships and discontinue promoting equality for students and staff of color to retain the funding. Ruth White, the founder of the academy, said, “What surprises me is that we were approved for the funding and then the funding was pulled.” Overall, they decided to “pause” their program that had anything to do with inclusion or diversity.
After nearly seven years, on Oct. 1, the U.S. government faced a crucial event: a shutdown. The Democratic and Republican parties could not agree on passing a bill regarding more funding cuts. Democrats opposed the cuts to Medicaid and other health programs, attempting to reverse the movement. A stop-gate bill was created, but it did not pass the Senate, leading to the event. Since then, all federal jobs within these services have remained on unpaid leave, about 40% of the workforce overall. It remains a mystery when the government will open back up, as it depends on a collective decision between the two parties. On Oct. 9, there was a hearing to potentially end the motion. However, unfortunately, no decision was made, as the country now rolls into the third week of the federal disruption. This could be the longest government shutdown in American history if no agreement is reached.
Overall, the funding cuts cause issues for many around the country, particularly lower-income citizens. Fortunately, some benefits come from the Big Beautiful Bill, like many tax cuts for citizens, but unfortunately, there are significant problems that come from the bill, too. The decrease in budget for science and medicine will lead to the death of those who rely on USAID or Medicaid. Schools in the U.S. may no longer allow any program relating to diversity or inclusion; otherwise, they won’t receive funding from the federal government. In reality, aren’t those factors more beneficial to have in the work or education system? There’s been a huge increase in funding for defense and border security for the U.S., but the country already has a big budget for those programs. It may be more effective to prioritize larger funding for other important programs, too.
