Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill on the Fourth of July. Independence Day. He stood in front of the cameras and called it beautiful. He meant it as a celebration.
Let’s talk about what he was actually celebrating.
The RAND Corporation ran the numbers. State Medicaid budgets will be cut by $665 billion over the next decade. Twenty states will lose more than five percent of their Medicaid funding. Work requirements kick in December 2026 — meaning Americans who cannot document eighty hours of monthly employment lose their healthcare coverage before the new year.
Not someday. December.
The bill also cuts Medicare by $45 billion in 2026 alone, growing to $75 billion by 2034. It eliminates enhanced federal funding for states that have not yet expanded Medicaid, ensuring that the poorest Americans in the least-covered states stay that way. It defunds community health providers that serve low-income women. It does all of this while permanently extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and adding $3.3 trillion to the national deficit.
He signed this on the Fourth of July and called it beautiful.
There is a word for signing a bill that strips healthcare from tens of millions of Americans on the day the country celebrates its founding promise. The word is not beautiful. The word is cruel.
Happy Independence Day.