Rep. Summer Lee: One Big Beautiful Bill will harm many

On the Fourth of July, President Trump signed into law one of the most harmful bills in modern history. This legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), makes the biggest cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ever, guts clean energy tax credits and investments, threatens hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide, and enables the largest transfer of wealth from working families to the rich. And yet, the president and congressional Republicans are working overtime to spin this law as a victory for working families.

Rep. Mike Kelly, in his op-ed “One Big Beautiful Bill a gamechanger for Western Pa.” (July 5, TribLive), claims this legislation “prevents the largest tax hike in modern American history” and will provide “historic investments in Western Pennsylvania” and across the country. At best, these statements are misleading; at worst, they are outright lies. I’d like to correct the record.

When Republicans boast that this bill “prevents the largest tax hike in modern American history,” they’re taking credit for averting a crisis they created themselves. In 2017, when Republicans passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), they made a deliberate choice: permanent tax cuts for corporations, temporary cuts for individuals and families. This budgetary gimmick was designed to hide the full cost of their corporate giveaway, which, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), added nearly $2 trillion to the federal deficit. With the passage of the OBBB, Republicans are once again blowing up the deficit to bankroll tax breaks for the wealthy, adding another $3.4 trillion by the end of the decade per CBO estimates.

And still, Kelly claims the “OBBBA builds upon the success of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” Success for whom? Republicans promised the TCJA would spark job growth and economic prosperity for working families, but the evidence tells a different story entirely.

In 2019, a national survey of business economists found that 84% of companies didn’t increase hiring or raise pay as a result of the tax cuts, and an analysis conducted by the Joint Committee on Taxation in 2024 confirmed that 90% of workers saw no wage gains at all. Instead of investing in their workforce, corporations rewarded shareholders and boosted CEO bonuses, spending a record $560 billion on stock buybacks in 2018 alone.

Several independent reports have shown that the tax cuts in the TCJA were heavily skewed to benefit the wealthy, with the top earners receiving an average cut of $60,000, while most working families saw less than $500. The OBBB continues that trend with analyses showing that the top 1% of earners will receive tax breaks more than triple the value of the cuts provided to the bottom 60% of earners.

The OBBB doubles down on the failures of the TJCA, gutting billions from the essential programs and services families rely on so the wealthy can pocket another tax break they don’t need while working people are left struggling to cover groceries, rent and child care.

Republicans know exactly how indefensible this is, which why they are lying about what this bill really does. They cherry-pick numbers to deliberately mislead the public about who the OBBB is actually intended to benefit. For example, Kelly said the OBBB will provide a $1,228 annual tax cut for a family of four in his 16th District but conveniently omitted that the top 1% of households in Pennsylvania will receive an average cut of $66,360, more than 50 times what a median-income family will get.

He also emphasized that the OBBB would preserve 12,000 local manufacturing jobs but failed to mention the devastating economic consequences caused by repealing clean energy and manufacturing tax credits. This recission repeal threatens over $3 billion in planned investment across more than 70 Pennsylvania projects, including in his district, and is expected to cost over 26,000 jobs by 2030. Even provisions in the bill labeled as support for small businesses, such as the expanded passthrough deduction, have been widely criticized by economists across the political spectrum as ineffective, regressive and designed to benefit wealthy business owners.

Republicans are also eager to highlight the “elimination” of taxes on tips in the OBBB, which seems like a win for workers on its face. However, most tipped workers already owe little or no federal income tax. Roughly 37% owe none at all. If Republicans were serious about helping tipped workers, they’d work to raise the minimum wage from Pennsylvania’s unconscionable $7.25 an hour and eliminate the tipped subminimum wage, policies that polling shows have overwhelming public support.

Nowhere is the disconnect between rhetoric and reality starker than in Republicans’ claims about “historic investments” in children. The Child Tax Credit in the OBBB is far less generous than the expanded version Democrats delivered in the American Rescue Plan, which lifted millions of children out of poverty. Furthermore, the creation of “Trump accounts” will do little to help low-income students attain higher education, as Republicans have simultaneously made college more unaffordable and inaccessible through their loan caps and restrictions on Pell Grants.

Worst of all, the OBBB makes the deepest cuts to SNAP and Medicaid in U.S. history — programs that serve hundreds of thousands of children in Pennsylvania. These cuts jeopardize school meals and access to health care, pushing more kids into poverty, not lifting them out.

The OBBB’s Medicaid cuts represent a historic assault on health care access that will devastate Pennsylvania communities. Let’s be clear: Medicaid isn’t a handout. It’s a lifeline. Medicaid means when your mom has cancer, she can get treatment. When your brother has an addiction, he can get help. When your neighbor’s child is sick, they can go to the doctor. It funds hospitals, supports caregivers and makes sure families can see a doctor when they need one.

Kelly’s “yes” vote on this bill means 310,000 Pennsylvanians are at risk of losing their health care — that includes the 18,498 people on Medicaid in his district. Relatedly, Kelly cites an article that claims the majority of Medicaid recipients are able-bodied adults that are not working, seeking employment or volunteering. This is false. Data show that most Medicaid recipients are in fact working. He also states that this bill will create “commonsense work requirements,” but these requirements have been tried and tested. They don’t increase employment; they kick people off coverage due to administrative burdens and errors.

If Republicans truly cared about the American people, they’d fight to make the wealthy pay their fair share, invest in clean energy jobs, raise wages and protect health care. Instead, they’ve just passed and signed into law a bill that will protect corporate profits at the expense of the American people — all while wrapping it up in a cheap bow and calling it “beautiful.” Pennsylvania families deserve better.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a Democrat, represents Pennsylvania’s 12th District.