Asking the big questions about Washington and beyond – Prompt 2025 -The Washington Post

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Asking the big questions about Washington and beyond.

By Benjy Sarlin, Assignment Editor

On Monday, the Senate is voting on amendments to its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Leaders seem confident it will pass despite some expected “no” votes and arguments over last-minute changes. It’s a behemoth of a bill: headlined by an extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, steep cuts to health care coverage, and a potpourri of additional items that includes everything from a senior-citizen tax deduction to a new benefit for Alaskan whalers. Despite some popular provisions, the bill’s overall polling is poor; it has also drawn bipartisan criticism over budget gimmicks that downplay its cost.

I’m joined by my colleagues Ramesh Ponnuru and Catherine Rampell to discuss what’s going down on Capitol Hill.

— Benjy Sarlin, assignment editor
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Benjy Sarlin: What’s the one-paragraph summary you’d give to a voter trying to figure out what this bill means for them?

Ramesh Ponnuru: This bill extends the tax cuts that passed during Trump’s first term, so you will avoid a tax increase. It also makes some spending cuts, importantly including changes to Medicaid that will result in fewer people having health insurance coverage. And because the spending cuts are not nearly as large as the tax cuts, it widens an already large deficit with consequences that are unknown but seem unlikely to be happy.

Catherine Rampell: Less access to health care. Less access to food assistance. More expensive energy. Bigger debt, which you or your grandkids will eventually have to pay back.

Benjy: Let’s talk about the health care part. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) announced he was opposing the bill. Trump threatened him with a primary challenge, and now the senator is not running for reelection. Tillis gave a speech warning that Trump was betraying the Medicaid recipients he had promised not to harm. Is he right? And is this a bellwether for political problems to come in the midterms?

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