5 FAQs on Donald Trump & Congressional Republican’s Budget and Tax Law

Republicans in Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law H.R. 1, one of their top domestic policy priorities: historic cuts to vital programs that women and families rely on, in order to provide trillions of dollars in new tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and unprecedented funding for mass immigration detention and enforcement.

Here is what you need to know about the new tax law.

1. What is in the new tax law?

This law prioritizes tax cuts that provide enormous benefits to the wealthiest individuals and big corporations. It permanently cuts the top income tax rate (paid by the top 5%); extends several expensive corporate tax breaks; provides an advantageous tax deduction for business owners, half of which goes to millionaires; and increases the amount of money that wealthy families can pass along tax-free to their heirs.

And what about women and families? The law makes historic cuts to programs that they rely on for the basics, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) and Medicaid.

The law imposes burdensome new requirements and restrictions on these two programs that will prevent millions of women, children, and families from receiving the food assistance and health care that they need. Moreover, the law allowed the enhanced Premium Tax Credits (PTCs), which help families with low and moderate incomes afford health care, to expire.

The law also defunds Planned Parenthood; greatly increases funding to detain and deport immigrants; and cuts billions in federal education assistance, which will make it even more expensive for students to attend college.

(These provisions will come into effect at different times, which you can read more about here.)

2. How will the new law impact me?

If you’re one of the more than 80 million parents, children, adults, and pregnant people who rely on your state’s Medicaid health insurance program for assistance, your health care coverage could be at risk.

New work reporting requirements will make it exponentially more difficult for people to retain their coverage – even though most Medicaid recipients who can work, do work – leading to about 10 million people (an eighth of enrollees) losing their coverage by 2034. That means people will have to pay more for health care, and many will do without.

For many older or disabled adults, Medicaid represents a lifeline that allows them to live at home while still receiving the care that they need. In fact, this program makes up a majority of funding for home and community-based care. These drastic cuts to Medicaid will mean that many families will no longer be able to afford in-home health care, which typically costs more than $6,000 a month – more than most people’s monthly income.

Furthermore, the law does not extend the enhanced PTCs, which will cause roughly another 4 million people to lose coverage.

If you have private insurance, you’ll be impacted too. Expect longer waits in the emergency rooms, fewer health care centers in your community, and higher premiums as more and more people become uninsured.

For families that rely on SNAP, the stricter work reporting requirements imposed by this law will force millions of families off the program. And for families who continue to receive SNAP benefits, their monthly allowance for groceries will no longer keep pace with inflation, meaning that they will be forced to pay more to put food on the table.

Once again, it’s not just people who rely on these basic need programs who will be harmed. The law cuts federal Medicaid and SNAP funding to states and shifts some costs onto states, and state governments likely won’t be able to make up the difference. This will lead to cuts to even more programs and services—in fact some hospitals and clinics are already closing in anticipation of cuts. So instead of making long-overdue investments that help women, families, and communities thrive, this bill will raise costs for everyone. Finally, the increased immigration enforcement prioritized by the law will inflict further harm on even more immigrant families and intensify workforce shortages in industries that rely on the work of immigrant women, including direct care services and child care.

3. How much will billionaires and big corporations benefit from this law?

Short answer: A LOT. While the bottom 10 percent of families will be worse off by $1,200 a year under this law (without even factoring in the effects of the Trump administration’s tariffs), the top ten percent will receive on average an additional $13,600 per year. The top .01% will receive—on average—an additional $83,095 in a single year. Overall, those in the top ten percent and billionaires will receive about 80 percent of the value of the law.

Despite Congressional Republican gimmicks to hide the true cost of the bill, the law’s final cost will be over $4 trillion – and its everyday families who will pay the price. Not only will they pay more for health care, food, and education, but the law will increase the national deficit by trillions of dollars, which will lead to higher interest rates for credit cards and home mortgages. The exorbitant cost of the bill will actually slow down long-term economic growth.

4. How did this terrible law get enacted, anyway?

This law is President’s Trump’s signature domestic policy agenda, which placed immense pressure on Congressional Republicans to pass the bill. After Republican leaders in Congress rigged an incredibly rushed legislative process—that included scheduling one congressional vote in the dead of night—the Republican-controlled Congress passed the law on July 3, 2025. Only Republican lawmakers voted for the law and many did so without even having read its full text. President Trump signed it into law on July

Congressional Republicans jammed this law through as fast as they could because they knew how harmful it will be for families. And the more people heard about what was actually in the law, the more deeply unpopular it became. Public polling shows—and continues to show—that most people opposed this law, understood that it overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest, and worried about the impact it will have on their families.

Members of Congress were inundated with calls from constituents pleading with them to vote against the bill in the weeks leading up to its passage. In fact, Republican Senator Murkowski encouraged her House colleagues not to vote for the bill because of its devasting Medicaid cuts—after she herself had voted for it.

This law prioritizes billionaires over the needs of families—and those who voted for it know that.

5. What can we do now?

Make sure that your friends and family know what is in this awful law — and how it might hurt them. By design, many of its most harmful measures, such as cuts to Medicaid, won’t take effect right away. That means there is still a chance to reduce the harm it will cause.

Congressional Democrats are already introducing legislation that would repeal some of the most harmful portions of the bill. And in the meantime, we can push for investments at the state level to help women and families, including expanding affordable child care.

If Congressional Republicans refuse to undo the harms in this bill, we must make it clear who is responsible and hold them accountable for failing their constituents.

Most importantly, we must keep fighting for a better future. One where public dollars are invested in women, families and communities – not stuffed into billionaires’ wallets.