The Republican Majority’s Plan to Enrich the Wealthy — At Your Expense

Nathan Kessler | June 5, 2025
After months of waiting, Republicans in the U.S. House have finally released the framework for their “big, beautiful bill,” and there is a lot to unpack.
Overall, the bill is largely an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) – the provisions of which are made permanent – with a few added bells and whistles. Many of the new provisions, particularly those targeted toward the working class, are temporary and will expire in 2028.
Even with several measures set to expire after just three years, the Republican tax plan comes with an astronomical $7.7 trillion price tag in its current form. To pay for some of this deficit-ballooning bill, Republicans have proposed enormous cuts to Medicaid and SNAP that come in the form of ineffective work reporting requirements and added red tape.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are many implications for everyday Kansans and the nation.
Permanent Cuts for Already Bloated Billionaires
By far the biggest piece of the Republican tax plan is a provision that makes the 2017 TCJA permanent. Originally set to expire at the end of this year, the TCJA is heavily skewed toward the very wealthy. Under the TCJA, households in the top 1% received an average tax cut greater than $60,000 while the bottom 60% saw an average decrease of around $450.
Another key feature of the TCJA was a doubling of the estate tax exemption from $7 million for single filers to $14 million. Rather than simply making that change permanent, the U.S. House proposal would increase it by $1 million to $15 million. That’s a $30 million exemption from estate taxes for a married couple filing jointly. Sec. 110006, (a)(1) As if that isn’t a large enough giveaway, this exemption will be indexed to inflation in future years; at current levels, this indexing will add more than $600,000 to the exemption for married couples in just the first year.
(Temporary) Money Back in Working Americans’ Pockets
While much of the current proposal favors the wealthy, there are some provisions that should offer some meager tax relief for working families. Unfortunately, unlike the estate tax exemption, these provisions will be temporary. One such measure that will impact most people is a small, temporary increase in the standard deduction.
The TCJA substantially increased the standard deduction for all filers and limited many of the itemized deductions available, resulting in approximately 90% of taxpayers opting for this option in 2021 rather than choosing to itemize. The U.S. House proposal would raise the standard deduction by $1,000 for single filers ($2,000 if married filing jointly) and $1,500 for head of household filers, but only through 2028, after which more than 100 million taxpayers would see their tax liability increase as the standard deduction reverts back to current levels. Sec. 110002 (C)(i-ii)
Other temporary measures – each lasting through tax year 2028 – include the promised exemptions for tipped wages and overtime income, as well as an additional $4,000 deduction for American seniors. Sec. 110103 (A) These may be welcome provisions for millions of working-class taxpayers, but they all come with an expiration date while the benefits for wealthy taxpayers are made permanent.
Finally, the U.S. House proposal offers a temporary $500 increase in the Child Tax Credit (CTC), while making the current $2,000 maximum permanent Sec. 110004 (A-B), and a $1,000 deposit into a “Money Account for Growth and Advancement” for anybody who has a baby during President Trump’s second term in office. These new, tax-preferred accounts would allow families to contribute $5,000 per year that could be used by the child for certain expenses, such as higher education or buying a first home. Sec. 110115-110116)
As much as we support an increase to the CTC and the creation of a baby bonds program, the fact that they also come with an expiration date and unreasonable eligibility requirements (described below) that will take the CTC away from millions of American children is disheartening.
Paying for the Privileged
These massive tax giveaways – the permanent measures that will primarily benefit the very wealthy – come at a major cost to the federal government. At this time, the tax cuts will cost $7.7 trillion over 10 years. To partially pay for this massive reduction in revenue, the plan proposes $3.9 trillion in “offsets,” while leaving the remainder to be financed through adding $3.8 trillion to the U.S. deficit.
At the center of the nearly $4 trillion in offsets are changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid that would result in millions of people losing their benefits under the programs. Rather than outright removing people from the programs, the changes will focus on adding additional red tape to the programs that needlessly burden those that rely on them for food and health care.
Using more restrictive eligibility and certification criteria, as well as passing the buck to state governments, the current plan aims to find $1 trillion in savings from SNAP and Medicaid alone. Unfortunately, the real impact on the real people behind that dollar amount – the working poor, single parents, and part-time workers unable to work full time – does not seem to be a concern to many key decision makers.
One particularly cruel offset is a change to the CTC that will take the credit away from 4.5 million American children, including 42,000 in Kansas. Currently, families with children are eligible for the credit as long as the child has a Social Security Number (SSN), but under the Republican proposal, children whose parent(s) lack an SSN would become ineligible. Sec. 110004 (7)(A)(i-iii)
In practice, this means that a child born in the U.S. who has one or more parent with a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), regardless of immigration status, will no longer receive the credit. These senseless eligibility criteria will disproportionally impact Kansas by stripping more than 6% of children of their CTC eligibility – second only to Illinois in the Midwest Region.
Even with these cruel, draconian cuts to critical programs, there are still trillions of dollars in tax cuts that need to be paid for somehow. To close the gap slightly more, the U.S. House’s plan provides for the expiration of many of the provisions that could help everyday American families.
Notably, the bill sunsets the exemptions for tips and overtime wages, the larger standard deduction, and the $4,000 bonus deduction for Americans over 65 after 2028. On the flip side, though, tax cuts given to the ultra wealthy will be cemented into the tax code until Congress makes a concerted effort in the future to ensure these individuals pay their fair share like the majority of Americans.
A Better Bill
By working across the aisle and focusing on the needs of average Americans, Congress could craft a bill that prioritizes families and the working class. Just allowing the 2017 tax cuts to expire for those with incomes above $400,000 would save more than $2 trillion, while raising the corporate tax rate to 28% – still much lower than before the TCJA – would raise approximately $1 trillion over 10 years.
Right now, Congress is clearly showing their priorities of funneling taxpayer dollars from the bottom 95% of earners toward the likes of Elon Musk.
The cost savings from these two actions alone would amount to more than $3 trillion, which could be used to target tax cuts toward those who need them most.
Specifically, the money saved by making sure the wealthy pay their fair share could be used to substantially expand the CTC and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). These credits lift millions of families out of poverty each year, and most of the money goes right back into the communities they live in.
Wealth trickles up – not down – so the focus of any tax bill should be on putting money back in the pockets of people that need it most. If we take a bottom-up approach to the economy, sustainable shared prosperity will be the result.
Overall, the insidious program cuts being proposed to help pay for the giveaways to the wealthy mean that this bill will leave millions of people worse off even with the measures perceived as being good for everyday American families. Whatever tax plan Congress pushes through for President Trump to sign, it will take a future set of fiscally strong and smart national lawmakers to put the country on a better path of prosperity for every American.
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