Wharton Sinkler: President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is a budget buster

To The Daily Sun,

The Big Beautiful Bill budget being worked on in Congress is anything but beautiful. It adds $3 trillion to our debt over a decade, as it cuts tax revenue we need to pay our obligations.

Is that something your family would do? And if it did, would the consequences by ugly? You bet.

Republicans talk a good game on fiscal responsibility when they’re out of power. But put them in control and they love to burn through money. There are crucial budgetary needs like paying for Medicare and Social Security safety nets. Given our commitments to seniors and others, we need to pay for them. Ditto for the military. While spending was cut in many areas under DOGE, those spending cuts were really small relative to the big entitlement programs, so the spending cuts, and others in the BBB, don’t come close to addressing the future shortfalls, without raising revenue.

Because of this, the BBB makes our budget deficits worse and worse, as far as the eye can see. This puts all Americans at risk. The only ones cheering are our international creditors, including China, who gain as interest rates on our debt rise in response to unsustainable deficits, and our budget gets drained for debt servicing (currently 14% of the budget, and rising).

Given our situation, Republicans in Congress should reconsider whether the wealthiest Americans need the big permanent tax cuts in this Budget Busting Bill. It’s even more outrageous since the BBB also cuts support for Medicaid, which will fall really heavily on struggling Granite Staters and rural health providers.

Genuine conservatism would call for dialing back the tax cuts in the BBB now, in the interest of preserving America’s longer-term financial security, and the strength we derive from it.

Wharton Sinkler

Sandwich