President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law on July 4. The bill's controversial provisions include cuts to Medicaid and increased immigration enforcement funding.
The Big Beautiful Bill went through the wringer from both parties on its way to passage. But now that it's law, it can be appreciated by anyone with the eyes to see its benefits. Congress averted a massive tax increase, with additional good news for workers in the form of tax relief on tips and overtime. Voters clearly asked for functional borders and a more efficient government, and the OBBBA takes valuable steps toward both. Critics may be shocked, but this bill amounts to President Trump delivering what he ran on.
David Faris: By strong-arming the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, the president demonstrated he has successfully imposed European-style party discipline on Republicans. From the massive, insane expansion of ICE and tax giveaways to the rich to the cruel gutting of Medicaid and the National Parks Service, this bill is a devastatingly clear reflection of the GOP's legislative and moral priorities. It makes everyday life worse for millions of Americans and imposes almost unimaginable suffering on MAGA's enemies, which is exactly what its architects hoped for and what America's political choices have made all but inevitable.
Davis: The GOP's overwhelming support for the bill was not the result of authoritarian pressure, but a rare and welcome event in party history -- conservative leadership from the president, with principled agreement from a Republican majority in Congress. Far from "suffering," MAGA adherents and enemies alike will enjoy a strong border and an invigorated economy.
Faris: Far from principled agreement, members of Congress are going along with this bill to avoid President Trump's vengeance. They know the devastation that Medicaid losses, hospital closures, and service cuts will inflict on their constituencies. But these things are the essence of Trumpism -- and the beating heart of this bill.
Davis: Is there any reduction in the size of government that would not bring such cries of ruin? And if a few congressional Republicans did indeed subjugate their own gripes in order to go along with the president -- and thus the will of the voters -- good for them. I'm sure Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had to work to bring Democrats around to their agenda at times, and it was not viewed as sinister.
Faris: The process of the bill's passage is less of a problem than the outcome, which polls very poorly and lavishes obscene amounts of money on an ICE detention gulag that will not help anyone pay their bills. The bill ultimately continues a generations-long Republican tendency to transfer wealth upward while abandoning working Americans.
Davis: The wealth transfer Trump seeks is from government to taxpayers. Know what polls poorly? A nation overrun by illegal immigrants and government spending without limits. These are being fixed. Know what benefits American workers? More American jobs. That is what's happening, and it's part of the reason Trump has wrestled working-class voters away from Democrats.
Faris: If Republicans want to consolidate gains with working-class Americans, this isn't the way to do it. Americans want an orderly immigration system, not a massive, unaccountable secret police service. They elected Trump to bring down prices, not rural health systems. And this ill-considered bill will be a source of regret, not recruitment, for the GOP.
Davis: On the contrary, the One Big Beautiful Bill does exactly what voters like me elected Trump to do: provide tax relief and strong border enforcement. I see these achievements as a continuation of Trump's litany of successes, carrying out what he campaigned on. It is not mean-spirited to enforce the law; any negative attention is reserved for those immigrants who have violated U.S. laws. From immigration to the economy, we will see how this works out. But the midterms will show what Americans really think.
Faris: For years, President Trump has threatened a populist makeover of the GOP. But this bill represents another retreat from that promise. Its benefits overwhelmingly go to the highest earners; it does nothing to address sources of the country's inequality; and it shovels ungodly amounts of money at a starkly carceral solution to an imaginary problem -- the idea that undocumented immigrants are a burden on the U.S. economy and an obstacle to worker prosperity. It is just warmed-over Reaganomics with an added layer of mean-spirited and un-American contempt for immigrants. It will age badly, in polls and in practice.
Mark Davis is a syndicated talk show host for the Salem Media Group on 660AM The Answer in Dallas-Ft.Worth, and a columnist for the Dallas Morning News and Townhall.
David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. His writing has appeared in Slate, The Week, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Washington Monthly and more. You can find him on Twitter @davidmfaris and Bluesky @davidfaris.bsky.social.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.