The House reconciliation bill — officially known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — is extraordinary in how much it robs from the poor to boost the rich.
But the Big Beautiful Bill is not just an ugly tax bill where society’s less fortunate are made to sacrifice for the benefit of the wealthiest.
It’s also a spending bill that steers hundreds of billions of dollars into new pet projects.
Below we survey the biggest boondoggles of the Big Beautiful Bill: Editor’s picks Border Wall The BBB proposes spending nearly $50 billion for construction of Trump’s border wall with Mexico.
Military-Industrial Absurdity Including the Golden Dome, the Big Beautiful Bill increases America’s Pentagon spending by a colossal $150 billion.
It is remarkable how much the House reconciliation bill, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, takes from the poor in order to enrich the wealthy. Republicans will be able to increase the number of people without health insurance by 16 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by reducing health care coverage (through both Obamacare and Medicaid) in order to fund its tax cuts for the wealthy.
However, the Big Beautiful Bill is more than just an ugly tax bill that forces the poorest members of society to make sacrifices for the wealthiest. Hundreds of billions of dollars are allocated to new pet projects as part of this spending bill. Debt is being used to fund this. According to the CBO, the BBB will increase deficits by $2.04 trillion over a ten-year period, which is likely to result in a $3 billion increase in the national debt when interest payments are taken into account.
Senate budget hawks like Rand Paul (R) are upset about the bill’s expenditures. Ky. ). Elon Musk, who says the bill is a “disgusting abomination” that will waste any purported savings imposed by DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has publicly criticized it as part of the public dispute between him and Donald Trump.
Well-liked by Rolling Stone.
According to Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, “this inability to set priorities is going to bring a debt crisis,” conservative budget analysts are warning Rolling Stone. The bill would actually result in so much additional debt that it could potentially set off a process known as “sequestration,” which would force significant, mandatory cuts to Medicare. These cuts to senior citizens’ health care would begin the following year and increase to half a trillion dollars over the course of ten years.
Compared to the safety-net cuts and tax cuts, the BBB’s spending plans have gotten much less attention. But the bill wastes more money on a number of already-fat-cat projects, including Big Tech, the military-industrial complex, private prisons, and building issues.
The Big Beautiful Bill’s largest boondoggles are surveyed below.
Editor’s selections.
Wall at the border.
Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico would cost close to $50 billion, according to the BBB. Sene. During a Face the Nation appearance last week, Paul charged the administration with waste. According to an existing Customs and Border Patrol estimate, building the wall should only cost roughly $6.55 billion over 1,000 miles. Paul claimed that they had “inflated the cost of the wall eightfold.”. (The construction cost estimate Paul cited from CPB’s website seems to have been removed after his TV hit. Paul felt that Trump had “essentially stopped the border flow without new money and without new legislation,” so much so that he questioned whether more walls were necessary at all. “.”.
Granite Construction of California was awarded a $70 million, 7-mile wall-construction contract by the Trump administration in March, providing a glimpse of the upcoming building bonanza.
camps for detainees.
$45 billion is included in the bill for “Family Residential Centers” and “Adult Alien Detention Capacity.”. With this money, the administration would be able to increase the number of undocumented immigrants it deports. Recent high-profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at restaurants have shown the country that this entails tearing productive members of society out and turning them into wards of the state at great public expense until they can be deported.
Private prison construction companies and contractors would benefit greatly from the funds. An indication of the direction this is taking is the fact that the administration has already signed a $1 billion, 15-year agreement with GEO Group to house ICE detainees at Newark, New Jersey’s Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed facility. Following a recent demonstration at the facility, ICE arrested the city’s mayor.
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The Trump administration has a close relationship with the private prison company. According to Rolling Stone, Attorney General Pam Bondi used to work as a lobbyist for GEO Group, which donated $500,000 to the Trump inaugural committee. A Super PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 election received $1.33 million from a GEO subsidiary.
The Golden Dome.
Nearly $25 billion is contributed by the BBB to the Golden Dome. The satellite-based missile defense project is based on the branding of Israel’s “Iron Dome,” a ground-based defensive system capable of intercepting missiles and rockets fired by state actors such as Iran or local militants. “We will be well protected from a missile attack from Canada or Mexico to the extent that we match Iron Dome technology,” quips Manhattan Institute analyst Riedl. “But not necessarily from China, North Korea, or Russia.”. “”.
The Golden Dome actually seems to be Trump’s resuscitation of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, a highly costly and mostly ineffectual space-based missile defense system that was mocked as “Star Wars” in the 1980s and was implemented during the Ronald Reagan administration. “”.
“In the end, this is an additional $25 billion for SDI,” Rieidl says. Although this is a good idea, a lot of money hasn’t been spent successfully so far. “.”.
According to Trump, the BBB is a down payment on a $175 million investment. Defense contractors stand to gain a great deal from the Golden Dome. Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire benefactor and current adversary, founded SpaceX, a rocket company that is reportedly competing for a contract. Palantir, a tech company associated with Peter Thiel, and Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, two established military-industrial giants, are also in this category.
Absurdity in the military and industry.
The Big Beautiful Bill would increase America’s spending on the Pentagon by an astounding $150 billion, including the Golden Dome. Paul, who has long criticized the Defense Department for failing to pass every audit it has been subjected to, claims that this bill is from proponents of the military-industrial complex who are padding the military budget.
The budget is a moral document. Additionally, people frequently use the metaphor of “guns and butter” to refer to the trade-off between public safety programs and those that prevent suffering.
Butter cuts are the only source of funding for the Big Beautiful Bill’s gun side. The bill deprives states of $128 billion in funding for the SNAP food assistance program, which helps prevent hunger among American families. Additionally, it seeks to save an additional $92 billion in spending by removing participants from the program due to bureaucratic red tape and employment requirements, including parents of 8-year-olds.
Prior to receiving any additional federal funding, Riedl contends that the Pentagon ought to be compelled to attain cost efficiencies. “Ignoring the massive waste and cost overruns inside the Pentagon was one of DOGE’s biggest mistakes. The Defense Department is unable to pass an audit for a reason. There is a lot of waste. Before we further increase defense spending, it is imperative that we address the substantial cost overruns, especially in government contracts and procurement, according to the Manhattan Institute fellow.
The House bill directs additional funding toward over a dozen weapons systems, many of which have been plagued by construction delays, cost overruns, performance problems, and concerns about combat capability.
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