House Republicans passed their “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” early Thursday morning in defiance of several warnings that it would have big negative consequences for the United States.
The “biggest” thing about the bill (beyond its 1,118-page length) is the more than $3 trillion that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates it would add to budget deficits over the next decade. That figure would swell to more than $5 trillion if the nominally temporary policies within it are made permanent, as leading Republicans have made clear they intend. No matter which measurement is used, this bill would be — by far — the biggest deficit increase in a partisan bill passed through the budget reconciliation process in U.S. history.
The timing could hardly be worse. Just last week, Moody’s became the final major credit-rating agency to downgrade U.S. government debt, following similar actions by S&P in 2011 and Fitch in 2023. Their rationale was clear: Washington’s failure to “reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs” has eroded confidence in America’s long-term fiscal trajectory and they “do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits will result from current fiscal proposals under consideration.”
