It was one hundred years ago this year that then President Calvin Coolidge said, what many consider his most memorable line. When asked about the state of the economy, the man of few words blurted out, at least for him, a torrent, uttering his famous, ‘the business of America is business,’ line. It was reassurance that the country was in good shape.
Of course, that may have been the case in 1925 when the ‘Roaring Twenties’ had the country’s economy humming. But in the almost month since President Trump signed into law his ‘big, beautiful bill,’ rather than crow about anything, city and state leaders are wondering if it is this president who is, in fact, ‘giving them the business.’
The legislation—Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’– has cut, in some cases dramatically, funding for programs designed to help those most in need and forcing states and municipalities to make some rather painful decisions on cuts of their own. Compounding the challenge in Denver, said City Councilwoman Selena Gonzales-Gutierrez, “We’re predicting a $200 million shortfall.” Others have pegged the shortfall closer to $250 million.
The total cost of the recently signed legislation is estimated at $3.4 trillion over the next decade and rising to more than $4 trillion when including interest on the national debt. Some of its key components include tax reform, government assistance and border policy and immigration.
Most economists acknowledge that the biggest benefits will favor the country’s richest individuals and corporations. The legislation does, however, include provisions that eliminate tax on tips and overtime. It should be noted that those provisions expire in 2028.
But states will be responsible for making up cuts in SNAP, what used to be called food stamps, and Medicare and Medicaid. Gonzales-Gutierrez says it’s too early to say when the city will feel the actual impact of these changes, but she promises, they are coming.
“There will be a huge impact in our city for those that rely on Medicaid,” she predicted. Those who will feel it first, said the at-large councilwoman, will be the elderly, people with disabilities and children who rely on it for health care and not just physical health. Other ripples of the legislation, she believes, will resonate among the city’s homeless, a population that continues to vex not just Denver but the entire nation. Whatever the city has been doing to ease this issue, she said, “will triple…we’re going to see more people needing assistance.”
AARP, a national organization that lobbies on behalf of seniors, said the 900-plus page bill will also land hard on the elderly, especially low-income older Americans. While there are some provisions of the bill that temporarily reduce their tax burden, Medicare and Affordable Care Act cuts and programs for food assistance will be affected. Cuts to ACA, also known as Obamacare, predicted the Congressional Budget Office, could cause as many as 12 million people to lose their health insurance by 2034. Seniors, however, may get a tax break in the new legislation. The bill calls for an additional $6,000 deduction for individuals aged 65 and older which could reduce their taxable income making their Social Security fully tax free.
While the gigantic new legislative package reduces funding for healthcare and other social programs, Gonzales-Gutierrez points out that it also pours unprecedented amounts of money into immigration enforcement and border policy.
In crafting the bill, Republicans dedicated a steroid-level $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security, an amount that includes roughly $75 billion additional funding for ICE. The money will pay the salaries of up to 10,000 new ICE agents who are now being offered a $50,000 signing bonus and, in some cases, salaries of $100,000.
It is the largest allocation of funds set aside for immigration enforcement in our history but also lines up perfectly with the president’s vow to deport any and all who are in the country illegally, a number estimated at 12 million.
The big, beautiful bill has included $45 billion for the expansion of a spider web of detention facilities across the country, including potential sites in Colorado, to hold single adults and families, including children for future deportation. It is possible that ICE could detain as many as 100,000 men, women and children. Currently the number in ICE detention is estimated at 58,000 individuals.
“It’s like we’re going back to times when a lot of our ancestors were deported,” said Gonzales-Gutierrez while offering advice to anyone—including American citizens. “From day one,” she said, “make sure we have passports and documentation. It’s happened before; history is coming back. What makes us believe it can’t happen again?”
Gonzales-Gutierrez says it is difficult to reconcile the big, beautiful bill’s slashing of programs aimed at helping those least able to help themselves while, at the same time, empowering the government to execute a program with the singular purpose of hurting so many people simply looking for a better life.”
“These are not our values,” she said. “The people now holding power are acting this out and trying to harm people. Let’s be honest; It’s dehumanizing people of color.”
