OPINION:
On Thursday at 6:54 a.m., the U.S. House passed the Trump/Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (Yup, that is this 1,118-page measure’s official title.) By a snare-drum-tight, 215-214 vote, all but three Republicans and zero Democrats chose to give Americans $4.1 trillion in tax relief, along with their bacon, eggs, tea and toast.
President Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (both Louisiana Republicans) were the chefs who moved this elaborate meal from kitchen to table. It has plenty to nourish this economy:
• OBBB makes permanent the rates in the Trump/GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Every House Democrat voted to let these lower rates lapse on Jan. 1 and slap average taxpayers with a 22% tax hike.
• As promised: No taxes on tips or overtime, plus tax leniency for seniors.
• Deregulation and incentives should boost fuel production, restore energy dominance, slash gasoline prices and curb electric bills.
• “The House did a good job stopping massive new subsidies for solar and wind projects,” wrote reliable-energy advocate Alex Epstein. He urges lawmakers to “terminate the Green New Scam once and for all.”
• OBBB expands health savings accounts, enhances patient power and bolsters medical freedom.
There is much to like here, and the Senate should make this bill more beautiful.
First, senators should include something the House neglected: A 15% tax for companies that manufacture in America. This lower rate would be 28.6% lighter than today’s 21% corporate levy. This would dramatically encourage firms to produce domestically rather than overseas. It would make it much cheaper to build U.S. factories and hire Americans than to create jobs abroad. Conversely, enterprises that manufacture in China will find it far easier to thumb their noses at the Chinese Communist Party, come home and keep 85% of their earnings.
The Cato Institute reports that a 15% U.S. corporate rate would ease domestic manufacturers from paying the world’s 24th lowest business levy to enjoying its sixth lightest such tax. This is the fast lane to reindustrialization, rather than the traffic jam of higher tariffs. The latter merely hike taxes on U.S. importers, who typically raise U.S. consumers’ price tags.
Second, some Senate Republicans demand deeper spending cuts, as they should. This makes other GOP senators sweat. Compromise: Freeze federal discretionary expenditures for one year. Pressing the pause button on such outlays for 12 months, while lowering or raising specific disbursements as necessary beneath that ceiling, would save taxpayers $49 billion next year alone.
Finally, some Senate Republicans are nervous about keeping the House’s work requirements on able-bodied Medicaid recipients. When Democrats scream that such rules are “worse than Hitler,” Republicans should remind them that former President Clinton signed a work requirement within 1996’s bipartisan welfare reform law.
Republicans should quote these words to Democrats: “Since 1987, when I first proposed an overhaul of the welfare system, I have argued that welfare recipients should be required to work…I was pilloried by many of my friends back then for even suggesting the idea of requiring work. Today, I think everyone here believes that work should be the premise of our welfare system.”
That statement was uttered in 1996 by none other than then-Sen. Joe Biden.
Mr. Johnson frets that the Senate’s fingerprints could doom his chamber’s bill. He implores senators to “fine-tune this product as little as possible.” Mr. Johnson told Punchbowl that guiding Thursday’s legislation through the House was like “crossing over the Grand Canyon on a piece of dental floss.” Too many Senate amendments could snap that floss on final passage.
A House-Senate conference committee (remember those?) would help both chambers settle their differences and adopt middle-ground language. If necessary, President Trump is a master at patting enough backs and twisting enough arms to transform the “Big, Beautiful Bill” into something giant and gorgeous before it reaches the Resolute Desk for his signature.
• Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.