Even Billionaires Know Washington’s Big Budget Bill Ain’t Right
Rep. Tarik Khan July 24, 2025
By State Rep Tarik Khan
As Submitted for publication in East Falls Now, Chestnut Hill Local, and Roxborough Review
It’s certainly understandable if you missed the shenanigans in Washington, D.C during the July 4th weekend. Most Philadelphians were focused on holiday plans, beating the hot weather, and the ongoing city-wide strike by AFSCME DC 33 workers, who were fighting for better pay and benefits. But in the early morning of July 3rd, Washington GOP politicians were preparing to pass a massive tax break for their donors.
The big budget bill, championed by President Trump and Congressional Republicans, is a giant tax and spending bill that cuts massive holes into the social safety net, including Medicare, to give enormous tax breaks to multimillionaires and billionaires. The bill throws 300,000 Pennsylvanians off their health care, and 140,000 Pennsylvanians off SNAP food assistance. It also adds $3.4 trillion to the national debt to pay for the spending and billionaire tax cuts.
How hard is it to pay back $3.4 trillion in debt? To get a sense of this massive number, if you were to stack $1 bills from the ground, $3.4 trillion would nearly reach to the moon.
The big budget bill also swells spending on ICE activities from $8 billion to $100 billion. ICE will use this money to tear families apart, many of whom have been here for decades, and to build family detention facilities through large, corporate, for-profit, private prison operations. This bill will help Acting Director of ICE, Todd Lyons fulfill his dreams of breaking up families like a business, “like Amazon Prime, but with human beings.”
Supporters of the big budget bill may cite the provisions supported by both parties—no federal tax on tips or overtime — as reasons to celebrate. But these tax relief measures for working people are capped (workers will still get taxed over $12,500 on overtime pay and $25,000 on tips), and these breaks will expire after a few years, unlike the tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, which are permanent. Deep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and killing the subsidies that help people pay for their health insurance mean these workers may pay much more out of pocket each year because of the GOP bill. Three-card monte on steroids.
Even Republican mega donor Elon Musk called the Washington bill “a disgusting abomination,” citing the cruel and short-sighted bill as the reason for his split with the Republican party. Like his broken promise to release the Epstein files, Trump’s broken promise not to touch Medicare is not just leaving Musk feeling swindled.
While Washington politicians are cutting benefits, our House Democratic Majority has been working to strengthen the social safety net and help struggling Pennsylvanians. We are supportive of Governor Shapiro’s plan to increase our investment in Medicaid by $2.5 billion. Governor Shapiro signed my bill into law, which will greatly increase food donations in Pennsylvania. We passed a working Pennsylvania tax credit bill that will give 1 million working Pennsylvania families real money each year, between $200 and $2,000 back after they file their taxes. And my minimum wage bill, along with Reps. Jason Dawkins and Roni Green, is in discussions to be part of the annual budget deal.
Like many of you, I’m discouraged and disgusted by what is happening in Washington, but I urge you to stay involved, voice your concerns, and, most importantly, vote. And if there’s anything my office can do to be helpful to you or your family, please reach out to us at 215-482-8726.