'Beautiful' or 'Ugly,' Trump's big bill shapes the battle for House control in 2026 midterms

Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is going to get ugly

President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4th in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images On July 4th, or what Americans might call its version of “Independence Day,” President Donald Trump proudly signed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a massive piece of legislation that slashes Medicaid, guts food as…

The Trump Roller Coaster Ride

With significant tariffs back in the news and the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, advocates of free trade, free markets, and limited government continue to find Trump 2.0 quite a roller coaster ride. While the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement prioritizes economic growth through deregulation and lower taxes, it can also be antagonistic towards free markets and limited-government conservatism. Recognizing that Trump’s electoral influenc…

American opinion: Deep in a fiscal hole, Congress just keeps digging

In a remarkable achievement, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act got worse with each iteration before finally being enacted last week. On plausible assumptions, the final version will add more than $5 trillion to deficits over the next 10 years, moving the track of public debt from unsustainable to all but unhinged. As Congress turns to its budget for next year, it must grapple realistically with this looming crisis. As written, the measure will add …

The Democrats' Message Is Broken. These Strategists Have a Few Fixes.

The stark consequences of President Donald Trump’s unpopular signature budget bill—including the millions set to lose healthcare, access to food, or both, as well as the slashing of funds and subsidies for clean energy improvements—are becoming clearer, and more worrisome, in the days since its passage. National Democrats are now scrambling to respond, with an eye toward an August soft-launch of their next campaign.There is a sense that the oppo…

Editorial: Able-bodied Medicaid recipients must work? Oh, my!

Democrats are sure they’ve found a winning formula in instigating voter anger over Republican “cuts” to Medicaid. The progressive talking points are already set for the midterms: Thanks to the GOP and President Donald Trump, vulnerable men, women and children…

ROBERTS: The battle lines have been drawn

President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is already the subject of campaign attack ads launched by both parties. One Republican group is targeting vulnerable House Democrats like Rep. Jared Golden of Maine with the charge of “voting against tax cuts.”