Betraying July 4th: Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and America’s Sad Decline Independence Day Irony – A Dark Day for America
Medicare Cuts, Republican Complicity, and the Erosion of American Democracy
The Hulbert Flag
Today, July 4th, is traditionally a day of celebration for American independence and ideals. However, this year, it marks a profound betrayal. President Trump is poised to sign the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) into law—a sweeping tax and spending package that extends the 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy while slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and about $500 billion from Medicare over the next decade (Dayen, 2025; Lieu, 2025). This legislation is projected to inflate the federal deficit by approximately $3.4 trillion in the next 10 years (Hubbard et al., 2025). As one advocacy group stated, "We can’t think of anything less patriotic than depriving millions of Americans of health coverage to enrich further the already wealthy" (Common Dreams Staff, 2025). Indeed, July 4th, 2025, may go down as one of the saddest days in our nation’s history.
The “Big Beautiful” Bill: Tax Cuts for the Rich, Cuts for Everyone Else
Trump’s so-called "big, beautiful bill" is a sweeping domestic policy overhaul that cements his agenda. At its core is an extension of the 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, made permanent (Dayen, 2025). These giveaways to the rich are "paid for" by gutting programs that ordinary Americans rely on. The legislation slashes over $1 trillion from Medicaid and about $500 billion from Medicare over the next decade (Lieu, 2025). It will kick an estimated 17 million Americans off their health insurance and cut food assistance (SNAP) for at least 2 million people (Lieu, 2025). It even threatens to drive hundreds of local hospitals and nursing homes into crisis by draining their funding (Lieu, 2025). The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that this bill will increase the federal deficit by approximately $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years (Hubbard et al., 2025). In short, Trump’s "beautiful" bill is a beautiful disaster for working-class and middle-class Americans. It represents what observers have called "the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in U.S. history" (Common Dreams Staff, 2025). This is a reverse Robin Hood agenda: stealing health care, food, and security from everyday people to finance obscene tax windfalls for billionaires and big corporations.
Republicans Cave to Trump – No Conscience, No Spine
From the beginning, the Republican Party’s conscience was on trial with this legislation—and it failed spectacularly. Initially, a handful of GOP lawmakers hesitated at the cruelty and enormity of the bill. Five House Republicans broke ranks and voted "no" during a key procedural vote, enough to block the bill’s advancement (Hallas, 2025). For a brief moment, it looked like basic compassion and common sense might prevail. But in the dead of night, under intense pressure from Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, nearly all those holdouts folded. Around 3:20 a.m., after personal calls from Trump and closed-door deal-making, Reps. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Keith Self (R-TX) switched their votes from "no" to "yes"—effectively betraying their stated principles (Hallas, 2025). By dawn, GOP leadership had muscled the "Big Beautiful Bill" through the House. Only two Republican representatives—Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania—ultimately dared to vote against the final passage (Hutzler & Peller, 2025). Every other Republican caved to Trump. They "teamed up with oil company CEOs, hedge fund donors, and climate deniers" to ram through this monstrosity (Common Dreams Staff, 2025). Let’s call this what it is: cowardice and complicity. Those who changed their tune—Spartz, Clyde, Self, and their ilk—have demonstrated that they have no conscience and no backbone. They put party over country and Trump over their constituents. I join the growing voices calling on these flip-floppers to resign immediately. If you cannot stand by your convictions and protect your voters’ well-being, you have no business serving in Congress. The Republican Party, once the party of Lincoln, has now fully devolved into the party of Trump—a cult of personality with zero empathy or integrity, dominated by greedy old men clinging to power at any cost.
When Corporate Greed Outweighs Human Life, Society Is Doomed
It is often said that the moral test of government is how it treats those who are most vulnerable. By that measure, this legislation is an abject failure and a stain on our country. When corporate interests outweigh the value of a living human being, society is doomed. Trump’s bill was written for the billionaire donors and corporate lobbyists—not for the people. It lines the pockets of the ultra-rich with tax cuts, even as it snatches health care away from low-income families, children, seniors, and veterans (Lieu, 2025). The human cost will be measured in lives and livelihoods: families unable to afford medical treatment, seniors skipping meals to pay for medicine, rural communities losing their hospitals, and Americans dying for lack of care. Frontline nurses have warned that "people will suffer and die" because of these cuts and that every politician who backed this bill "has blood on their hands" (Common Dreams Staff, 2025). This is policy murder in plain sight—and it’s being done to finance yachts, stock buybacks, and multimillion-dollar tax breaks for the super-wealthy. Even the deficit hawks’ supposed concern for the debt was a sham; they blew a multi-trillion-dollar hole in the budget to please their wealthy benefactors (Hubbard et al., 2025). No "negative feedback loop" remains to stop this descent—dissent within the GOP has all but vanished. It seems we have become an empty society
devoid of compassion and captive to greed. Republican leaders openly joked about the human cost ("We are all going to die," one reportedly quipped) and told struggling Americans to "get over it" (Martin, 2025). Such callousness is breathtaking. If this is what America’s values have become, then we are truly lost. But I refuse to accept that all hope is gone—not yet.
Down the Path of Authoritarian Oligarchy – Are We Beyond Return?
How could half of the voters in America choose this path? How can so many of our fellow citizens still cheer for a demagogue’s agenda that actively harms them and betrays fundamental democratic ideals? These questions haunt me as I watch a seemingly strong democracy crumble from within. It’s more than just an authoritarian oligarchy taking hold; it feels like mass irrationality—a society willingly marching toward insanity. Political scientists have warned that democracies often die not in sudden coups but in broad daylight at the hands of elected leaders who subvert institutions and norms (Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018). That is precisely what we are witnessing. With this bill, Trump and his enablers have used the "institutions of democracy"—Congress, the budget process—to undermine democracy and the social contract from within. They cater to an oligarchic elite while manipulating voters with fear, lies, and division. Many Americans, bombarded by propaganda, have been perplexingly complicit in their disempowerment, voting for a man and a party that promised to "make America great" but instead delivered pain and decline. The result is a nation on the brink of authoritarianism, where one faction wields power without empathy or limits. This is completely insane. It defies the logic of self-preservation for a democracy. We are living through "one of the most catastrophic bills passed in modern history" (Common Dreams Staff, 2025) and an era of democratic backsliding that future historians might mark as the beginning of the end of American democracy—unless we act.
Losing the Meaning of July 4th – But Not Our Will to Fight
We are supposed to celebrate July 4th as a proud nation, the "land of the free, home of the brave." But under the weight of this cruel legislation and all that it represents, we have lost the meaning of what July 4th represents. Our leaders have betrayed our closest friends and allies, shredding America’s credibility abroad. We have belittled the masses at home into complacency and despair. Once a world leader, the United States is now the laughingstock of the world—our moral standing has been eroded by greed and hypocrisy. On this Independence Day, America looks less. Today, July 4th, is traditionally a day of celebration for American independence and ideals. However, this year, it marks a profound betrayal. President Trump is poised to sign the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) into law—a sweeping tax and spending package that extends the 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy while slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and about $500 billion from Medicare over the next decade (Dayen, 2025; Lieu, 2025). This legislation is projected to inflate the federal deficit by approximately $3.4 trillion in the next 10 years (Hubbard et al., 2025). As one advocacy group stated, "We can’t think of anything less patriotic than depriving millions of Americans of health coverage to enrich further the already wealthy" (Common Dreams Staff, 2025). Indeed, July 4th, 2025, may go down as one of the saddest days in our nation’s history.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this article are solely my own. They do not reflect the official positions or opinions of Binghamton University, any other academic institution, or any organization with which I may be affiliated. I am not a member of, nor do I support, any group or movement that seeks to undermine or overthrow democratic institutions or the constitutional framework of the United States. I aim to raise awareness, foster civic dialogue, and advocate for peaceful and lawful participation in the democratic process. This article is written from a personal perspective informed by academic study, observation, and lived experience.
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Copyright © 2025 Ronald J. Botelho
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