On 1 July, US President Donald Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passed through Congress by a tie-break vote from Vice President JD Vance. The massive bill is a sweeping ruling class wish list which will increase the US national debt, contrary to the claims of the Trump administration. Within the bill are more cuts to federal social spending, increases in defence and border policing budgets, and expansive tax cuts favouring manufacturing capital. The bill, which Trump’s spokespeople proclaim as the route to their administration’s ‘America First’ agenda, is an aggressive move in favour of the ruling class at the expense of US workers. REAGAN GRAY reports.
Cuts, slashes and purges
Since his inauguration Trump has kept up his illusion of ‘draining the swamp’ by creating the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE), which is really intended to gut social programmes and cut away at government regulation. So far, the Trump administration has purged 60,000 jobs and continues its attack on federal agencies across the board, including the firing of half the Department of Education. Now, the most recent budget bill is a clear indication of what is to come, massive reductions to the already meagre social programmes that just keep working class families afloat.
One of the most significant casualties of the bill is Medicaid. This is a joint federal-state programme for low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities which provides at least partial health insurance coverage. On average, one in every five people in the US relies on Medicaid for access to medical care. Typically, coverage and eligibility are decided on a state-by-state basis, but this new proposal imposes a federal mandate on eligibility requirements which are estimated to lead to nearly 12 million people losing their already limited medical coverage over the next decade. The bill includes a new work requirement, meaning that people must work, volunteer or have job training for at least 80 hours every month in order to maintain eligibility. The ruling class is making clear its utter contempt for the working class by presenting a choice between working or losing access to medical care. The consequences of the latter are three-fold: crippling debt, bankruptcy or death. The bill also introduces a range of new hoops for people to jump through in order to maintain their insurance, such as ending automatic re-enrolment and increasing the frequency of eligibility audits, which are intended to purge as many people from the service as possible.
Vulnerable migrants are among the victims of these purges, with new limits to accessing Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (the minimal expansion of Medicaid implemented during Barack Obama’s administration) subsidies for refugees and asylum seekers. This adds insult to injury coupled with the bill’s proposal to further expand policing and militarisation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which translates to ramped up violent raids, detentions, and deportations at the hands of the state (see p12).
The bill also proposes a change in the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as SNAP or ‘food stamps’). SNAP, originally in place from 1939-44 and then reintroduced in 1964, provides monthly credit to low-income households to purchase food. Originally a state programme, the number of people receiving ‘food stamps’ was 2 million in 1970, and the programme had to be implemented on a national level in 1974 as income and wealth became polarised in the US. Today, 47.1 million people in the US receive SNAP benefits, which is 12.3% of the population, and 17% of all children. This new bill will shift funding back onto state budgets, which could lead some states to limit or halt the programme for thousands of recipients. For the most vulnerable sections of the working class, their ability to eat is up for debate.
In order to cover up this abhorrent attack on the working class, the Trump administration is going on a PR campaign to try and maintain public support, focusing on the bill’s proposal to end tax on cash tips received by hospitality workers and to limit income tax on overtime. These proposals do not even begin to account for the worsening conditions that workers face in the US.
Trump’s big bill predicament
Whilst the cuts that the bill proposes will wreak havoc on the working class, Trump’s spending proposals are still estimated to cost between $2.5 trillion and $5 trillion in spending over the next decade. This is causing divisions among sections of the ruling class and the US legislature, as it will raise the US’s debt ceiling to $4 trillion. In anticipation of this increased borrowing, Trump has been seen badgering the National Reserve in hopes to get it to lower interest rates. This has met pushback from the head of the Reserve, as well as from the big banks such as Goldman Sachs, who benefit from keeping interest high. Elon Musk, Trump’s former right-hand man and previous head of DOGE, has recently fallen out with the president over his policy choices, particularly his soaring tariffs rate on Chinese imports, which will impact the profit margins of his electric vehicle company, Tesla. Since stepping back from his post in the Trump administration, Musk has gone on the attack, and has expressed his disapproval of the new bill, calling it a ‘disgusting abomination’ which will only add to the budget deficit and ‘burden America[n] citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt’. Musk’s ‘concern’ for ‘American citizens’, however, is really just tied to how much he can shake them down for: the bill contains a proposal that ends tax credits for people who drive electric vehicles (EVs), and at the end of the day, Musk can’t make a killing on EVs if no one can afford to buy them. Republican legislators have chimed in to support of Musk’s criticisms, citing the national debt as a barrier to economic growth in the US.
Tariff wars rage on
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s equally divisive tariff war has not ceased, rather, he has reaffirmed the administration’s enforcement of the ‘reciprocal tariff deal’. This policy means that the tariff on imports to the US will reflect the respective country’s import rates on US goods. This aggressive tactic could lead to retaliation from major US trade partners, such as the EU, which is threatening to counter Trump’s proposed 30% rate. Trump’s threats have forced others to come to the negotiating table, as seen with Japan, which has agreed to a baseline rate of 15%. Trump has proposed that foreign companies can get around the tariffs if they choose to manufacture within the US, in other words: invest in US’s domestic productive capacity. Trump’s administration claims that this strategy will ‘usher in a Golden Age for the American People’. The idea that US capitalism can return to its post-World War II golden age is a ship that has long sailed. Now, the ruling class’s desperate tactics to deal with the ever-increasing national debt, reverse the trade deficit and restore profitable manufacturing in the US is only going to increase the strain on the working class. Inflation is set to skyrocket as companies hike prices to compensate for the hit they will take to their profits by absorbing the rising cost of imports.
Who wins?
Whilst even the capitalists among industries negatively affected by the tariffs are still going to maintain their profits by shifting the onus on to working people, other sections of the ruling class are faring even better due to Trump’s tariff game. The parasitic finance capitalists are leeching millions by betting on the chaos of the market, with Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup raking in record high revenues.
War-mongering defence companies are also salivating over the prospects of increased federal investment and contracts as the US tries to prepare itself for the ever-increasing drive to inter-imperialist war. Recently, Lockheed Martin has revived its plans to commence offshore mining projects, whilst the Pentagon has invested $400m (taking 15% stake) in California mining company, MP Materials, pledging to purchase 100% of its rare earth magnets over 10 years at double the market rate. This unprecedented federal cash infusion into mineral companies is a pre-emptive response to China’s capacity to retaliate against US tariffs by cutting the US out of its critical mineral supply chains. Trump, following on from the previous Biden administration, has made reshoring the US’s mineral access a priority as US imperialism tries desperately to secure its position on the world stage through military might.
Defence spending surges
The US military budget, which is more than the nine next largest countries’ military budgets combined, was renewed on 18 July when Congress approved the 2026 defence allocation budget of $832bn. This allocation was on top of the $150bn approved in June 2025, as well as $25bn for Trump’s newly proposed ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence system.
In the defence spending bill debate, Republican Senator Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed an amendment which would cut a $500m aid package to Israel intended to bolster its Iron Dome missile capacity (separate from the average $3.3bn in annual aid to the Zionist state). This proposal, a rarity from a Republican representative, was rejected, with 422 voting against the amendment and only six voting in support. Nearly two years into the brutal genocide of the Palestinian people, unconditional bipartisan support for Israel remains firm. Among those who opposed the amendment was self-pro-claimed ‘pro-gressive,’ Alexandra-Ocasio Cortez, who reaffirmed her support for US military aid to Israel, and in doing so, highlighted once again the irrevocable links between the US Congress and the imperialist war machine.
Opportunism squanders a solution
Ocasio-Cortez and her appalling political record represents the nature of opportunism within the imperialist US, which maintains the illusion that fundamental change can be won through Democratic Party electoralism. With the economic crisis deepening, the pressure is mounting on the working class. The lack of an organised anti-imperialist workers’ movement in the US means that opportunistic trends dominate, dressed up as the only ‘progressive’ route. In the end, they only represent the more privileged layers of the working class and refuse to oppose US imperialism at its core.
Zohran Mamdani’s securing of the Democratic mayoral nomination in New York City is the most recent expression of this trend. A self-
proclaimed ‘democratic socialist’, Mamdani’s quick rise in popularity among New Yorkers can be attributed to his campaign, led by the Democratic Socialists of America, which promised concessions like free buses, rent freezes construction of affordable housing, and affordable groceries amid a worsening cost of living crisis. Mamdani’s stance on Palestine has also won him support against a set of other nominees who proclaimed their undying devotion to the genocidal state of Israel, including Andrew Cuomo, former New York governor and Mamdani’s front-running contender. However, like all his opportunist social-democrat predecessors, such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, he has already succumbed to the demands of US faux-democracy before his time in office has even started. Throughout his campaign, his idealistic fodder has been riddled with reactionary positions: he emphasised that he is not a communist – an absolute condition for election in the US; he does support the racist New York police department; he has reiterated his belief that the Israeli state has the ‘right to exist’; has repeatedly condemned the Palestinian resistance; and has further condemned protestors who have taken up chants such as ‘globalise the intifada’. Despite Mamdani’s capitulation to appease his critics, he will never avoid the barrage of racist, ‘anti-communist’ attacks from Trump and his MAGA following, including their calling for Mamdani’s deportation.
Mamdani’s success certainly shows that workers are receptive to progressive ideas as their material conditions become undeniably worse. But so long as opportunists peddle the illusion that we can resolve the crisis of capitalism through reforms and elections, they will remain an obstacle to a movement capable of combatting the extremely dangerous and reactionary authoritarianism which Trump personifies, much less achieve the liberation of the working class.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 307, August/September 2025
