Three Things in Trump’s Budget That Aren’t Getting Enough Attention

They might affect the bill’s fate… if more people learn about them and speak up.

As usual, this week has brought a barrage of news to compete for your attention. One thing that continues to unfold, and that will matter deeply in all of our lives, is the "beautiful" Trump budget and spending bill, which could get through Congress and reach the president’s desk in a matter of days.

I’ve already had a lot to say about this bill - the harms it will do, and the possibility of stopping those harms now. Even if the passage of a GOP budget is certain in some form, the American people can and should stop the worst of the damage this bill would do, by demanding Congress do better than what they’ve come up with so far.

The bill is already unpopular, and for good reason. While working families are struggling to pay their bills because of the Trump administration’s policies, this budget would raise costs even further and make everyday life harder. The current version kicks millions of Americans off their health insurance, cuts taxes for the wealthy, and adds trillions to the deficit. This has been extensively covered, and it helps to explain why Americans have a dim view of this bill. Its three most well-known attributes are unpopular because they are terrible.

But there are other, quieter measures in the bill that are also harmful, and importantly, they could affect the bill’s fate… if more people learn about them. At best, we might be able to stop them from becoming law; and if they do get enacted, we can and must ensure a serious political price for the politicians responsible. Here are a few that I have learned about and that deserve much more attention:

New Requirements and Red Tape for the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): The CTC and EITC are popular because they work. They have cut child poverty, increased household income, and strengthened America’s working and middle class. They are such successful policies that few politicians directly oppose them. But Republicans see a way to free up money for tax cuts for the rich by adding new and burdensome requirements to make it harder to access these tax credits. It’s yet another example of reverse-Robin-Hood tax policy, funding a wealth transfer toward the rich by taking resources away from lower- and middle-income taxpayers. Americans need to know that these changes could affect them or people they care about, and should insist Congress look elsewhere for cuts.

Blocking You from Directly Filing Your Taxes: Do you love doing your taxes, and find the existing IRS process easy to work with? Me neither. There’s a solution in the form of a new free tax-filing program that allows Americans to file their taxes directly - but Republicans are looking to kill it. This technology is already commonplace in other developed countries, and millions of U.S. taxpayers are already participating in the early version of Direct File, saving them time and money (the average American spends $270 and 13 hours filing their taxes using the old system). Over the next few years, this faster, better, simpler system could be the new normal for us all. But as you might imagine, tax prep websites and companies that profit from a complicated status quo are strongly opposed to it. And apparently, so is Donald Trump. Why would Congress block a free tax-filing program that saves us time and money? I suggest calling your Representatives’ and Senators’ offices to ask them.

Putting More Gun Silencers On the Street. House Republicans have even figured out a way to use this tax bill to worsen gun violence. Right now, there is a registration requirement and a tax associated with purchasing a silencer, based on laws we have had in this country since the 1930s. America has long regulated silencers as a matter of common sense. And the problems silencers create, especially by making it harder for first responders to do their job, has become even more serious in our era of frequent mass shootings. But the Republican megabill would eliminate this registration process altogether. Most Americans think that this proposal is a bad idea, when asked - but most Americans don’t know it’s in the bill to begin with. Which means all of us should be doing more to get the word out before it becomes law.

These are just a few examples. My broader point is that learning about these less-famous parts of the bill, alongside the blockbuster harms like the deficits and Medicaid cuts, is urgent. There are good resources available to better understand its contents, including here, here, and here.

Some might think this is depressing, that knowing about these additional harms just makes the big picture even more discouraging. I think we should take them as propulsion. This administration and its Congressional enablers are not the unstoppable steamroller they would like you to think they are. The truth is that they have repeatedly shown that they will, well, chicken out on a bad policy if they face enough public opposition. (To take an example from this context, the bill originally also included a tax break on indoor tanning services, but Republicans were so embarrassed when it came to light that they’ve since abandoned it.)

It matters that we get the word out about these provisions. It can change what happens next, not based on Congressional inside baseball but based on public opinion. That work falls to us, not them. We, the people, can make our voices heard on this - and if Representatives and Senators don’t listen, then it will be up to us to make sure they are held accountable.