‘Big beautiful bill’ raises taxes and questions

Despite promises, the Republican Reconciliation bill raises taxes for working Americans. Only 0.1% will see cuts — $390,000 according to the Congressional Budget Office. It also calls for steep cuts to health care and drastically escalates our national debt. It’s difficult to see how any but Trump’s greedy multimillionaire donors can see it as beautiful.

One especially concerning feature snuck into this bill is how it radically it raises the budget and power of ICE, an agency that Americans have become increasingly concerned about. We’ve been shocked by scenes of masked ICE agents kidnapping even U.S. citizens, blatantly violating civil rights and the Constitution. We all want safe borders and official reports from U.S. Border and Customs officials have confirmed that illegal crossings are at a record low, with a 94% drop in encounters.

In addition, despite assumptions that undocumented immigrants are violent criminals, study after study validates that’s just not true. Source: Department of Justice: “Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate” July 2023

Many have questioned that if illegal border crossing is way down, undocumented immigrants don’t pose nearly the threat the White House claims and the ICE program is recognized as excessive with little oversight, why do we need to spend the extraordinary amounts Trump is requesting for prisons and even more aggressive capture and deportation of 1 million law-abiding, tax-paying immigrants who are providing needed services in this country?

Americans have to question a national strategy based on deception and delusions of a few.

Joan Davis

Huntley