Mirror Review
July 2, 2025
Summary:
- On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, a sweeping GOP (Grand Old Party) tax and spending package, with a 52-48 vote.
- Key swing vote Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) supported the bill after extracting major energy concessions for Alaska.
- It now moves to the House of Representatives for a final vote expected later this week.
Is The Beautiful Bill a Policy or a Political Performance?
“It’s one big, beautiful bill. The greatest the country’s ever seen,” said Donald Trump after the Senate passed his major tax and spending bill.
But Trump isn’t the first president to present legislation not just as governance—but as grandeur.
Throughout U.S. history, transformative laws have often been packaged as turning points, not policies.
Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, by name and design, follows this pattern: an attempt to convert complex federal policy into a simplified promise of national revival.
What Is Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill?
Formally known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the legislation reflects a Republican vision of limited government and pro-growth economics. It includes:
- Tax Extensions: Permanently extends the 2017 Trump-era tax cuts, due to expire in 2025.
- Corporate Tax Cuts: Reduces the corporate tax rate from 21% to 18%.
- Domestic Spending Caps: Introduces caps on non-defense discretionary programs over 10 years.
- Medicaid Changes: Alters the growth formula for Medicaid, potentially reducing federal outlays by over $700 billion in the next decade.
- Work Requirements: Allows states to add work mandates for Medicaid and SNAP eligibility.
Crucially, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) secured her vote in exchange for $8 billion in federal energy incentives for Alaska.
While Republicans claim the bill promotes growth and reduces the deficit, Democrats unanimously opposed it, citing deep Medicaid cuts and welfare restrictions. “This bill takes from working families to reward the wealthy,” said Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Historical Pattern: Selling Policy as Salvation
Trump’s use of a phrase like “big beautiful bill” is not unprecedented—it fits into a historical tradition where legislation is sold as a moment of salvation, rather than a set of laws.
Here’s how his approach compares to past presidents:
| President | Major Legislation | Political Branding Used |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | New Deal Programs | “Bold, persistent experimentation” (1930s) |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | Great Society & Medicare | “War on Poverty” (1960s) |
| Ronald Reagan | Economic Recovery Tax Act | “Morning in America” (1981) |
| Barack Obama | Affordable Care Act | “Health care as a right, not a privilege” (2010) |
| Donald Trump | One Big Beautiful Bill Act | “Big, beautiful, and winning” (2025) |
Each of these leaders recognized that public sentiment often depends less on policy detail and more on national narrative.
Trump, however, leans more heavily into personal branding than most—using language that turns legislative work into campaign slogans.
His earlier push for a “big beautiful wall” serves as a direct parallel. It mattered less what was built—what mattered was the phrase and the promise attached to it.
Why This Approach Has Been Effective
The strategy works in part because legislation is often inaccessible to the average citizen.
Laws like the Affordable Care Act spanned thousands of pages. In response, leaders have used simplified slogans to reduce complexity and frame opposition.
By calling this the Big Beautiful Bill, Trump does three things at once:
- Claims victory before any long-term impact is visible.
- Defines the bill emotionally, rather than technically.
- Forces opponents to react within his language framework.
This tactic draws on the Reagan-era model of optimism, but fuses it with Trump’s business-style branding. In doing so, Trump avoids policy specifics while framing the law as “common sense”.
What Happens Next?
The bill is now in the hands of the House of Representatives, where a vote is expected by Friday, July 5.
The Republican majority is expected to support it, though several moderate GOP members may raise concerns about the spending caps and Medicaid provisions.
If passed, the Big Beautiful Bill will begin to take effect on January 1, 2026.
Conclusion: Laws Built on Sweet Talk
So, what’s in the Big Beautiful Bill?
Tax relief, corporate incentives, and federal program restrictions. But its bigger significance lies in how it was introduced—not just as legislation, but as a miracle in motion.
As with FDR’s New Deal or Reagan’s tax reforms, Trump is attempting to shape not just policy but public memory. Whether it delivers tangible results or not, Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill may be remembered not for what it did, but for how it was sold.
