With President Trump poised to sign his signature policy bill into law, Times Opinion asked seven of our conservative columnists and contributors a simple question: Will it be good for America or bad for America? The group we convened included libertarians, New Right thinkers and traditional conservatives — people from all corners of the conservative universe. Here’s what they thought.
Best Provision
David Brooks The increase in the child tax credit (to $2,200 from $2,000) and the tax-advantaged savings accounts for children (with a government contribution of $1,000 per child born from 2024 to 2028). Those are policies proven to decrease child poverty, and they are consistent with the general trend we should be taking: Spend more on the young and less on the old.
David French The defense spending increase — the bill adds $150 billion to the Pentagon’s budget — is necessary and overdue. America’s military spending as a percentage of its gross domestic product is near its post-Cold War lows, in spite of the fact that Russian aggression has escalated and China is engaged in an immense military buildup.
Matt Labash Even if I hate the bill — and I do — it also seems to deeply irritate Elon Musk. And anything that irritates Musk as much as Musk irritates the rest of us should earn grudging credit as a karmic delivery system.
Katherine Mangu-Ward Extending the income tax provision in Trump’s 2017 tax cuts was a perfectly reasonable thing to do (though it should have been paired with more spending cuts). The fact that the extension is permanent means a modicum of stability in the fiscal chaos. At least we won’t have to have this exact fight again soon.
Daniel McCarthy Americans deserve to keep more of the money they earn, so the scope and scale of the tax cuts are the best part of the bill. The higher taxes on the wealthiest university endowments are appropriate, though, in light of the vast public funding and resources these privileged institutions receive.
Curt Mills The president has a mandate to combat illegal immigration. Across the United States and Europe, anxiety over too much migration has gone mainstream. The signature policy bill infuses Immigration and Customs Enforcement and related agencies with cash and personnel. It is justified.
Matthew Schmitz Trump’s most notable second-term successes have come at the border, where he has reduced illegal crossings, and on campus, where he has changed the relationship between government and universities. The “big, beautiful” bill will strengthen both of these legacies by increasing money for immigration enforcement and boosting endowment taxes.
Worst Provision
Brooks The (at least) $3 trillion increase in the public debt over the first decade. America lacks a party serious about reducing red ink. When your interest rates are higher than your economic growth rates, that makes for a long-term catastrophe. Or maybe not so long term.
French The biggest problem with the bill is also the most obvious: Tax cuts can’t be the priority when we need a military buildup and lower deficits. Instead, the Trump administration has chosen the most fiscally reckless course.
Labash It screws the poor and rewards the rich. Anyone still laboring under the illusion that this is a populist administration needs to understand that “for the people” means “only some of the people,” usually the millionaires and billionaires. Meet the new elitists, same as the old elitists.
Mangu-Ward The debt implications are straight up insane. As Maya MacGuineas, the utterly beleaguered president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, has noted, “If made permanent, the Senate bill would cost more than the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS Act combined.”
McCarthy The bill provides an additional $150 billion for some worthy military projects like shipbuilding and strengthening the industrial base. But until the Pentagon can pass a rigorous financial audit, this threatens to throw good money after bad. Defense is the department most in need of the Department of Government Efficiency treatment.
Mills A cause of America’s malaise at home is its illegitimate and hated empire abroad. The U.S. military-industrial complex doesn’t put America first. The Defense Department deserves to be focused, not further bloated. This bill goes in the wrong direction.
Schmitz Promoting personal responsibility through Medicaid work requirements may be laudable in theory. But it seems a bit rich when legislators are voting for a bill that swells an already staggering deficit. If the G.O.P. really believed in hard work, thrift and personal responsibility, it would rein in its own profligacy.
What Else Mattered
Brooks Trump was elected by winning working-class voters. And all they get is no tax on tips, worth a measly $32 billion, and a few other trifles? Besides, why should a waiter in the hotel restaurant get a reduction in taxes while the person at the reception desk doesn’t? Americans are feeling betrayed. Democrats can now correctly argue that Trump has betrayed his working-class voters.
French The bill is a further reminder that Republicans in Congress have no independent will. There is much discontent about the bill, but there is very little courage. Republicans instead chose to do the wrong thing to placate Trump.
Labash Principled conservatives never stood a chance of shooting down this measure. Because Trump knows his audience and knows that Republicans are now as completely unprincipled as he is. When you’re in the cultist business — which 95 percent of them are — you either fall in line or go out of business.
Mangu-Ward Oops, the filibuster is dead? Adopting a current policy base line to claim that tax‑cut extensions cost little is a budgetary sleight of hand that not only obscures bonkers deficits but also undermines the Senate filibuster by enabling expensive policies to pass via the reconciliation process. Republicans who live by the sword should get ready to die by the sword.
McCarthy Passing a bill this big with a majority so small in the House is a feat of extraordinary political acumen, like it or not. Trump returned to office with sky-high policy goals, and he’s given his party the discipline to reach them.
Mills Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, or food stamps, are misguided and draconian. These are government programs that actually help younger Americans as this country lapses into gerontocracy. Additionally, working-class voters delivered Trump the presidency, not the educated upper middle class. The G.O.P. foolishly chose against its future here.
Schmitz Stephen Miller has described the “big, beautiful” bill as “the MAGA agenda in legislative form.” He’s right, and it’s an agenda with some fundamental contradictions. You can’t keep slashing taxes while refusing to reduce spending. At some point, the G.O.P. will have to choose between tax cuts and entitlements.
David Brooks and David French are Times columnists.
Matt Labash, formerly a national correspondent at The Weekly Standard, is the author of “Fly Fishing With Darth Vader” and writes the newsletter Slack Tide.
Katherine Mangu-Ward (@kmanguward) is the editor in chief of Reason magazine.
Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.
Curt Mills is the executive director of The American Conservative.
Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) is a founder and an editor of the online magazine Compact.
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