Trump’s Big Budget Bomb

May 23, 2025

Guests: Catherine Rampell

Catherine Rampell is an economics columnist at The Washington Post and an MSNBC anchor.

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About this episode

Catherine Rampell dissects what she calls Trump's big budget bomb: a domestic policy bill that transfers resources from the poor to the rich, the young to the old, and the future to the past. She walks through the $3 to $5 trillion in added debt, regressive tax cuts, and deep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and Affordable Care Act subsidies that could strip health coverage from roughly 13 million people. They discuss the repeal of clean-energy tax credits, the gimmickry behind 'no tax on tips' and 'no tax on overtime,' and the bill's massive funding increases for ICE detention and deportation. Rampell argues the legislation's priorities are unmistakable — tax relief for high earners financed by safety-net cuts and borrowing — and that its marketing obscures who actually pays.

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