President Trump’s top legislative initiative in the Big Beautiful Bill has become law and with it has earned widespread condemnation from critics who worry about its upward wealth redistribution and capacity to explode the national debt.
But what, specifically, does it do? And how exactly does it do all of that?
To help better understand the magnitude of this law’s many effects, I spoke to Dean Baker. Baker is a macroeconomist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). An author of several books and professor, Baker also correctly predicted the 2007-08 housing bubble crash. His work focuses on Medicare, intellectual property and globalization among other areas.
In this interview, we go piece-by-piece with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and how it negatively affects America’s energy future, throws millions off Medicaid and SNAP cuts, curbs access to college loans, further enriches the top 1% and much more.
Baker not only highlights the effects the law will have, but explains the legislative mechanisms it uses to achieve its aims.
While inventorying the OBBBA’s damaging effects are important, Baker also looks ahead in this conversation. Specifically, he underscores what legislative priorities Democrats should have in the midterms as well as 2028 and why the OBBBA’s path of destruction could lay the ground work for approval of Medicare for All.
Share this post