The big beautiful bill reveals the hollowness of Trumponomics
Republicans mark America’s birthday with a profligate but insubstantial law
IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY the chimera was part lion, part goat and part snake, but wholly monstrous. Despite its name, there is a chimerical air to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBB), the Republican tax-and-spending plan that lurched through Congress this week. It sutures to a body of government-shrinking Reaganism an appendage of populist Trumpism, both disfigured by carve-outs and fillips for individual lawmakers. It will menace the American economy for at least a decade.
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This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “The inglorious Fourth”
From the July 5th 2025 edition
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The obscure Senate functionary whose word is law
Elizabeth MacDonough does more to shape legislation than most congressmen
The war in Ukraine shows the West can re-arm without re-industrialising
Industrial capacity in peacetime is no longer necessary for success during war
How much did America’s bombs damage Iran’s nuclear programme?
Assessments vary wildly and it is impossible to know for sure
Israel’s war with Iran is over
But its impact is uncertain
Israel’s blitz on Iran is fraught with uncertainty
Much hinges on the stubborn supreme leader and America’s mercurial president
Israel’s race to kill Iran’s nuclear dream
If it fails the regime could make a frantic dash for a bomb