Presidentâs allies say deficit is going down, but predictions for 2026 still range as high as $2.2 trillion
Americaâs national debt is now climbing at its fastest rate ever, propelled in part by the âOne Big Beautiful Billâ passed by Republicans earlier this year.
A new forecast from the IMF shows the U.S. heading the route of countries in southern Europe famous for their own issues with debt, inflation and financial instability, like Greece and Italy. But while the two European nations have seen conditions bottom out and, in Greeceâs case begin to improve, the U.S. appears to be making little progress fighting its own accumulation of debt.
The IMF report analyzed debt as a percentage of GDP, revealing that the U.S. looks set to surpass both countries with its ratio of debt-to-GDP by 2030. At that time, the IMF projects the U.S. will have the highest debt-to-GDP ratio of any country on earth.
And despite the claims of Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress to the contrary, his administration has contributed to that imbalance by surging new spending in the forms of tax cut extensions and funding for the presidentâs mass deportation efforts, two of the largest items in the presidentâs âOne Big Beautiful Billâ passed earlier this year.
That legislation funded a massive expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while also extending the 2017 Republican tax cuts that benefited wealthier Americans and corporations to a greater degree than middle-income and lower-income families.
As funding for food aid program is about to be exhausted, Congress fails for 13th time to advance Republican bill
The US government shutdown stretched into its 28th day with no resolution in sight on Tuesday, as the Senate remained deadlocked over spending legislation even as a crucial food aid program teeters on the brink of exhausting its funding.
For the 13th time, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-backed bill that would have funded federal agencies through 21 November. The minority party has refused to provide the necessary support for the bill to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancement in the Senate because it does not include funding for healthcare programs, or curbs on Donald Trumpâs cuts to congressionally approved funding.
The quagmire continued even after the president of the largest federal workers union called on Congress to pass the Republican proposal, citing the economic pain caused to government workers.
Two dozen states sue White House over food stamps suspension amid shutdownRead more
âBoth political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight. Today Iâm making mine: itâs time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay â today,â Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a statement released on Monday.
But the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, signaled no change in his partyâs strategy of holding out for concession from the Republicans, citing the imminent rise of premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans. Though tax credits that lower their costs expire at the end of the year, many enrollees in the plans have received notices of steep premium increases ahead of Saturdayâs beginning of the open enrollment period.
âFamilies are going to be in panic this weekend all across America, millions of them. How are they going to pay this bill? How are they going to live without healthcare? Itâs tragic, and of course, it didnât have to be, but Republicans are doing nothing,â Schumer told reporters at the US Capitol.
The Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, seized on the AFGEâs statement to argue that Democrats were being irresponsible for refusing to back the bill, which Republicans in the House of Representatives approved on a near party line vote last month before the speaker, Mike Johnson, ordered the chamber into a recess that has yet to end.
Congress added funding to the Big Beautiful Bill and said it would stop health care losses. Itâs not enough.
UPDATED, Oct. 22, 2025:Â Â Â This story has been updated with a comment from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Before Congress passed the âBig, Beautiful Bill,â hospital CEOs, rural health groups and patient advocates descended on Capitol Hill to warn of one of many potentially devastating effects of the legislation:
Rural hospital closures.
At the Democratsâ request, researchers produced a list of hospitals that would be at risk of financial distress resulting in closure or reduction in services.
In response to the alarm, lawmakers tacked on the Rural Health Transformation Program fund, $50 billion to be divided among states, to ease concerns.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va, told WOWK 13 News in early July, shortly after the law passed, that the fund would offset harms to health care providers.Â
âWe need the access, we need the availability and need the affordability (of) our rural hospitals and the good care that they deliver,â she said.
But when Congress passed the law, with the support of all members of West Virginiaâs delegation, the law still made the largest Medicaid cuts in history.Â
KFF, a health analysis and news nonprofit, predicts that tens of thousands of West Virginians will lose Medicaid coverage. Nearly one-third of the state is covered by the program.
Rural health experts, such as Alexa McKinley Abel, director of government affairs & policy for the association, agree that the designated purposes of the Rural Health Transformation Program fund are commendable.
Some of those include efficiency, prevention, innovation and workforce recruitment.Â
âI still think thatâs not going to raise people out of poverty, so that they donât need Medicaid anymore,â McKinley Abel said.Â
William C. Maloney, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the program, said that âCongress has made a decisive investment in rural health careâ and that the funds âwill be directed to support hospitals and providers in West Virginiaâs underserved rural communities, where the need is greatest.â
Michael Meit, director of the Center for Rural Health and Research at East Tennessee State University, noted that members of Congress said the fund would help health care providers facing Medicaid revenue losses.
Clergy and community leaders peacefully demonstrated, demanding an end to cuts to healthcare, food assistance and other social safety net pr
on Monday, clergy members and local community leaders led a peaceful demonstration outside of U.S. Senator Katie Brittâs office in Birmingham. The demonstration was part of the so-called âMoral Mondaysâ movement led by the Repairers of the Breach, a progressive nonprofit organization which emphasizes moral, religious and constitutional values as it looks to address systemic oppression and injustices in the U.S.
The Moral Mondays demonstrations involve prayer vigils, sit-ins and public witness at Congressional offices in direct response to the Republican âBig Beautiful Bill,â which levies dramatic cuts to healthcare, food assistance and other critical social services. The protests also come as Democrats refuse to sign onto a Republican budget to reopen the government unless some of those aforementioned cutsâspecifically to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax creditsâare reversed.
In an official statement Monday, Repairers of the Breach President Bishop William J. Barber II denounced Republicansâ refusal to restore healthcare funding to end the shutdown, decried the GOPâs use of âChristian valuesâ as a political cudgel, and called for continued ânonviolent moral resistanceâ against the Trump administration and its policies. Barber also acknowledged the organizationâs solidarity with the October 18 âNo Kingsâ protests, which saw millions of Americans take to the streets over the weekend to protest the Trump administration.
âPoliticians shamelessly traded lives for leverage to pass the big, deadly, destructive budget bill. Every day the shutdown continues, these same politicians are proving that theyâre willing to squeeze even more people out of health care if it means scoring political points. Even more horrifyingly, we are seeing leaders invoke âChristian valuesâ to justify policies that harm the very people Jesus called us to care for. While the government may be shut down, our moral responsibility cannot,â said Barber, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach. âAs we join nationwide âNo Kingsâ protests this weekend, we are reminded that the only force strong enough to confront policy evil is nonviolent moral resistance rooted in faith, love, and truth.â
In Alabama, the Repairers of the Breach are specifically calling on Britt and Senator Tommy Tuberville to end their support for the âBig Beautiful Billâ and to repeal cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other âessential social safety net programs.â
âReligious and moral leaders have a sacred duty to stand with all of our neighborsânot only those in our congregations, but every person harmed by policy violence like the so-called âBig Ugly Deadly Bill,ââ said Reverend Carolyn Foster of Greater Birmingham Ministries. âThis cruel legislation strips health care and food assistance from women, children, the elderly, and the disabled. We call on Senators Britt and Tuberville to repeal this law and end the suffering it is inflicting on Alabamians already fighting to make ends meet.â
The organizers also stated that the government shutdown has become a âfull-blown moral crisisâ which threatens to punish working class and low-income families by âcutting health care, food assistance, and essential programs, while politicians trade lives for leverage.â
Tighter federal borrowing limits may deepen inequities, especially for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
The "Big, Beautiful Act" signed by President Trump will eliminate Grad PLUS loans and impose new lifetime limits on graduate federal loans ($200,000 for professional degrees, $100,000 for non-professional degrees, for a total limit of $257,500). This could limit the ability of millions of student loan borrowers to pay for their education, particularly for high-cost undergraduate degrees (up to $224,000), law school (an additional $132,000-168,000), or medical school (an additional $268,000-363,000). The new rules disproportionately impact minorities and women. Black students hold significantly higher rates of student loan debt than white students, and the Black community already faces a physician shortage (only 6% of physicians are Black) and health disparities. Law school graduates face high debt levels (average $165,000), with Black students incurring even higher debt and facing wage disparities. The new limits could force students to rely on less-qualified private loans or interrupt their education, exacerbating the lack of diversity in the medical and legal professions.
Newrepublic reported that House Republicans made a fortune from Trump's "Beautiful Act."
Why is it taboo for Congress to give itself a tiny raise but fine for it to give itself a huge tax cut?
NewRepublic reported that House Republicans benefited from Trump's "Beautiful Act." The article claimed that wealthy lawmakers benefited significantly from the tax cuts passed by Congress, particularly Trump's $4.5 trillion tax cut bill, which Republicans supported. Research shows that wealthy Republican lawmakers like Rob Bresnahan (net worth $48 million, $23,600 in tax cuts) and Rob Wittman (net worth $6 million, $59,000 in tax cuts) received significant tax cuts through pass-through provisions, far exceeding the $5,600 pay raise rejected by Congress. Other Republican lawmakers also received tax cuts ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. The tax cuts have been accused of favoring the wealthy. The article criticized Congress for its own "pay raise" through the tax cuts and questioned whether Trump would pay taxes on his vast wealth.
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that by pushing off big changes to Medicaid until after the 2026 midterms, Republicans shielded themselves from voter backlash.
The fallout from Trumpâs megabill is likely to hit the public sooner than he thinks.
A full year before anyone casts their vote in November 2026 â meaning now, in the fall of 2025 â the American health care system will begin transitioning from an era of unprecedented expansion of coverage to an era of unprecedented cutbacks. And President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress will be easy to blame.
Unless Congress reaches a deal fast on some expiring Obamacare provisions, insurance premiums are set to rise, often by double-digit percentages, in and out of Affordable Care Act exchanges. Hospitals are retrenching ahead of the massive cuts imposed by Trumpâs âbig, beautiful bill.â Altogether, around 14 million people will lose coverage in the coming decade, the Congressional Budget Office projected in August, with the first wave of losses beginning in months.
And even if some of the changes in Trumpâs sprawling law kick in after the 2026 elections, that doesnât mean people wonât hear plenty about them beforehand. State legislatures will have to debate what or who to cut to fill gaping holes in their health care budgets. Health plans, providers and state Medicaid agencies will have to start educating the public about new rules established by the legislation, like Medicaid copays and work requirements.
Then of course, there will be the actual political messaging, led by Democrats and advocacy groups who are ready to remind voters that the GOP cut health spending by $1 trillion while cutting taxes for the rich.
âItâs an immediate firestorm for the Republicans,â said Anthony Wright, executive director of the liberal health group Families USA.
Precisely how this all plays out electorally is anyoneâs guess, particularly given the escalating fights over redistricting and a news cycle that seems to get upended by the hour. Nor is it a given that people who face a health coverage crunch or lose coverage altogether will see Trump and congressional Republicans as culpable.
Voters may accept GOP arguments that they only targeted âwaste, fraud and abuse.â Or they may blame greedy insurers, profit-hungry hospitals â or âwho knows, even Joe Biden,â said Patrick Brown, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, who has pushed the GOP to embrace more pro-family policies, in part to deliver for Trumpâs more working-class base.
âI think the gamble the Republicans are taking is [voters] are not going to associate that with us, right?â Brown added.
But gambles are by definition risky â as North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis reminded fellow Republicans when he announced he would retire rather than deliver broken promises to voters on their health care.
Here are three key areas where Republicans are rolling the dice.
The âBig Beautiful Billâ takes away health care and food assistance and raises costs â while handing tax cuts to the wealthy.
If you scroll through social media or watch the news, youâll see our members of Congress and special interest groups practically begging West Virginians to believe that the so-called âBig Beautiful Billâ (HR 1) is good for us. But West Virginians know a bad deal when we see one. This legislation takes away health care and food assistance and raises costs for nearly all of us â while handing giant tax cuts to the wealthy. And with West Virginia among the states slated to be hardest hit by program cuts, itâs our communities who will pay the price.
The tax cut spin doesnât hold up
Our members of Congress claim the bill delivers tax cuts for West Virginia families. But their claims do not hold up for everyday West Virginians. Most of the so-called ânewâ cuts they claim in their figures are already in place. More importantly, the dollar figures they cite are misleading â skewed by massive tax breaks for millionaires.
Here in West Virginia, the bottom 40% of households are expected to see their taxes increase compared with what they pay now, while the median household will get a tax cut less than half the size of the âaverageâ touted by bill supporters. Meanwhile, the wealthiest households will reap the biggest benefits, with 80 percent going to the wealthiest 10 percent of households. Once you factor in tariffs and other provisions, independent experts project that by 2027, 99 percent of households nationwide will actually be worse off financially.
Cuts to health care and food assistance hit West Virginians hard
The real story of the bill isnât tax cuts â itâs what those cuts cost. To pay for giveaways to the wealthy, Congress enacted the deepest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in our nationâs history. In our state, that means more than 50,000 West Virginians will lose their health coverage and 33,000 risk losing food assistance. That includes seniors, veterans, parents and people who worked their whole lives but hit hard times.
And those cuts will have rippling effects on all of us, whether we directly rely on the programs or not. Rather than increasing the workforce by âgetting people to workâ as promised, West Virginia is expected to see a loss of 6,000 jobs resulting from deep reductions in federal funds that currently go to health care providers, hospitals and grocers. Experts say both wages and GDP will fall as a result of the legislation, while the national debt will rise by trillions of dollars.
Hospitals that serve a significant Medicaid population will see reduced payments and higher uncompensated care (bills that go unpaid). Combined, this is expected to result in layoffs, reductions in health care services, higher prices for private insurance, and even hospital closures. Just this month, a medical group in Virginia announced the closure of three health care clinics in response to âthe One Big Beautiful Bill and the resulting realities for healthcare delivery.â
Rising costs and hungry families
And while our members of Congress have promised that we have years to prepare, health care providers are making hard choices now, and some of the provisions will be felt right away. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this month that states are expected to start implementing new SNAP restrictions now. This will result in parents, veterans and older retired West Virginians up to 64 years old losing critical food assistance. Increases in hunger will drive more people to food pantries that are already stretched thin with need and the high cost of groceries. In January, state lawmakers will have to grapple with finding money in the state budget to cover the federal SNAP and Medicaid costs Congress forced onto the states.
Add in the tariffs baked into this bill, and everyday costs will keep climbing â from groceries to household goods â while paychecks donât stretch as far. No one feels that squeeze more than working families here at home.
West Virginians deserve better
Supporters of HR 1 want to frame this debate as simply about tax cuts. Thatâs because when you zoom out, the picture is devastating: The wealthy get ahead while West Virginia families lose health care, food assistance and jobs, and see costs rise. Polling shows most Americans already believe this law benefits the rich at the expense of the rest of us â and theyâre right.
While the fallout is already beginning, it is not too late to change course. Congress can reverse the most harmful provisions of HR 1 and put forward a real plan to lower costs, strengthen health care, and invest in communities. Thatâs what West Virginians need â not another round of broken promises and handouts to those at the very top.
#biguglybill #Trumpdictator #USrecession #USDEBT Trumpâs big, ugly tax legislation will scar many Americans
By all objective measures, it will create significant, long-term harm for millions of low- and middle-income Americans â as well as seniors
The âOne Big Beautiful Bill Actâ President Donald Trump and Congress just foisted on America will be âto the great detriment of the people of this country.â Those arenât my words, nor are they Democratic Party hyperbole. Theyâre the sentiments of Marc Racicot, the former Republican governor of the very red state of Montana. Racicot voiced this criticism just before the legislation passed, in a vain effort to sway members of his party to kill the bill.
Unfortunately, Racicotâs caution fell on deaf ears, because most congressional Republicans fear the political consequences of incurring Trumpâs wrath more than they care about the people theyâre supposed to serve. So they passed the bill into law. This legislation is so iniquitous that by all objective measures, it will create significant, long-term harm for millions of low- and middle-income Americans â as well as seniors â just to line the pockets of the wealthiest.
Making the temporary tax cuts enacted back in 2017 under Trump permanent is the centerpiece of the bill. But that comes at the cost of losing $3.8 trillion in revenue over the next decade. Other tax cuts in the legislation cost another $441 billion, bringing the total 10-year price tag for the tax cuts up to $4.2 trillion. And unless youâre one of Trumpâs megarich cronies, those cuts arenât benefiting you.
According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, by 2029 the bill actually increases taxes on workers making $30,000 a year or less, while bestowing an annual tax cut of $309,000 on the richest 0.1%. For perspective, that tax cut is nearly four times greater than the $80,610 median annual income in America.
And no, these supply side tax cuts for rich folks wonât stimulate the economy. In fact, after analyzing every supply side tax cut implemented in all 18 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development nations (including the U.S.) from 1965â2015, the London School of Economics found that tax cuts for the rich donât enhance âreal GDP growth or unemployment rates.â
They will, however, worsen income inequality. After adjusting for inflation, IRS data shows the average incomes of the top 1% jumped by 125% between 1979 and 2020, from $818,660 to $1.84 million per year. Over that same time frame, the average annual income for the bottom 99% â i.e. everyone else â went from $65,577 to $73,286, for an increase of just 12%. In that environment, transferring wealth from folks at the bottom and middle of the income ladder to the top is immoral.
Worse, to pay in part for ginormous tax cuts targeted to the Mar-a-Lago crowd, the bill slashes spending on programs that help less fortunate Americans do crazy stuff, like receive medical care and put food on the table. For instance, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps poor families buy nutritious food, gets cut by $186 billion over 10 years.
Then thereâs Medicaid, the nationâs largest insurer, which provides health care coverage to some 71.3 million people, or roughly 20% of all Americans. Over the next decade, the budget office estimates Medicaid gets cut by some $1 trillion under the bill. This will cause anywhere from 10.3 million to 17 million folks to lose health coverage, the vast majority of whom work.
And despite Trumpâs protestations to the contrary, Medicare, the federal health insurance program that primarily covers people 65 and older, will also get whacked because of the bill. See, under a process dubbed âsequestration,â the federal pay-as-you-go statute requires any growth in the deficit caused by newly enacted legislation like Trumpâs bill, be automatically offset by spending cuts. While some programs are exempt from sequestration, Medicare isnât. The budget office projects sequestration will cause $536 billion in Medicare cuts over the next decade, which means Trump was either ignorant of the law or lying.
Then thereâs the harm the bill will wreak on the state government budgets, like Illinoisâ General Fund. Over 94% of all General Fund spending on services goes to education, health care, human services and public safety. Unfortunately, the General Fund has a structural deficit, which means annual revenue growth is inadequate to continue funding the same level of those core services from year to year, even when the economy is growing.
Because Illinoisâ income tax is based on federal law, when the feds cut taxes, so does Illinois. As the billâs tax cuts filter down to Illinois, theyâll worsen the structural deficit by $923 million over the next 10 years. But thatâs just the tip of the iceberg. Combined with the Medicaid and SNAP cuts, the billâs potential impact on the General Fund is a 10-year financial hit that exceeds $50 billion. Which means Illinois either has to raise taxes or slash spending on core services like K-12 education, because Trump decided to feather the nests of his bajillionaire cronies.
Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank, and the Arthur Rubloff professor of public policy at Roosevelt University.
#bigbeautifulbill #Trumpdictator #USrecession #USDEBT Trumpâs âbig, beautiful billâ to shrink US population: CBO
Republicansâ One Big Beautiful Bill Act will shrink the size of the U.S. population by hundreds of thousands of people, mostly due to new laws supporting Trumpâs immigration crackdown.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found Wednesday that by 2035, there will be 320,000 fewer people in the U.S. subject to Social Security and 280,000 fewer people in the noninstitutionalized population, the group of U.S. people who arenât in prison, the military or in long-term medical care.
The numbers are relative to a January estimate and are âhighly uncertain,â depending on factors like judicial rulings and detention capacity, the CBO cautioned.
The bill allotted more than $70 billion over four years to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to boost border security operations. It also gives $47 billion for physical barrier infrastructure, $5 billion for new CBP facilities, and $4 billion for increased hiring.
Wednesdayâs CBO estimate is broadly consistent with some other recent estimates, which also show a huge expected drop in immigration for this year. The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, estimated a net outflow of 205,000 people from the U.S. for 2025.
Republicansâ new law is also expected to have a major effect on the population growth rate, which is expected to rise by 0.2 percent per year â less than one-fifth the average annual growth rate seen from 1975 to 2024, when it was 0.9 percent per year.
The report shows that immigration to the U.S. has been soaring since the pandemic, with net immigration being several multiples larger than the total number of people who are born and die each year. Net immigration is expected to even out with net births around 2055 as population growth taper down toward zero.
The population drop is likely already having significant economic effects. Job creation has fallen off a cliff in recent months, with the economy adding just 22,000 jobs in August. Over the last three months, a slim 29,000 jobs have been added per month.
But despite the reduced pace of job creation, the labor market is not wildly out of balance. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 percent in August from 4.2 percent in July, and the ratio of unemployed people to available jobs is close to 1-to-1, though it favors employers.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell described employment conditions as âcuriousâ in August, with both demand for workers and the available supply coming down together in recent months. Other recent data has shown that employees are holding onto their jobs during this resetting period. Despite the overall balance, Powell has stressed that downside risks are mounting.
âThis unusual situation suggests that downside risks to employment are rising,â he said last month. âAnd if those risks materialize, they can do so quickly in the form of sharply higher layoffs and rising unemployment.â
The CBO expects the population dip coming from the One Big Beautiful Bill over the next few years to be mostly a result of forcible removals of migrants but also due to voluntary emigration as well as detention.
The removal of 290,000 immigrants and the emigration of 30,000 people is expected to occur between 2026 and 2030. About 50,000 people will be held in jails, prisons and other facilities between 2026 and 2029 as a result of the law.
How the âbig, beautiful billâ harms higher education
 The âbig, beautiful billââalso known as the âbig, ugly betrayalââthat Republicans in Congress passed and President Donald Trump recently si
Making college harder to attend
The headlining losers in this new law are Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, two pieces of the safety net that are essential for the survival and well-being of millions of Americansâincluding many college students. But it also guts $300 billion from higher education, seriously damaging access to education, one of the most reliable pathways out of poverty and into the middle class. By driving up loan repayment costs, slashing financial aid and cutting support for public institutions, this law puts college out of reach for far too many Americans and deepens an already inequitable opportunity gap.
The law threatens death by a thousand cuts. Among them:
It eliminates the most affordable repayment options on student loans. These income-driven repayment options set monthly loan payments according to a personâs income. But this law shifts the rules so that the typical college graduate will pay nearly $3,000 more per year in student loan payments.
It jeopardizes access to education programs for would-be educators, early childhood workers and social workers by withholding federal funding from any program that cannot prove its graduates meet certain earning requirements after graduation. This throws low-earning professions like public service work into jeopardy.
It eliminates grad PLUS loans, which help cover expenses for graduate-level programs. This move would push more than 425,000 students into risky private loans with no consumer protections. Private loans are also ineligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a federal program that cancels student debt for people who work in public service jobs, after they have paid 10 yearsâ worth of loan payments.
It strips away student loan relief for students who attended predatory colleges that misled them, took their student loan money, and failed to provide an acceptable or useful education in return.
It establishes a Workforce Pell Grant that, on the surface, seems good: It would make Pell grants available to a broader range of career training programs, including short-term programs. But because there are few program requirements, that money could go to predatory institutions that could take advantage of students without giving them any meaningful training toward legitimate careers. The AFT is concerned that there are not sufficient guardrails to keep out low-quality, high-cost programs.
Fighting at the state level
Even before the big, ugly betrayal of a federal tax law was passed, and long before the Trump White House began to take a cudgel to public education, colleges and universities had been struggling for funding at the state level. With federal cuts, that situation is worse.
With the loss of state revenue, tuition and fees rise and the cost burden of attendance shifts to students and families.
State cuts mean decreased academic opportunity and job loss. In some cases, entire programs of study are shuttered, leaving their students nowhere to go and putting faculty out of work.
Cuts to college faculty, staff, administration, buildings, grounds services and more impact local communities and small businesses around those colleges, turning what could be a thriving community of learning and support into a cycle of despair.
There are many ways to fight for state funding, though, and the AFT offers a number of resources to guide affiliates in that work. A higher ed state advocacy toolkit is available, for example. And state-specific fact sheets show the potential impact of federal cuts on students, colleges, small businesses and local communities in that state.
Educators can also tell their stories, a crucial step to helping legislators understand whatâs at stake. While budget details can be overwhelming, ultimately public higher education is a public good that benefits us all. The stories that show thisâthe inspiring professors, the supportive staff and most of all the students whose lives have been profoundly changed by their college experiencesâare the ones most likely to move legislators to fight alongside us for the funding and the policies we need to save public higher education.
Protestors hold press conference to speak out against the Big Beautiful Bill
Nearly a hundred people brought picket signs and their frustrations to Juan Ciscomani's office, with disapproval over his support of The Big
TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) â Nearly 100 people brought picket signs and their frustrations to Juan Ciscomani's office, with disapproval over his support of The Big Beautiful Bill, and demands to support their healthcare.
Elected officials, community leaders, and people from all across Arizona held a press conference, calling out Ciscomani's actions.
The Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law in July of 2025.
The bill, supported by President Donald Trump and some members of the Republican Party, would extend Trump's tax cuts from 2017.
However, protestors are worried that these cuts will come at the cost of cuts in healthcare, Medicaid, and SNAP benefits, hurting thousands of Arizonans.
Political organizer Marissa Sanders says she's one of those Arizonans affected.
â Iâm a single mother of two. I do have a child with special needs," Sanders said. "Having this medical assistance is how I get the care that my child needs to help. This will cut a lot of things in our community.â
Arizona State Senate Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan and Arizona Representative Nancy Gutierrez came to speak in what they say has been a weekly effort from citizens.
âI want to point out that our representative, Juan Ciscomani, doesnât listen to his constituents, the people you know, he doesnât show up at events," Gutierrez said.
âRegular working-class people, the most vulnerable in our communities, need this support so that they can move forward," Sundareshan said.
In a prior interview with KGUN 9, Congressman Ciscomani had this to say about the bill:
"We know that with any decision we make, there will be a split decision. In this case, other people are going to like it; some people arenât. Thatâs just the nature of this district."
Organizers at the press conference, like Valeria Espinoza and Anna Karina Rodriguez, want more from the congressman.
âWe've been asking for town halls. We've been asking for his presence. We've been asking to come into his office, all of it," Espinoza said.
"So, it's important for us to make sure that he knows that what he's done to our community is wrong," Rodriguez said.
Experts say Trump's interference in Federal Reserve independence poses risks to the economy. President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook could undermine the central bank's independence and ultimately endanger the finances of American households, economic and financial analysts warned.
Economic and financial analysts are warning that President Donald Trumpâs attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook risks undermining the central bankâs independence â something that could ultimately put U.S. householdsâ finances at risk.
Late Monday, Trump moved to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud. He cited a âcriminal referralâ from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte that alleged discrepancies on Cookâs mortgage application documents. Cook has refused to step down, and on Tuesday, she said she was planning to file a lawsuit challenging Trumpâs move.
Cook serves on the Federal Reserveâs committee for setting interest rates throughout the economy. To determine where that rate should be, the committee members weigh risks to unemployment and inflation. When the job market starts to look weak, the Fed tends to lower rates. When the risk from inflation is greater, it tends to increase them. Both moves carry risks: Higher rates can stifle economic growth, while lower rates can lead to ballooning inflation.
Trump has called for lower rates since he took office, citing a general desire to bolster economic growth while dismissing concerns about inflation. While past presidents have expressed views about monetary policy, Trumpâs influence attempts are largely unprecedented â no Fed member has ever been removed for cause.
Itâs setting off alarm bells, not simply over disagreements about interest rate levels, but for what undue influence on the Fed could do to the economy. Academics have consistently concluded that meddling with the independence of central banks like the Federal Reserve can lead to worsening inflation, because it removes a key check on the governmentâs tendency to borrow as much money as it can.
"Presidential capture of the Fed would signal to decision-makers throughout the economy that interest rates will no longer be set on the basis of sound data or economic conditions â but instead on the whims of the president," the Economic Policy Institute said in a statement.
"Confidence that the Fed will respond wisely to future periods of macroeconomic stress â either excess inflation or unemployment â will evaporate," it added.
Interfering with the Fedâs independence âwill make markets less stable and fuel inflationary pressures â hurting working people and weakening the economy as a whole,â Elizabeth Wilkins, who was chief of staff to the chair at the Federal Trade Commission under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, said in a statement.
So far, investors are taking the Cook drama in stride. Stocks started the day lower Tuesday but eventually returned to positive territory, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 44 points, or 0.1%.
However, the yield, or return demanded by investors for lending to the government, on the 30-year Treasury note briefly climbed to August highs of about 4.9%, a sign investors are worried about longer-term inflation concerns.
Trump administration officials have dismissed concerns about threats to the Fedâs independence and doubled down on the accusations against Cook.
