U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle keeps sounding the alarm on the Big Beautiful Bill

With less than two weeks to go until the GOP’s self-imposed July 4 deadline to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the U.S. Senate was just forced to go back to the drawing board in its efforts to get everything the GOP majority wants into its version of the budget reconciliation bill that contains President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda. Like the rest of the country, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including those sitting on the chamber’s Budget Committee, are watching and waiting for what comes next – including U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, the committee’s Ranking Member.

Now in his sixth term in Congress, the lifelong Philadelphian is in his first stint on the Budget Committee. And even though, as a member of the minority party, he has had minimal say over the legislation itself, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have plenty to say about what the Republican majority is trying to do with it. In an interview with City & State, Boyle touches on how Pennsylvanians will be affected by different provisions – and what to watch for next.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What do Pennsylvanians need to know about the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act? 

More than anything else, this will be the largest loss of healthcare in both Pennsylvania and American history, all to help subsidize tax cuts that primarily benefit the top 1% nationally. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 16 million Americans will lose their health care. A lot of that comes from the massive cuts to Medicaid, but there are also cuts to the Affordable Care Act and to Medicare. In Pennsylvania, a state with a population of 13 million, approximately 3 million people receive their healthcare through Medicaid. So those 3 million are highly vulnerable, but it's also the healthcare providers, especially in rural areas of the state, as well as urban areas that are especially vulnerable because they have such a high percentage of their patients on Medicaid. 

Other than health care, what else in the bill is cause for alarm?

I would say the second thing to focus on is SNAP, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. There are more than 2 million people in Pennsylvania who get their nutrition assistance or food via the program. They are now very vulnerable because this bill includes the biggest cuts to SNAP in American history. Third, I would point to the Pell Grants, the needs-based grant program that helpse students pay for their undergraduate degrees. About 1 in 3 undergraduate students in Pennsylvania receive Pell Grants. That program is about to be slashed as a result of this bill. Those who are already college graduates and repaying their student loans are going to have higher monthly payments as a result to the massive changes that this bill makes to student loan repayment programs. It eliminates all existing current repayment programs to assist those with lower incomes or working-class backgrounds, replacing them with a program that will make things much more expensive. 

Is there anything in the legislation you could support?

Well, the GOP is using a procedure called reconciliation, which enables them to stiff-arm the minority party and pass this on a go-it-alone approach; they purposely are attempting to make this as partisan as possible. If they were actually to be willing to work with Democrats, I do think we could permanently extend middle class tax cuts and work to find the money that would be used to go for that. Every Democratic member on my committee voted to extend the tax cuts for anyone making under $1 million a year. That would be one area where we could certainly work together. Unfortunately, Donald Trump and the Republican majority have absolutely no

interest in that. 

The Congressional Budget Office analysis shows that if you were in the bottom third in income in America, you will actually be poorer as a result of this bill passing. And that’s truly historic. In previous tax cuts, like the Reagan tax cuts, the George W. Bush tax cuts and even the first Trump tax cuts eight years ago, that wasn’t the case. Everyone got a tax cut. People in lower income brackets got a lot less of a tax cut and the benefit went to the wealthiest 10%, but everyone at least got something and was a little bit better off. This bill is a dramatic departure from those previous Republican tax cuts, because again, the bottom third – that’s anyone making under $55,000 a year in household income – will be worse off and poorer as a result of this bill, while everyone who’s in the top 1% will see the biggest tax cut they’ve ever received.

You were in office for Trump’s first term, which included the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that added trillions to the national deficit during a strong economy. Did that experience prepare you for what you’re dealing with now?

Yes and no. I mean, I was only in my second term then; I now hold a significant position as the lead Democrat on the Budget Committee. What it did prepare me for, however, is to keep the main thing the main thing.

The first time around, every day there was a different Trump spectacle and fiasco. It was good preparation for what the second term would be like, to make sure that I have that perspective of, again, concentrating on on what really matters and not getting caught up with every tweet and utterance that comes from Donald Trump.

What is different about Trump 2.0 versus Trump 1.0 is that Trump 2.0 is significantly more dangerous. The people he has around him are very much aligned with him when it comes to the MAGA agenda. Eight years ago, you had more institutional Republicans as well as some career military folks around him who were much more Institutionalists and would push back. You have a Republican Party now that does not in any way push back against Donald Trump

whatsoever. 

Wha are the “adults in the room” in this administration? Who can you talk to about policy and legislation?

Well, last time, you had people like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and some others who, while Republican or right-leaning, were Institutionalists and would push back against Trump. Now you have people like FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino – I mean, literally, right-wing podcasters who have no government experience whatsoever. Unfortunately, to this point, about five months into his presidency, we have not been able to find one person in that administration who we can really deal with.

During the early days of the COVID pandemic, a lot of the initial COVID legislation that passed with the Democratic House and Republican Senate was negotiated with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin at the White House. We were able to respond pretty quickly to things. If an emergency like that were to happen again, I really don’t know who at the White House we would even be able to work with.

What is your sense of what's going to happen in the Senate before it comes back to you in the House?

Look, the margins are very close. I mean, this bill only passed by one vote in the House of Representatives; they have a little bit more of a cushion in the Senate. However, given the possible changes we made to the bill, it will need to return to the House for a final vote. Right now, Trump has enormous power over Republican members because so many of them are afraid of him. They're afraid of him weighing in on their primary. So to stop the bill, it will have to reach the point in which enough congressional Republicans become more afraid of the opposition to this bill than they are afraid of Donald Trump. 

Do you see that happening?

I will be skeptical until I actually see it happen. The number of Republicans who are willing to stand up to Donald Trump is few and far between.