On August 19, 2025, the debate over President Donald Trump’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) continued to reverberate across the nation, with supporters touting its historic tax cuts and critics warning of deep cuts to social safety nets. The bill, passed by Congress in July and signed into law by President Trump on July 4, has quickly become the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s economic agenda—and a flashpoint for state-level battles over its consequences.
In Oregon, the controversy has taken on a particularly sharp edge. Republican Congressman Cliff Bentz, the state’s lone GOP representative in Washington, issued a pointed statement defending the OBBB against what he described as misleading attacks from Democratic Governor Tina Kotek. According to Bentz, “While the Governor portrays (the bill) as a wholesale attack on children, families and working people, the reality is far different.” He argued that the bill, rather than gutting essential services, targets inefficiencies in state-administered programs and protects Medicaid for those it was meant to serve: seniors, individuals with disabilities, and low-income families.
Governor Kotek, for her part, has sounded the alarm about the bill’s impact. She warned that Oregon could lose more than $15 billion in federal funding for health care, food assistance, and other programs over the next several years. “The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have betrayed American children and families, who will become sicker, hungrier, and less prosperous because of President Trump’s budget bill,” Kotek said in a statement, as reported by Central Oregon Daily News. She highlighted the risk to more than 200,000 Oregonians who could lose health care coverage due to cuts to the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program.
The OBBB’s Medicaid reforms are at the heart of the dispute. The bill requires states to conduct eligibility redeterminations twice annually for able-bodied adults starting in 2027—a change Bentz says will close costly loopholes and reduce fraud. “Oregon is currently the only state in the nation that provides most adult Medicaid recipients with more than two years of continuous eligibility,” Bentz noted, arguing that this policy allows people to retain Medicaid coverage even when they no longer qualify. The bill invests $250 million in system upgrades to help states automate verifications and streamline the process.
But the reforms don’t stop at Medicaid. The bill also imposes new penalties on states with high error rates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. Oregon’s error rate was more than 14% in 2024, leading to federal fines. Under the new law, states with error rates above 5% will be required to contribute up to 20% of the cost of the SNAP state benefit unless corrective action is taken. Bentz was blunt: “The only way to get a state’s attention is to levy a penalty when the state fails to do its job.”
Governor Kotek, however, has argued that these changes will make it harder for Oregonians to access food assistance, with her office estimating a $3 billion loss in federal SNAP funding in the coming years. Rural hospitals and health advocates have joined the chorus of concern, warning that the cuts could devastate vulnerable communities, especially in Bentz’s largely rural district. At a recent meeting in Madras, Oregon Rep. Janelle Bynum and the Oregon Nurses Association criticized Bentz’s support for the bill. “I mean, where you at, boy?” Bynum asked, highlighting the frustration among local leaders.
Bentz countered that the bill’s critics are ignoring its many benefits. He pointed to $10 billion in tax cuts for farmers and ranchers, increased disaster relief funding, stronger crop insurance, and higher wheat reference prices as provisions that will help rural Oregonians. He also cited extensions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, new deductions for tips, overtime pay, Social Security benefits, and U.S.-made vehicles, as well as increased funding for the military, border wall construction, and expansion of the Border Patrol. “Silence on these important matters is one thing—but pushing out misleading and fear-generating statements regarding the bill is quite another,” Bentz said.
The economic impact of the OBBB is already being felt in other states. According to a new report from the Tax Foundation, New Hampshire residents will receive an average tax break of $4,597 in 2026 thanks to the new law. The average tax bill is projected to drop further in subsequent years, with Rockingham County seeing the largest decrease at $5,959. The Tax Foundation estimates the bill will create more than 5,000 new jobs in New Hampshire alone and nearly one million jobs nationwide.
The law raises the cap on state and local tax deductions to $40,000 for those making less than $500,000 annually, expands child tax credits and standard deductions, and reduces taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security payments. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly called the bill “the largest, most consequential tax cut on the middle class ever,” according to The Center Square. She added, “Between lower inflation, massive investments, and historic tax cuts, all Americans are reaping the benefits of the Trump Economy—and the Golden Age has just begun.”
Yet not everyone is convinced. The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the law will add $2.4 trillion to the national debt, a figure that has given pause to fiscal conservatives and deficit hawks alike. Critics argue that the tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy, while the cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and other safety-net programs threaten to increase hardship for the most vulnerable Americans.
The debate over tax policy is also playing out at the state level, most notably in Georgia. On August 19, 2025, Georgia Republicans, led by Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones—who is running for governor with Trump’s endorsement—began exploring plans to eliminate the state’s personal income tax ahead of the 2026 election. “If we want to continue to stay competitive in the state of Georgia and continue to be the number one state to do business, we’ve got to be looking for ways to keep us competitive and make it where we have a competitive advantage over states that we are competing with all the time,” Jones said at a committee meeting, as reported by The Associated Press.
Most Republican lawmakers praised the idea, saying it would help working families and small businesses and keep Georgia in line with states like Florida and Tennessee, which have no state income tax. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, spoke in favor of the cuts, arguing that eliminating income taxes attracts investment and new residents. “When you attract more people into the state and more investment into the state, you end up with both more money for individuals but also more tax revenue at lower rates,” Norquist said.
Georgia’s income tax is expected to generate $20 billion in 2026, nearly half the state’s revenue. Democrats, however, oppose the proposal, warning it would mainly benefit the wealthy and reduce funding for vital services, especially amid federal cuts to food stamps, education grants, and disaster relief. Democratic Sen. Nan Orrock cautioned, “I can go on and on with needs that we have now in many areas that would argue for having a robust revenue to meet the needs of our citizens.”
As the dust settles on the OBBB and its ripple effects are felt across the country, the divide between those who see it as a path to prosperity and those who view it as a threat to the social contract remains as wide as ever. For now, the only certainty is that the debate over taxes, spending, and the role of government is far from over.
