Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ bill is at risk — and it’s the GOP that could sink it

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill is still in its pupa stage — and some Republicans seem to be doing all they can to make it emerge as a small and ugly bug, not the butterfly they’ve promised.

Nearly four months into his second term, Trump has hit a slump.

The negative response to his “Liberation Day” tariffs added to a feeling of unease nagging at much of the country, dragging the president’s approval rating down.

The much-heralded reconciliation bill that Trump has promised represents the first — perhaps the only — chance for him and congressional Republicans to turn the ship around and avert a blue wave in 2026.

Which makes it all the more baffling that some in the GOP seem willing to sink it.

At issue are three particularly foolish ideas.

First, a strange alliance of populist and fiscal-hawk Republicans wants to double down on Trump’s tariff folly by raising taxes on high-earning Americans.

Trump himself has expressed interest in the idea, declaring on Truth Social last week that he would “graciously accept” a tax hike on the rich “in order to help the lower and middle income workers.”

The president has even privately lobbied Speaker Mike Johnson “to raise the top tax rate and close the carried-interest loophole,” according to Punchbowl News.

Some Republicans, like Texas Rep. Chip Roy, see such measures as a way of reducing the budget deficit.

Others want to virtue-signal GOP allegiance to “the little guy.”

But robbing Peter is of no help to Paul, as Republicans have argued for decades — and punishing those at the top of the ladder won’t benefit those still climbing it.

Indeed, it will only make that climb that much more difficult, by discouraging the investment and risk-taking that drive economic growth.

Moreover, the way to fix a budget deficit is to cut spending, not cut into Americans’ earnings.

If there’s any political plus to pushing a tax hike, it’s sure to prove fleeting compared to the longer-term consequences of limiting the economy’s potential.

A second group of Republicans, these from blue states, is pushing hard for a higher cap on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, which was lowered to just $10,000 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Four New Yorkers — Elise Stefanik, Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler — loudly objected last week to the idea of raising the SALT cap by $20,000, going so far as to call the proposal “insulting” and threatening to vote against the final budget bill if it didn’t go further.

It’s no mystery why: Their wealthiest constituents are clamoring for the chance to use their sky-high state income taxes as a means of reducing their federal tax bills.

But the SALT deduction is, in practice, a gift to state Democrats who get to raise taxes on their residents, cheat them on services in exchange — and get away with the scam scot-free, because the federal government subsidizes it all.

It’s only natural for taxpayers in blue states, and the politicians representing them, to be tempted by a higher SALT cap — but its effect only further entrenches tax-and-spend liberals in capitals like Albany.

Besides, it’s not fair for voters in better-run red states to pay more in federal taxes because they’ve had the good sense to put Republicans in charge.

Yet another faction of so-called “moderate” Republicans wants to keep sending taxpayer dollars to the country’s largest abortion provider, bucking the rest of the party.

A group that reportedly includes Lawler, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) is lobbying to protect Planned Parenthood’s federal funding.

“I’m not for taking away people’s health care,” explained Lawler.

“There’s other policy areas that we need to focus on,” insisted Fitzpatrick.

Is there a more appropriate word for such utterances than “backward”?

Health care is vital, and there are any number of important issues deserving of Congress’ attention.

Yet neither of those facts provides a good reason to force pro-life Americans to subsidize the hundreds of thousands of abortions Planned Parenthood performs every year.

A Republican Congress choosing to continue that federal support would doubtless strike those Americans as an enormous betrayal, and rightly so.

The final version of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will determine how his second White House stint is ultimately remembered — and whether or not a lot of elected Republicans remain in office two years from now.

If it’s to fulfill its full potential and save both Trump’s legacy and legislators’ jobs, all of them will have to set aside their personal hobby horses and put the country’s best interests first.

The alternative is an amalgamation of half-measures and bad ideas for which they are sure to pay a heavy price.

Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite.