Letters from an American - A Different Set of Priorities

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

July 15, 2026The American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021 without a single Republican vote, expanded the Child Tax Credit for one year. This temporary expansion lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty before it expired, Five years later, the results of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed without a single Democratic vote, reveals a very different set of priorities, OBBA expanded tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, cutting more than $1 trillion from social welfare programs, The difference between the two bills reveals how the parties see the purpose of government - for the good of the people or to concentrate wealth and power among a few, Consumers are being screwed by the push to do away with reviews designed to protect people from monopoly power, Trump has called together a select group of Republicans to try to get their funding package which includes billions for military funding, for bailing out farmers hurt by tariffs, and for enacting aspects of the SAVE America Act,  past Congress through budget reconciliation, The administration is also trying to fund immigration enforcement, which has led to two deaths at the hands of ICE agents, Funding the war in Iran, funding voter suppression, and funding the crackdown on immigrants are not popular with Americans, but Trump has pushed continued traffic stops, and continued strikes in Iran, nonetheless.Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

July 15, 26. Exactly five years ago, on July 15th, 2021, I wrote, Today Americans began to see the concrete effects of the American Rescue Plan show up in their bank accounts as the expanded child tax credit goes into effect for one year. Through this program, the child tax credit increased to $3,000 per child, aged 6 to 17, and 3,600 per child under six. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple

or $112,500 for a family with a single parent. The government sent payments for almost 60 million children on Thursday, totaling $15 billion. This is a really big deal. In America, one in seven children lives in poverty, This measure is expected to cut that poverty nearly in half. Studies suggest that addressing childhood poverty continues to pay off over time as it helps adults achieve higher levels of mobility.

The American Rescue Plan passed in March 2021 was an early achievement of the Biden presidency, becoming a signature law as every Republican voted against it. A year later, researchers at the Brookings Institute found, that the temporary expansion of the child tax credit lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty before it expired on December 31st, 2021. Family members did not stop working, as critics said they would. Instead, they used the money to cover routine expenses, decreasing their reliance on credit cards, had better nutrition, and made long-term investments in education for both children and parents.

Now, five years later, the results of the Republicans' signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, passed without a single Democratic vote and signed into law last July, are revealing a very different set of priorities. The OBBBA extended or expanded more than $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthy corporations, while cutting more. than a trillion dollars from social welfare programs. It did increase the child tax credit, but less than it would have if Congress had just adjusted the credit based on inflation since it had set the amount in 2017. And, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute of Tax and Economic Policy, the benefits from the OBBBA measure went mostly to the richest fifth of Americans, dropping essentially to zero by the time they got to the poorest fifth. The measure cut $187 billion in federal funding from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP,

and on Monday, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that between the passage of the OBBBA in July 2025 and March 26, the last month for which there is data from all states, more than 4 million people lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. At least a quarter of those people are children. Those losses will mount in 2027, after the mid-term elections, when states will have to assume much more of the costs of the program. At the center of the difference between the Democrat signature bill and the Republicans is how the representatives of those parties see the purpose of the American government.

Should it be used for the good of the American people, or to concentrate wealth and power among a few? On July 9th, Carol Lenig and Ken Delanian of MS Now reported that Trump's appointees in the Department of Justice are overruling the career attorneys in the antitrust division who have called for reviews of how corporate mergers and acquisitions might lead to price gouging for consumers and taxpayers. Trump-appointed officials are pushing ahead without reviews designed to protect the American people from monopoly power, and, in what former Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer called unilateral surrender, are not pursuing lawsuits to enforce antitrust laws. Consumers are getting really screwed by all of this, a source told Lenig and Delanian. We're talking 10 years of consumer harm that can't be undone.

On Friday, Trump called a select group of Republicans who sit on the House Budget Committee to Camp David to put together a funding package, primarily for military funding, that they can get past Congress through budget reconciliation, a process that will not need any Democratic votes. Even the invitation to Camp David was controversial, though. Trump extended invitations to members of the Far Right Freedom Caucus, but not to the more moderate Republicans on the committee. Invitations were secret and members' phones were confiscated at Camp David. Budget committee member Aaron Houchin, a Republican of Indiana, told Jake Sherman of Punch Bowl news that she was urging committee members to vote no on the package. Today, House Republicans

released a $95 billion budget framework to provide another $73 billion for additional military funding for the war on Iran, a $12 billion bailout for farmers hurt by Trump's tariff wars, and $10 billion to enact aspects of the Save America measure Trump has been unable to convince Congress to pass. Money for farmers was part of a sweetener to try to get Democrats on board with the measure, but it does not appear to be enough to get them to agree to fund an unpopular war and voter suppression. Representative Brendan Boyle, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told Kevin Frecking and Lisa Mascaro of the Federal News Network, I'm going to fight like hell to make sure taxpayer dollars are being used to lower costs and make life

better for American families, not to bankroll Trump's giveaways to billionaires and endless wars overseas. This America-last budget would add tens of billions more to the national debt to fund the most unpopular war in American history, Boyle said. Katie Edmondson of the New York Times noted that spending requests are usually dealt with through the bipartisan appropriations process, but Republicans are, once again, trying to maneuver around the Democrats to fund priorities the Democrats reject, an immigration enforcement surge that has led to two deaths at the hands of ice agents in the past week, and the war in Iran. Even Republicans don't appear to want to throw more money at the Iran war before the midterms, especially as the Pentagon has been opaque about the costs of the war,

and the White House has refused to confer with Congress about it. They also don't want to fund the unpopular voter suppression measure Trump wants, as prices for everyday Americans at the gas pump and grocery store are noticeably higher than they were a few months ago. Representative Warren Davidson, a Republican of Ohio, wrote on social media that the Republican's budget plan was DOA, or dead on arrival. The deaths six days apart of two immigrants, neither one of whom was the intended target of the operation during which they were shot in Kemp, has rekindled the unpopularity of the administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. As protests broke out in the wake of the shooting death of Johann Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine yesterday, Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, called for Homeland Security Secretary Mark

Wayne Mullen to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops. Collins, who is running for re-election, is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and was a key vote in the June measure that provided an additional $70 billion for immigration enforcement through 2019. As Margie O'Harran of the Brennan Center noted, $70 billion is more than the budgets for all other federal law enforcement agencies combined, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshal's Service. ICE issued a memo yesterday ordering agents to prioritize tactics other than traffic stops,

prompting praise from Collins. But at 6.45 this morning, Trump insisted, incorrectly, that the people ICE is rounding up are criminals and we have to get them out. In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we cannot give up one of ICE's most important and effective crime-fighting tools, the traffic stop. Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal's hands. The radical left Democrats would like to see this done, but it won't happen on my watch. Ice, be judicious, fair, and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those crime stats records coming. you are loved and respected in America.

The Iran War is also back on the front burner. On Monday, Trump announced he was reimposing a blockade on Iran and that the U.S. would become the guardian of the Hormu Strait. Yesterday, he reversed course, claiming that Gulf Allies had told him they would rather invest directly in the U.S., claiming that U.S. allies told him they would rather invest directly in the U.S. than pay tolls. Last night, Barack Ravid of Axios, who often has inside information from the White House, reported that Trump yesterday held a meeting in the Situation Room with his top national security team

to discuss new plans for devastating strikes against Iran. Those in the room included Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, defense secretary Pete Higgsith, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Cain, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, White House Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Whitkoff, and other senior officials, Ravid reported. Before the meeting, Trump told the Fox News Channel that after the hard strikes this week, next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all their power plants. We're going to knock out all their bridges. We're going to knock out all their bridges. unless they get to the table and negotiate. Attacks on civilian infrastructure are usually illegal under international law.

Nate Swanson, a former member of Trump's negotiating team, told foreign policy specialist Laura Rosen of diplomatic that Trump's escalation was probably a ploy to kickstart further negotiations. I think it's a very risky and low probability gamble, but nothing else makes sense. I don't see a feasible pathway toward military victory, nor do I believe that we can militarily open the Strait of Hormuz against Iran's wishes. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

When I wrote about the importance of the American Rescue Plan five years ago, I ended my discussion of it with the observation that this huge achievement of the Biden presidency, every single Republican voted against it, has taken a back seat in the news to two blockbuster stories about the former president. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts,

recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.