What does the "One Big Beautiful Bill" Actually Say?

by Spears Dracona · May 27, 2025 · Updated Jun 8, 2025 · 6 min read

Content Warning: Discussion of anti-trans legislation and potential loss of social safety nets

This post is based on a response I made to an image I saw floating around on social media. I thought some of the claims sounded implausible, so I decided to do a little digging.

Introduction

On May 22, 2025, the US House of Representatives approved the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It is now waiting on the Senate for a vote. The bill spans over a thousand pages of dense legal language, with provisions that impact a wide range of federal programs and policies. Naturally, this has sparked a ton of commentary, some of which is accurate, some of which is exaggerated or outright false.

An image with bold yellow and white text on a black background, warning about a bill referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The headline says: “If this passes, we won’t have another election.” The text claims that if the bill passes, Trump could legally delay elections, ignore Supreme Court rulings, fire workers for disloyalty, criminalize protests, and gut LGBTQ+ rights, education, and healthcare. It also alleges that VPNs, votes, and speech would be tracked or suppressed. The final paragraphs assert that the bill “rewrites the law” to enable authoritarianism, concluding with a call to action: “Share this. Speak up. Show up. Now.
An image that has been circulating on social media. Original author unknown.

This graphic has been circulating on social media since at least May 25th. I have not been able to identify the original creator, but I have seen it shared by multiple friends.

I thought that many of these claims, particularly those about elections being cancelled or delayed if this passes, sounded unrealistic, so I decided to do some digging in the bill itself. Here’s what I found.

Untrue Claims

There is nothing in the bill about delaying or cancelling elections. There are no provisions that would allow votes to be suppressed. This bill does not change the election process at all.

There is nothing in the bill that criminalizes protests, tracks protestors, or gives the government any new powers to restrict speech. This bill does not attempt to take away our freedom of speech or our right to peaceably assemble. And there’s nothing about tracking VPNs either.

There is nothing that allows the government to fire federal employees for disloyalty. The closest provision is Section 90004, which states that new hires will be allowed to voluntarily elect into at-will employment for reduced retirement contributions. Basically they’ll be allowed to save a little bit of money in the short term (it is unclear if the government will increase its contribution to make up the difference) and in exchange they’ll be easier to fire.

Partially True Claims

There is no sweeping authority to ignore Supreme Court rulings or eliminate judicial power, but there are several sections that restrict the authority of the courts in regulatory matters, specifically natural gas pipelines (Sec. 41005), coastal plain oil and gas leasing in Alaska (Sec. 80121), The National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska (Sec. 80122), and the Ambler Road Project (80132). This bill limits who can challenge federal approval of certain energy and infrastructure projects in court, shielding them from challenges from the public, environmental groups, and tribal authorities unless they can prove that they are directly harmed by these projects.

True Claims

LGBTQ+ rights are directly affected. Specifically, Section 44125 prohibits the use of Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender affirming care (the bill uses the term “gender transition procedures”) for minors. This includes hormones, puberty blockers, and surgery. It’s also worth noting that the bill specifically excludes procedures to “correct” (their word, not mine) intersex traits from these restrictions, a double standard that speaks volumes about this administration’s stance on bodily autonomy.

Section 44201 prohibits Affordable Care Act Marketplace insurance plans from covering gender affirming care as an essential health benefit for any plan beginning on or after January 1, 2027. This means that ACA plans will be legally barred from including coverage for gender affirming surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers for both minors and adults.

Other Issues

A significant portion of this bill is dedicated to tax cuts. A neutral and comprehensive breakdown of the tax provisions in this bill, written by multiple tax experts, can be found on this page from Proskauer Tax Talks. There are a lot of changes here, and it would take more financial expertise than I have to anticipate the long term affects of these changes in tax policy. Fortunately, The Tax Foundation has done a thorough analysis on the potential long term effects of this bill, and found that while it may result in a marginal increase to our GDP, it will drastically increase the federal deficit.

Another area of concern the child tax credit. While this bill increases the credit and makes it permanent, it requires every adult taxpayer in the household, and the child, to have a valid Social Security number. This change will affect many immigrant families. There are many mixed-status families with children who are US citizens who will no longer be eligible for the child tax credit, according to this article from the Tax Policy Center.

Many people are celebrating the tax cuts in this bill. In general, people like keeping their money, but taxes fund many government services that people rely on. This begs the question, if they are cutting taxes so much, what else are they cutting?

It looks like the answer to that is social safety nets. Here are a few sections that reduce funding or access to programs that support vulnerable populations:

  • Sections 10001-10012 significantly change food assistance programs, expanding work requirements, reducing flexibility for states, and eliminating nutrition education.

  • Section 44201 is a huge section focused on cutting back Affordable Care Act coverage.

  • Section 44110 increases documentation requirements for Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, which are meant to target undocumented immigrants, but may affect legal immigrants as well, especially children in mixed-status families.

Overall, this bill is bad news for immigrants and anyone who depends on government programs for food and healthcare.

Conclusion

There is legitimate cause for concern in this bill, particularly around LGBTQ+ healthcare access, the federal deficit, social safety nets, and environmental accountability. These are not abstract policy debates. They directly impact real people’s lives, health, and basic survival.

That’s why we need to push back against misinformation, even when it’s coming from our own side. Exaggerated claims get shared on social media, but they weaken our arguments, undermine honest critique, and make it easier for opponents to dismiss our points when we are talking about the very real harm that bills like this can cause.

We are living with the consequences of a culture that communicates in viral sound bites designed to provoke fear and shut down critical thinking. The more we simplify complex issues and let algorithms decide what information we engage with, the further we drift from the truth.

The path to resistance isn’t liking, sharing, or commenting on a viral post. It’s reading, thinking, and learning.

US PoliticsPoliticsDonald TrumpHuman RightsTrans RightsHealthcareCommentaryFact CheckLGBTQ RightsNewsMedia LiteracyImmigrationTax Policy