Following passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) Thursday, National Taxpayers Union (NTU) applauded Congress for improving the tax code and urged all senators and representatives to immediately begin work on a serious and sustained deficit-reduction strategy focused on additional spending restraint.
The bill, scheduled to be signed into law by President Donald Trump tomorrow, includes many critical victories for taxpayers and the economy:
- Locks in most of the expiring tax policies from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, offering much-needed certainty for working families and small businesses.
- Restores pro-growth cost recovery provisions to encourage investment and job creation.
- Reforms Medicaid and SNAP to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse; measures that protect benefits for the individuals who truly depend on them.
“OBBBA is an important step forward for taxpayers, and we commend lawmakers for advancing key reforms,” National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp said. “But from an overall fiscal perspective, there is a great deal of urgent, unfinished legislative business. Our national debt continues to grow at an unsustainable pace. Congress cannot afford to stop here.”
NTU’s research arm, National Taxpayers Union Foundation, identified an additional $1 trillion in potential offsets and savings that could have strengthened the bill. As the legislation heads to the desk of President Trump for his signature, attention must turn to the next critical phase: reducing the deficit and restraining spending.
Federal borrowing remains dangerously high, and economic uncertainty, from volatile global markets to the long-term consequences of unsustainable debt, poses serious risks to prosperity. NTU is calling on lawmakers to act swiftly and ambitiously on fiscal reform.
At a minimum, Congress should:
- Establish a bipartisan fiscal commission to examine key debt drivers (i.e., entitlements) and present reform proposals for an up-or-down vote in both chambers.
- Return to regular order in the appropriations process, with a 302(a) allocation significantly lower than the $1.6 trillion set for FY2025.
- Approve H.R. 4, the recissions package, to reclaim $9.4 billion in unspent funds.
- Pass additional recissions packages to further reduce current-year discretionary spending.
- Pursue broader spending reductions and long-overdue budget process reforms.
“Taxpayers needed the certainty and stability in tax policy contained in OBBBA,” Sepp said. “Now they need a long-term plan to protect the economy from crushing debt and reckless spending. Without that, the gains made in this bill will ultimately prove fleeting. We stand ready right now to work with lawmakers on the next round of reforms that promote economic growth and fiscal responsibility.”