While Congress looks at Trump’s budget proposal for the year from October 1 through September 2026, Trump allies have other pressing business: paying for tax reductions for wealthy Americans. We’ve written before about how Republicans are likely to partially cover the cost of the tax cuts by cutting federal money supporting Medicaid coverage for roughly 20 million people — but even those cuts only go so far. Plans moving through Republican-run committees this week include new details, and there are some doozies (courtesy of the Congressional Progressive Caucus):
- For education, caps on student loans, restrictions on who can receive them, an end to income-based repayment plans for new borrowers — plus larger monthly installments for borrowers, resulting in an additional $3,000 per year for the median college graduate in repayment;
- For federal workers, reducing retirement payments by setting a reduced baseline for pension benefits, and making workers contribute more of their own incomes to their pensions; and
-
For climate conscious motorists, new yearly federal taxes on electric and hybrid vehicle owners (quite a shift from a tax credit to a tax penalty for cutting fossil-fuel use).
Current status of the unfilibusterable budget-busting MAGA reconciliation package, care of @webuildprogress.bsky.social: www.progressivecaucuscenter.org/unrig-the-ru…
— Brad Johnson (@climatebrad.hillheat.com) 2025-05-05T14:15:28.730Z
But the cuts don’t hit everyone. Plans by House Republicans call for spending $52 billion on walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and $45 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers — a massive increase, good through September 2029. As a frame of reference, ICE’s entire annual budget at present is $9.6 billion.