West Virginia Watch – If you scroll through social media or watch the news, you’ll see our members of Congress and special interest groups practically begging West Virginians to believe that the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (HR 1) is good for us. But West Virginians know a bad deal when we see one. This legislation takes away health care and food assistance and raises costs for nearly all of us — while handing giant tax cuts to the wealthy. And with West Virginia among the states slated to be hardest hit by program cuts, it’s our communities who will pay the price.
Read the full op-ed.
Our members of Congress claim the bill delivers tax cuts for West Virginia families. But their claims do not hold up for everyday West Virginians. Most of the so-called “new” cuts they claim in their figures are already in place. More importantly, the dollar figures they cite are misleading — skewed by massive tax breaks for millionaires.
Here in West Virginia, the bottom 40% of households are expected to see their taxes increase compared with what they pay now, while the median household will get a tax cut less than half the size of the “average” touted by bill supporters. Meanwhile, the wealthiest households will reap the biggest benefits, with 80 percent going to the wealthiest 10 percent of households. Once you factor in tariffs and other provisions, independent experts project that by 2027, 99 percent of households nationwide will actually be worse off financially.
