News analysis | The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed its version of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the 940-page tax and spending megabill that Republicans say will lower taxes and spark new economic growth in South Carolina and across the country.
But with the bill now headed back to a closely divided U.S. House for a final vote, nonpartisan analysts told the Charleston City Paper that South Carolinians should expect to see major economic impacts if the bill becomes law.
Those impacts, they say, would likely include lower income taxes, higher health-care and electric bills, fewer rural hospitals and nursing homes, and a slowdown in the state’s fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) and battery industry as federal subsidies disappear.
But perhaps the biggest long term impact, economists note, is the bill’s bottom-line budget math — roughly $5 trillion in new and extended tax cuts, $1.5 trillion in spending reductions, and $3.5 trillion in new debt. They say all of that spending could ultimately lead to higher consumer interest rates on items like home mortgages, car loans and credit card purchases.
According to supporters, including S.C.’s senior U.S. senator, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, the tradeoffs in the bill would strengthen the country.
“If you like higher taxes, open borders, a weak military and unchecked government spending, this bill is your nightmare,” Graham said in a June 28 press release. “The Big Beautiful Bill contains all of President Trump’s domestic economic priorities. By passing this bill now, we will make our nation more prosperous and secure.”
But Democratic opponents like S.C. 6th District Rep. James Clyburn say the bill is a giveaway to wealthy Americans at the expense of the poor and middle class.
“They call it the Big Beautiful Bill,” Clyburn said prior to the first House vote on the legislation. “I call it the Huge Ugly Bill. Republicans are taking food and health care from the poorest to pay for a massive tax cut for the richest.”
From the start, Trump has argued the bill will unleash the American economy and cut the deficit. But economists, energy experts and social service providers say the big picture is complicated — and that understanding exactly what the average South Carolina resident would be giving up in exchange for a modest tax cut is key to judging the bill’s overall merit.
Higher electric bills, fewer high-paying EV jobs
In response to a direct request from Trump, Republicans in the Senate added several items to the House-passed megabill targeting renewable energy production, including the elimination of several Biden-era renewable energy subsidies and a new tax on most solar and wind equipment.
Shortly before Tuesday’s Senate vote, Charleston’s Eddy Moore of the Alliance for Clean Energy said the bill would do real damage to the state’s economic and energy prospects.
“Around the country and in South Carolina specifically, we’ll see higher electric bills and a lot of job losses,” Moore said, noting that renewables are the state’s fastest-growing power source. “But the even bigger damage is the attempt to rewind history and go backward while the rest of the world keeps moving forward on energy policy.”
But most concerning, he said, is the rollback of federal electric vehicle (EV) tax credits and battery investments, which new S.C. factories and plants are relying on .
“This bill is threatening literally the largest economic development projects in our state’s history,” Moore said. “It’s almost certain we’ll lose some of these companies.”
Fewer rural hospitals and nursing homes — and fewer insured
While the House and Senate versions of the budget bill include deep health-care cuts that would threaten South Carolina hospitals and nursing homes, the Senate’s provision eliminating the so-called provider tax, which S.C. uses to unlock billions in federal funding, is seen as a particular danger.
In fact, according to S.C. Hospital Association President and CEO Thornton Kirby, the move would create a $2.4 billion hole in South Carolina’s Medicaid budget, which provides a major source of revenue for state hospitals.
“Many hospitals would not be able to survive the way they are without financial help,” Kirby told S.C. Public Radio on June 26. “If you take $2.4 billion out of the state’s hospital community, you’re going to see layoffs, you’re going to see service reductions, and [in] the worst case scenario, closures.”
Further stress on S.C. hospitals and nursing homes would come from the bill’s broader Medicaid and health-care cuts, which would force emergency rooms to provide uncompensated care to about 230,000 residents who stand to lose their insurance coverage.
“These cuts would threaten providers across the state, for whom Medicaid dollars basically pay the rent,” Columbia-based policy analyst John Ruoff told the City Paper earlier this year. “And that would seriously raise costs for everyone else because those provider costs would have to be shifted onto the rest of us.”
Less food assistance, ‘more hungry people’
Another major source of cost savings in the GOP plan comes from cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides food aid to more than 40 million Americans. The savings would mostly result from additional work requirements and shifting some costs onto state governments.
About 145,000 South Carolinians would lose some or all food assistance under the bill, according to S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center, which works on behalf of poor and working class families throughout the state.
“With the increased work requirements and all the new paperwork, SNAP is going to be more costly for the state to administer, with fewer people being fed,” said Appleseed Director of Policy Sue Berkowitz in a July 1 interview.
Further, she warned, private philanthropy is unlikely to be able to close the food gap, with SNAP currently providing nine meals for every one distributed by Palmetto State food banks, churches and other nonprofits.
“As we lose all of that, we’re going to see more hungry people, and health care outcomes for the people of our state going down,” she said. “It’s not making South Carolinians better, it’s making South Carolinians poorer.”
House leaders say they hope to have the bill back on the floor for a final vote as early as Wednesday morning,
“We’ve got more work to do, but it’s going to get done,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, told reporters late Tuesday afternoon.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)