The One Big Beautiful Bill: A Bold Conservative Victory—with Some Hard Questions

By nearly any measure, the One Big Beautiful Bill is the most ambitious piece of conservative legislation in a generation. It defunds Planned Parenthood. It makes the Trump-era tax cuts permanent. It slashes red tape. It restores work requirements for welfare. It expands parental rights, defends religious liberty, and gives teeth to border enforcement.

There’s plenty here to cheer. But if we’re honest, and we should be, there are also serious concerns that can’t be ignored. Some provisions miss the mark. Others raise red flags about long-term fiscal sustainability. This isn’t a time for blind celebration. It’s a time for qualified praise, critical thinking, and honest conservatism.

Here’s what’s in the bill, and what conservatives should celebrate, question, or keep a close eye on.

What We Like

Defunding Planned Parenthood (Finally)

The bill delivers something long sought by social conservatives: a federal funding cutoff for Planned Parenthood, at least for one year. The original ten-year ban was trimmed down due to Senate reconciliation rules, but this still marks the first time Congress has successfully cut off Medicaid funding to the abortion provider. It’s temporary. for now, but it sets a long-overdue precedent.

Making the Trump Tax Cuts Permanent

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had a built-in expiration for individual tax rates after 2025. This bill ends that uncertainty by making those tax cuts permanent, including the lower income brackets and the doubled standard deduction.

Other tax reforms made permanent or expanded include:

• Pass-through business deduction (Section 199A), now locked in at 20%.
• Child tax credit raised to $2,200 (adjusted for inflation).
• Estate tax exemption permanently doubled to $15 million ($30 million for couples).
• AMT and SALT caps, casualty-loss rules, and mortgage interest deductions fixed or extended.

This is welcome news for workers, families, and small businesses who now have long-term clarity in their tax planning.

Real Border Enforcement

The bill doesn’t just talk tough on immigration, it acts:

• Funds new border wall construction.
• Triples hiring for Border Patrol and ICE agents.
• Cuts off funding to sanctuary cities.
• Mandates nationwide E-Verify to prevent illegal employment.

This is the most serious immigration enforcement legislation in decades, and long overdue.

Welfare Reform: Restoring Responsibility

Able-bodied adults without dependents will now need to work, look for work, or train for work in order to receive Medicaid, SNAP, or housing assistance. The bill also encourages states to set time limits on those benefits.

It’s a return to the principle that assistance should be tied to personal effort and responsibility.

Parents Reclaim the Classroom

With a new federal education transparency portal, parents will be able to see what’s being taught in their children’s public schools. The bill also:

• Blocks funding for programs promoting critical race theory or radical gender ideology.
• Expands school choice block grants to states.

Parents are put back in charge of their children’s education, and public institutions are made more accountable.

Protecting Religious Liberty

The bill strengthens conscience protections in health care and education, shields faith-based organizations from politicized “hate” designations, and ensures that religious institutions can operate in line with their beliefs without federal interference.

What Gives Us Pause

Why Cut EV Incentives Across the Board?

In its effort to roll back green energy subsidies, the bill also eliminates electric vehicle tax credits, even those benefiting U.S. manufacturers like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid Motors.

That’s a strategic misstep. While Chinese automakers continue to receive heavy state subsidies, the U.S. just removed a key incentive for domestic competition. More importantly, this undercuts energy independence. Like them or not, electric vehicles reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Removing these incentives may score political points but ultimately weakens American competitiveness and energy strategy.

A Blown-Out Deficit

The bill adds trillions to the national debt, with no serious plan for repayment. At a time of economic stability and peace, we’re engaging in borrowing levels typically reserved for national emergencies. It’s a continuation of the disturbing trend where deficits become normalized and debt is dismissed as someone else’s problem.

This isn’t fiscal conservatism. It’s a high-stakes gamble on indefinite economic growth—and one that future generations may not be able to afford.

Spending Cuts? Almost None

Aside from work requirements for Medicaid, the bill does little to rein in federal spending. There are no new discretionary caps, no entitlement reform, and no effort to curb runaway agencies or bureaucratic redundancy.

Cutting taxes without cutting spending is not conservative governance, it’s wishful thinking. Without structural reform, the long-term fiscal outlook remains bleak.

Final Thoughts

The One Big Beautiful Bill marks a major step forward in reasserting conservative values on taxes, borders, parental rights, and religious liberty. In many areas, it represents long-overdue corrections to a federal government that has grown bloated, directionless, and unaccountable.

But conservatives must resist the temptation to celebrate too soon. Victory in policy requires vigilance in principle. Fiscal responsibility is not a footnote, it’s a moral obligation. Unless Congress pairs bold reform with spending discipline, the bill’s long-term legacy may be defined more by what it failed to address than what it accomplished.

Still, this is a win. But it’s a win that demands follow-through—and a serious conversation about what comes next.