Cato Institute fiscal experts are available for interviews in light of the Senate vote today on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Director of Tax Policy Studies Adam Michel issued the following statement:

The Senate version of the Big Beautiful Bill will deliver significantly more economic growth than the House-passed version, thanks to permanent investment expensing. But it also includes more than half a trillion dollars in new and expanded tax subsidies and other pork. The result? More debt. The bill will add trillions to the national debt and violate the House’s agreed-upon fiscal guardrails, unless lawmakers scale back the pork or deliver more spending cuts.

Michel has put together a Tax Tracker guide on the current tax bills which you can read here, and also written specifically on the Senate tax proposal changes which you can read here.

Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy Romina Boccia passed along the following statement:

The Senate’s version of the big bloated bill delivers $4 trillion more in debt, rewarding politically powerful groups while daring the House to abandon its fiscal guardrails. Delaying modest social spending reductions while frontloading new tax cuts and higher border and defense spending, Congress is loading up on dessert while leaving the broccoli to the side to potentially end up in the trash. Especially egregious is the expanded senior tax deduction in 2026—a blatant vote-buying effort to benefit an electorally powerful group, who already receive 40 cents of every federal dollar on top of holding most of the nation’s wealth.

Kilts Family Chair in Fiscal Studies Chris Edwards passed along the following statement:

Both House and Senate versions of the Republican bill would jack up farm subsidies more than $50 billion. While attention has focused on GOP cuts to low-income welfare, increased farm aid would boost welfare for high-income farm businesses and landowners. Republicans plan to lavish the biggest farm subsidy increases on GOP parts of the country. Reconciliation bills are supposed to reform spending, but farm programs are some of the most inefficient and unfair parts of the federal budget.

If you would like to speak with one of our experts, please contact pr@​cato.​org to set up an interview.