By Rep. Mike Kelly (PA-16)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 

Last week, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This historic package of legislation prevents the largest tax hike in modern American history while providing tax relief for Americans across the board. From employers to employees, from children to seniors, this legislation provides historic investments in Western Pennsylvania and the United States, both for today and for generations to come.

OBBBA builds upon the success of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) by making many of those tax cuts permanent. After TCJA was enacted, the law produced robust wage growth and the lowest unemployment rates in a half-century. Many of these tax cuts were set to expire at the end of the year. A failure to extend those cuts would have resulted in a 22% tax increase for the average American taxpayer. But now that Trump has signed the OBBBA into law, Americans will be able to keep more of their hard-earned money.

What does the One Big Beautiful Bill Act mean for you? In Pennsylvania’s 16th District, the OBBBA delivers a family of four an additional $1,228 tax cut annually. That’s a major boost for families who have been crushed by years of inflation, record-high energy prices and an uncertain housing market.

The OBBBA fulfills Trump’s promise to eliminate tax on tips and eliminate tax on overtime for hourly workers. A recent poll shows broad bipartisan support for this policy, with 83% of hourly workers supporting no tax on tips. It strengthens our local manufacturers by preserving over 12,000 industry jobs in Pennsylvania’s 16th District, home to one of the highest concentrations of small manufacturers in the country, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. Small businesses will also find an update to Section 199A, a critical boost to the qualified business income deduction.

The OBBBA makes historic investments in our youngest Americans. This includes an expanded Child Tax Credit, allowing parents to save more money. Without the OBBBA, that credit would have been cut in half. It also creates the new “Trump Accounts,” a $1,000 investment account for every child born over the next four years. The fund grows tax-free until the child reaches adulthood. It’s a pro-growth, pro-family policy that is designed to give kids from all backgrounds and income levels a nest egg to use for college or skills training, start a business or even use for a downpayment on a home.

The legislation also allows seniors to keep more of their hard-earned money. It includes tax relief for seniors collecting Social Security with a new, enhanced standard deduction. Plus, it includes legislation to eliminate tax on auto loan interest for American-made vehicles, which aims to save American families thousands of dollars per year.

Critics argue the OBBBA takes from lower-income Americans to subsidize the rich. As the saying goes from the 1992 movie “A Few Good Men,” some in Washington “can’t handle the truth.” But this legislation strengthens the future of Medicaid to ensure the Americans who need the program the most — particularly low-income pregnant women, children, Americans living with disabilities and seniors — can actually receive the assistance they need. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion can force the federal government to pay states more money to cover working-­age, single men than it pays for someone with a disability, for example.

“Today, a plurality of Medicaid spending goes towards able-bodied adults, with 62% of them not working, seeking education/training, nor volunteering,” according to an April study by Americans for Tax Reform. “In 2000, there were 6.9 million able-bodied adults on Medicaid. Today, there are 34 million of them,” the report continued.

That’s not how Medicaid is meant to operate. This bill creates commonsense work requirements and necessary oversight to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly allocated.

The OBBBA boosts wages for Pennsylvania workers, prevents the largest tax hike in modern history and makes historic investments in future generations. The policies in this law aren’t simply red issues or blue issues. They are red, white and blue issues. They are game changers in so many ways.