United States' 'Big, Beautiful Bill' poised to affect millions of lives
Concerns expressed over wealth inequality, excessive border security, impact on healthcare, national debt
Deeper in debt
Trump wants to add another $3.3 trillion over a decade to the country's $36.2 trillion debt. Last year, the US government spent more on interest payments than on the entire national defense project. Since 2017, the net interest on the debt has tripled, according to US Government Accountability Office.
High national debt will lead to higher interest rates, slower economic growth, loss of fiscal flexibility, and an increased risk of a fiscal crisis and programmatic insolvency, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
"The US is heading in the wrong direction. This bill would be one more nail in the coffin of a country falling under an enormous debt burden," Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group, the world's largest listed hedge fund, told CNN.
Thomas Fullerton, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Texas at El Paso, said even though the US economy is growing, the White House, similar to what it did in the previous Trump administration, is going to engage in large scale, pro-cyclical deficit spending.
"There is no reason to pile up more debt during expansionary phases of the business cycle, but that is what is going to occur, again. Interest rates will be higher than necessary and impair investment and capital accumulation," he told China Daily.
Meanwhile, in a controversial move, Trump is targeting elite US universities by proposing a steep increase in the tax on university endowments from 1.4 percent to 20 percent.
Trump has previously stripped away billions of university research funding and taken action in response to claims of rising antisemitism on college campuses. Critics argue these actions are politically motivated attacks on higher education.
"Stripping (away) research and innovation funding to force compliance will hurt America's competitiveness and help our adversaries outpace us in technological and other advancements. America's university research and innovation centers have long been the envy of the world," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Yifan Xu and Belinda Robinson contributed to this story.
