Rep. Andy Barr: Senate must pass Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ | Opinion

Last month, I voted to pass President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill. It was an easy vote. The president’s leadership produced a transformational legislative win that will deliver an across-the-board tax cut for families, small businesses, farmers and seniors.

On top of tax relief for Kentuckians still rebounding from four years of runaway inflation under Joe Biden, we surge resources to help law enforcement seal the Southern border and provide $1.6 trillion in deficit reduction, all while strengthening Medicaid for Kentuckians who need it.

That’s why my message to U.S. senators, especially from Kentucky, is very simple: pass the Big, Beautiful Bill, and send it to the president’s desk.

Kentuckians can’t afford to wait, literally.

Absent Senate passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill, we are set to see the largest tax hike in American history when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires later this year. This will result in a 24% hike for the average Kentucky family of four. To put that into perspective, that amounts to a $1,200 tax increase on those same families, or seven trips to the grocery store.

This is not the time to squander the progress President Trump’s economic agenda has delivered in just four months. In May, we saw the lowest inflation numbers since 2021. Gas and diesel fuel costs are down 10%, egg prices are down over 60%.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve now projects a massive economic boom of 4% growth in the second quarter of 2025.

Kevin Hassett, one of President Trump’s top economic advisers, recently told Louisville radio commentator Terry Meiners that Senate Democrats and grandstanders risk plunging us into recession if they block the Big, Beautiful Bill. I couldn’t agree more.

Not only would their actions be irresponsible, they would jeopardize hard fought wins included in this package that build on the Trump economic comeback.

Gone would be the President’s signature promises to Kentuckians like no tax on tips, and overtime. Gone would be key incentives for R&D, and the provision allowing 100% expensing of new manufacturing plants nationwide, which will help Make Manufacturing American Again.

And gone would be our surge in resources to finally seal our border — once and for all.

While there is no doubt that President Trump, Secretary Noem and Tom Homan have done an extraordinary job on the border since inheriting the Biden border crisis, the terrorist attack in Colorado proves more work needs to be done.

Tragically, one of the millions of illegal immigrants who entered the country illegally under Joe Biden’s open borders attempted to kill Jewish Americans gathering to support victims of the Oct. 7 atrocity.

Our bill can’t reverse the harm done to these Americans, to Laken Riley, to Rachel Morin, or to the countless Americans whose lives were stolen or shattered forever because of illegal immigrant crime.

But we can give President Trump and his team what they need to mobilize more removals of criminal illegal immigrants that will make our communities safer. We can give him the funding to stop the flow of new illegal immigration, and under the Big, Beautiful Bill, we do just that.

If this bill passes the Senate, President Trump and his team will have the resources necessary to finish 701 miles of primary wall, 900 miles of river barriers, 629 miles of secondary barriers, and 141 miles of vehicle and pedestrian barriers.

Don’t buy into the fear-mongering from the Democratic Party leadership and their allies in the national corporate media about the Big, Beautiful Bill and its impact on Medicaid. For four years, they actively covered up and lied about Joe Biden’s fitness for office. Now, they are working together again to push a new big lie, that the wins included in this package come at the expense of Americans on Medicaid.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We are strengthening Medicaid by kicking millions of illegal immigrants currently on Medicaid, off. We are banning Medicaid from paying for transgender surgeries, which currently funds 1 out of every 4 sex change operations in the United States.

These commonsense changes to Medicaid refocus the program on what it should be there for: To be a safety net for Americans in need. Even the Kentucky Hospital Association commended me and my fellow Kentucky House colleagues who supported the Big, Beautiful Bill for “protecting and preserving Medicaid in Kentucky.”

If Senate Republicans team up with Senate Democrats to prevent the Big Beautiful Bill from going to President Trump’s desk, it will go down as one of the greatest unforced errors in American political history. We cannot squander all of the momentum President Trump’s economic agenda has generated in recent months.

Instead, we should unite to support this President’s agenda, cut taxes, seal our border, and save America.

Enough is enough. Pass the Big, Beautiful Bill.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) represents Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District and is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2026.