Context on the Big Beautiful Bill
President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law last Friday. This legislation makes some tax changes permanent, raises the debt ceiling, and changes funding for various federal programs. USAFacts has the numbers on some of the programs affected by the bill.
- The new bill would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion after Congress reinstated the limit at $36.1 trillion in January. The debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 123% in fiscal year 2024.
- The bill also approved cuts to Medicaid. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spent $638 billion on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 2024. Medicaid enrollment peaked at 100 million people in 2023 and was down to 84.6 million by June 2024.
- It also permanently establishes some provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including the individual tax brackets and the increased standard deduction. The bill expands the cap on state and local tax deductions from $10,000 to $40,000.
- The bill increases defense spending for naval shipbuilding, missile defense, weapons development, nuclear forces, and personnel support. Defense spending was 12.9% of the federal budget in fiscal year 2024, or $873 billion.
There’s much more on our site, including 14 charts to help you understand the context behind the legislation. See the data
Just the Facts on trade and tariffs
The unofficial word of 2025 might be “tariff,” but how might tariffs impact the US at home and abroad? In this episode of Just the Facts, USAFacts Founder Steve Ballmer digs into the data behind trade and tariff policy: what the country trades, who it trades with, and what tools and rules the government uses to manage this practice.
- In 2024, the US imported $3.3 trillion of goods, over 80% of our total imports, and exported $2.1 trillion of goods, or about two-thirds of total exports.
- America’s biggest trading partner is Mexico, followed by Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.
- The US has had a trade deficit every year since 1976, which means it has consistently imported more than it exports. In 2024, the country’s largest trade deficit was with China at $263 billion, followed by Mexico at $179 billion.
- A tariff is a tax levied by one country on goods and services imported from another country. This increases the cost of these goods for consumers and companies.
- Over the past 70 years, tariffs have rarely provided more than 2% of federal revenues, with most revenue coming from various taxes on individual and corporate income.
Data behind the news
Texas is recovering from devasting flooding that has killed at least 80 people. We have data on natural disasters here. Then see facts on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is responsible for predicting changes in climate and weather.
The Pentagon is pausing weapon shipments to Ukraine. See the data on US assistance to Ukraine and other countries. Stay tuned for even more data along these lines soon.
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One last fact
Nearly 15,000 people landed in the ER with fireworks injuries last year, a 52% rise over 2023. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which tracks these injuries, hasn’t offered a cause for the increase. The last time there was a spike of this kind was in 2020 (the record for injuries, over 15,000), which the commission believes was caused by more DIY fireworks shows after COVID-19 led to cancelations of public displays.
