The Fallout from the Passage of the Federal Tax Bill

As you’ve seen, the federal budget reconciliation bill - the so-called "Outrageous Big Budget Act" (OBBA) that Republicans in Congress passed last week. For our members in District 1, the impacts are dangerous on several levels, and overall, it poses a direct threat to working people across the country. 

This bill is slated to slash $1.1 trillion in critical healthcare funding, mostly Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and other critical health programs. The bill strips important worker protections, threatens investment in infrastructure jobs, and slashes state funding, just to funnel tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy. 

Below are key ways the OBBA would harm CWA members and the communities we serve:

Healthcare: The bill rips health care away from 17 million people and eliminates 600,000 care jobs, forcing over 300 rural hospitals to close their doors. It will spike healthcare costs for people with employment-based insurance by nearly $500 per person per year and nearly $2,000 annually for a family of four.

Public Sector Funding: Since all state budgets rely heavily on Medicaid funding, cuts to Medicaid will put all our public sector and members working in healthcare at risk.  States Brace for Added Burdens of Trump’s Tax and Spending Law. 

Jobs: The bill effectively repeals key investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, including broadband expansion funding. This puts thousands of good union jobs in climate and telecom infrastructure, many held by CWA members, in jeopardy. The bill destroys hundreds of thousands of energy jobs in construction, manufacturing, and production, and raises energy costs at a moment when working-class households are already struggling. It also threatens an estimated 1.75 million construction jobs and over 3 billion work hours, which translates to $148 billion in lost annual wages and benefits. 

Workers’ Rights: The OBBA’s attack on workers’ rights, especially in the federal workforce, will create a blueprint to challenge union rights, and it opens the door to widespread union-busting, especially in federal agencies. Cuts to OSHA and the National Labor Relations Board will slow down enforcement of workplace safety violations and union rights, making our ability to file ULPs and win any union organizing campaign much more challenging.

More information:

• A List of Nearly Everything in the Senate G.O.P. Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save 
• Who loses in the Republican Policy Bill?
• Timeline for the implementation of the bill. As you can see, the extension of the tax breaks will go into effect immediately, while the cuts to Medicaid will not happen until after the midterm elections.

We must be clear: this bill is not just bad policy, it is a calculated attack on workers, unions, and public services. 

Please help spread this message to your members.

We need to make sure our members understand the impact of this bill and that we need to keep fighting back. Over the next few weeks, we will share more materials on the impact of this bill and what we can do to reverse it.

We appreciate how in the past months, locals have mobilized, organized, protested, made calls, sent emails, and done everything we can to stop this bill. We have to keep fighting and we will do just that!