‘B’ is for bankruptcy – not beautiful – in Trump’s big bill; Alabama Republicans shouldn’t celebrate

This is an opinion column

House Resolution 1 (HR1) is more commonly known as the “Big Beautiful Bill,” or “Big Bad Bill,” or “Big Bankruptcy Bill,” depending on your point of view. I’ll set aside political marketing and call it HR1.

To best understand HR1, first understand America’s debt.

In fiscal year 2024, America suffered a $1.8 trillion deficit. Deficits happen when you spend more than you take in. We spent a lot more. That year spending exceeded revenue by 37%.

Interest on America’s debt that year was $882 billion. That’s the amount we all owe to our national lenders — not to pay down the debt, just to maintain it. “Net interest (cost) … has nearly tripled since 2020. Interest was the second largest federal expenditure in FY 2024, behind only Social Security (and more) than national defense or Medicare.”

Roughly 20 cents of every tax dollar forcibly taken from American families in 2025 will be used to pay interest on the debt. And it’s getting worse. Fast.

There are 341 million people in America. Each American man, woman and child’s federal government debt share is $105,571 and worsening.

Two months ago, America’s debt risks caused Moody’s to downgrade America’s perfect Aaa debt rating to Aa1. Moody’s downgrade follows Standard & Poor’s (2011) and Fitch’s (2023).

Debt downgrades affect interest rates on federal-backed mortgages and treasury bills and contribute to dollar devaluations. That’s bad.

On Trump’s inauguration day, the Dollar/Euro exchange rate was 0.96 Euros for $1. Today it takes just 0.85 Euros to acquire $1. The dollar lost 11% of its value versus the Euro in a mere six months.

Similarly, the dollar lost 10.7% of its value versus a well-recognized international currencies common basket.

That means on a holiday in Europe, you’d have to spend more this year than last. It also means companies here now have to pay more to bring in goods from Europe. And that means prices go up here. Dollar devaluations trigger inflation and higher prices for imported oil and every other foreign resource or product Americans consume.

Promises kept or Debt Junkie’s dream?

While House Majority Leader Steve Scalise says HR1 “implement(s) President Trump’s America First agenda, deliver(s) on our promises, and provid(es) relief to American families who’ve been struggling for too long,” I know of no Republicans in Congress who campaigned on raising America’s debt $7 trillion during President Trump’s four-year term or $19 trillion over the next decade.

Yet that is exactly what Republicans did when they voted for Trump’s budget earlier this year.

Nor do I know of any Republicans in Congress who campaigned on:

• Increasing America’s debt ceiling by $5 trillion (enough to push the deficit, debt, and debt ceiling issue past the 2026 mid-term elections and, from a GOP strategy perspective, out of voters’ minds),
• Increasing America’s debt by $2.8 trillion (House version) or
• Increasing America’s debt by $3.8 trillion (Senate version).

Yet that is exactly what all-but-five DC Republicans and every Alabama Republican did when voting for HR1.

Such financial irresponsibility is reckless, dangerous, and unacceptable.

Passed with bought votes

Adding salt to the wounds, congressional Republicans supported political payoffs to buy votes needed to pass HR1. These payoffs benefit the few at the expense of the many. That’s wrong. Yet they did it.

 A few payoff examples are:

• “Supersized deduction for business meals — though only for employees at certain Alaskan fishing boats and processing plants”
• “A special $17 billion expansion of a little-known provision that enables venture capitalists to make a fortune tax-free”
• A special $2 billion rum tax break that is important for Louisiana
• A special $7 billion tax break for Big Ag land sales
• A special $3 billion tax break for real estate investment trusts
• Better food stamp and Medicaid formulas for Alaska but not for all Americans elsewhere

HR1 makes America’s bankruptcy inevitable

America’s debt hit $3.2 trillion in 1990, $5.7 trillion in 2000, $13.5 trillion in 2010, $27 trillion in 2020, and is $36+ trillion and rapidly climbing.

Republican support for the budget and HR1 increases America’s debt to $43 trillion by 2028.

When Tea Party Republicans cut President Obama’s peak $1.4 trillion annual deficit to $439 billion in 2015, I was cautiously optimistic America could avoid a national bankruptcy because we were moving in the right direction.

No longer.

Rather than taking corrective action, Trump and the GOP did the exact opposite by passing a debt-ridden HR1 while also committing America to $19 trillion in more debt over the next decade.

That’s horrific.

The question is no longer whether America will go belly up. The question is when. Maybe a few years. Maybe longer.

Nobody knows the bankruptcy triggering event or when it will come. But it is inevitable and will likely be worse than the Great Depression (25% unemployment; 29% drop in Gross Domestic Product; 7,000 banks failing) if for no other reason than that, during the Great Depression, the federal government was solvent. This time America’s federal government will be insolvent.

HR1 endangers national security

Senate Resolution 600, passed in 2024, summarizes America’s national security debt threat:[18]

On April 12, 2018, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned that “any Nation that can’t keep its fiscal house in order eventually cannot maintain its military power”;

On March 6, 2018, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned: “Our continued plunge into debt is unsustainable and represents a dire future threat to our economy and to our national security”;

On November 15, 2017, former Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta, Ash Carter, and Chuck Hagel warned: “Increase in the debt will, in the absence of a comprehensive budget that addresses both entitlements and revenues, force even deeper reductions in our national security capabilities”; and

On September 22, 2011, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen warned: “I believe the single, biggest threat to our national security is debt”.

History teaches.

The Great Depression forced America to cut defense so much that Japan perceived it could win a war with America. The result: Pearl Harbor, World War II, and hundreds of thousands of dead Americans.

Today, America’s international foes are far more dangerous. Weapons of mass destruction are plentiful. Will our foes also be tempted to take advantage of America during a national bankruptcy, when America can’t afford a strong national defense?

HR1 and DC’s Debt Junkies force that risk on America.

Mo Brooks served on the House Armed Services Committee for 12 years and the Foreign Affairs Committee for 6 years. Brooks graduated from Duke University in 3 years with a double major in political science and economics (highest honors in economics).