House Republicans passed President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which, in reality (at least for most of us), is going to be big and bad. For sure, if you are in a top income bracket, you have reason to be happy; you will be the bulk of the tax benefit of this bill. However, if you are a lower-income person, chances are you are going to pay for it, and some may pay dearly.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the benefits that will flow to Americans with incomes above $500,000 will cost $1.1 trillion. At the same time, $1.1 trillion is going to be cut from the Medicaid and food stamp programs.

That tells you where this bill’s values are. Because of cuts to Medicare and Affordable Care Act subsidies, a total of 13 million Americans will lose their health insurance to pay for this tax cut. A total of $300 billion will be taken off the food stamp program, all this so the wealthy can get wealthier. Stand by for the biggest income transfer from poor to rich in our nation’s history.

President Trump came into the office promising a balanced budget, crowing that no president had ever done that before. But his bill is about to add $3.8 trillion to the budget deficit over the next 10 years. Our children and our grandchildren will be paying that back, probably at very high interest rates. Already, car loans, home loans and other forms of borrowing are all becoming more expensive.

Republicans tell us that they are not cutting the truly needy person from Medicaid, only the able-bodied recipients who are too lazy to work. This is a well-traveled lie.

We have run this experiment twice now, in Arkansas and Georgia, where work requirements were instituted and tracked. Yes, they cut their Medicaid rolls dramatically, but that is because of how many people could not get through the burdensome filing requirements. In both states, the vast majority dropped were fully entitled. In fact, it has been shown that only about 3% of Medicaid recipients are able-bodied unemployed, and many of those are in between jobs. The Congressional Budget Office has calculated that work requirements do not increase the number of employed.

Trump’s bill is immoral and financially perilous. It will pay off his wealthy friends but sink many of the rest of us. Interest on the national debt is already bigger than our defense budget. And the world may well pull the plug on its vast loans to us in reaction to the trade wars the president has started.

Please write to Maine’s Senate delegation and urge them to oppose this bill.