One Year After Passage, Republican Tax Law is Just as Ugly for Working Families

One Year After Passage, Republican Tax Law is Just as Ugly for Working Families

Groundwork analysis and new polling finds millions of working Americans with limited access to health care, food assistance while billionaires cash in thanks to Trump’s signature package

On the first anniversary of the passage of the Republican tax bill, working families are struggling to make ends meet. The Republican tax law exacerbated Trump’s cost of living crisis, robbed millions of Americans of their health coverage and food assistance, and sent household utility bills soaring, according to a new fact sheet from Groundwork Collaborative.

A year after its passage, the Republican tax law is widely unpopular. New Groundwork polling finds that a majority of voters (55%) say Trump and Republicans in Congress have made it harder to afford health care in the past year. Americans see through the scam: half of voters (50%) say the law helps wealthy Americans and big corporations more than people like them. Trump promised to lower costs for Americans, but he chose instead to give his wealthy donors and friends a tax break and stuck working families with the bill.

Groundwork’s Executive Director, Lindsay Owens, shared the following:

“President Trump promised to lower costs. Instead, his signature legislative achievement has left Americans to foot the bill for tax cuts for his wealthy friends and donors. Millions have lost health care coverage and food assistance, hundreds of nursing homes and clinics have shuttered, and the prices for basics like groceries continue to climb. One year later, the Republican tax law has proven to be a callous bill that punishes working families to reward billionaires.”

Background

Cuts to basic needs programs are driving prices up for health care and groceries.

• Since passage of the OBBBA, 3.8 million Americans have lost Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage. By 2034, a projected 15 million Americans will lose health insurance as a result of Republicans’ cuts.
  • Over 1,000 hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes have shut down, reduced services, or are at risk of doing so – forcing Americans to travel farther for care, wait longer for treatment, or miss critical care altogether.
• Since OBBBA’s enactment more than 4 million people have lost access to SNAP benefits. SNAP participation has dropped in every state and in some states like Arizona, participation fell by as much as 53%.
• Like Medicaid, the deepest SNAP cuts are still scheduled to hit: Starting October 1, states will have to cover 75% of SNAP’s administrative costs – which could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars a year – forcing states to tighten eligibility, cut benefits, or even drop participation entirely to balance their budgets.
  • An estimated 2.4 million people will be cut out completely from SNAP benefits, while 4 million people will see some benefit reduction once changes are fully implemented.

Trump’s cuts have sent costs soaring and working families are feeling the heat. 

• In 2025, an estimated $34.8 billion in clean energy investments were cancelled. As utility bills increased by 7.1% – more than twice the pace of inflation – and exceeded 20% in some states in 2025, the Republican tax law terminated tax credits for home energy efficiency improvements last December.
• Thanks to the Republican tax law, new borrowing caps on federal student loans will go into effect on July 1st, limiting how much students and their parents can borrow, and forcing many to take out more expensive and less flexible private loans – with interest rates up to 23% – to fill the gap.

Corporations and the ultra-wealthy cash in. Working families are stuck with the bill.

• In the four months after enactment of the Republican tax law, total federal revenue from the corporate income dropped by nearly a third.
  • Four Big Tech companies (Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla) collectively reported $315 billion in U.S. profits for 2025 – more than 30% higher than in 2024  – but they paid less than 5% of that in federal corporate income taxes.
• Trump claimed that the law’s No Tax provisions would deliver the “biggest tax refund season ever” – projecting average refunds to rise by at least $1,000. In reality, the average refund was barely $300 more than it was in 2025, which was promptly eaten up by Trump’s high prices.
• Americans remain dissatisfied. In April 2026, following the 2025 tax filing cycle, the Republican tax law’s unfavorability was at 49% and jumped to 52% in August 2026.
  • Two-thirds (65%) of battleground voters blame Trump and Republicans in Congress for the economy.
• New polling from Groundwork Collaborative finds majorities of voters concerned with rising costs that stem from Trump and Republicans tax law, including 70% who believe Trump and Republicans have made it harder to afford groceries over the past year.