The Big Beautiful Bill robs working-class Tennesseans but benefits the state’s wealthiest residents

President Donald Trump holds up the “big, beautiful bill” that was signed into law as during a Fourth of July military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon – Pool/Getty Images)

“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,” said Donald Trump when he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. 

In just one presidential campaign, Trump bifurcated the Republican Party, built a movement on a foundation of purported populism and promised to advocate for frustrated Americans who felt their government had let them down. Almost a decade has passed, and Tennessee’s elected Republicans have fully embraced Trump, copying and pasting his messaging and claiming to stand up for everyday Tennesseans.

However, a closer look at the 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (for which every Republican member of Tennessee’s federal delegation voted) provides evidence for how Trump’s movement is just a rebranded version of the same old GOP: a political party that will go to the mat for the wealthy while abandoning working-class voters.

What will the bill cost Tennesseans? On healthcare costs and related job loss

According to KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization, around 68,000 Tennesseans will lose access to federally subsidized healthcare due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s changes to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) marketplace health insurance programs. The U.S. House Democrats’ Joint Economic Committee predicts more than double that number, or 170,000 Tennesseans, will lose coverage.

“Big Beautiful Bill” cuts to Medicaid, food aid raise alarm in Tennessee

KFF estimates another 45,000 Tennesseans will lose access to Medicaid as a result of the measure’s $7 billion in cuts to TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, over the next decade. The Joint Economic Committee says closer to 70,000 will lose Medicaid. Between ACA and Medicaid cuts, at least 110,000 Tennesseans are expected to lose healthcare due to the Big Beautiful Bill.

The cuts will have the greatest impact on rural communities. Nearly half of all rural hospitals in Tennessee operate at a loss, so cuts to Medicaid funding, which helps keep these hospitals operating, will be devastating, especially considering Tennessee already has the highest number of rural hospital closures per capita in the nation. 

Rural communities account for approximately 21% of the state’s population, or around 1.5 million Tennesseans. Far from Tennessee’s big cities, it is in these communities where the local hospital is often the best option for a good-paying job. When the hospital leaves, so do the jobs, triggering harmful economic ripple effects. According to one report, at least nine rural Tennessee hospitals are on the chopping block.

On nutrition assistance and related job loss

About 77% of Tennessee households currently receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) already have someone in the household who is working, but Trump’s bill makes access to SNAP even more difficult by significantly increasing work requirements (including for single mothers and the elderly) while simultaneously making the implementation of SNAP more expensive for everyone. 

How did he pull that off? A provision of the legislation requires states to pay 75% of SNAP’s administrative costs by 2028 (up from 50%), meaning the Tennessee legislature will have to pull funds from another program or increase taxes on working Tennesseans to keep SNAP operating in the state.

SNAP is an economic driver in Tennessee (for every dollar spent on SNAP, about $1.50 is generated in Gross Domestic Product), so reductions to SNAP won’t just threaten food security for the most vulnerable among us: it will also come back to bite working Tennesseans on the employment side. Because the program employs agriculture and food retail workers, SNAP cuts in Tennessee will likely result in some job losses, especially in rural, agricultural communities.

On energy costs and related job loss

The Biden presidency’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) reduced energy costs and added jobs. Tennessee and other states won by Trump benefited the most from the growth of the clean energy economy, receiving 77% of the IRA investments made thus far and 78% of the jobs created thus far. Yet the Big Beautiful Bill does away with almost all clean energy investments, resulting in the loss of 530,000 jobs and the cancellation of $380 billion in planned clean energy investments.

Tennessee is in the top five states predicted to suffer the largest electricity price increases as a direct result of the new measure. According to the Center for American Progress, Tennesseans can expect electricity price increases greater than $200 by 2026.

Three charts showing the impact of the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ on Tennessee

On the jobs side, since 2022, Tennessee has enjoyed over 6,000 new clean energy jobs thanks to the IRA’s energy credits. The bill’s disruption to those credits could threaten jobs and undermine Tennessee’s efforts towards producing clean, affordable energy.

How will the bill benefit Tennesseans?

Trump supporters justify the bill’s sweeping cuts to healthcare, nutritional support and the clean energy economy by promising Americans lower taxes. And yes, an examination of U.S. Census household income data reveals that Tennessee may be on track to receive as much as $7 billion in income tax cuts in 2026. But who will benefit from the cuts? 

About 31% of the $7 billion in tax cuts will go to Tennessee households that make between $100,000 and $200,000 per year, even though those households represent only 24.1% of the state’s population. A whopping 45.8% of the $7 billion will go to Tennessee households that make more than $200,000 per year, even though those households represent just 8.6% of the population. Barely 20% of the tax cuts will go to working-class households making between $40,000 and $100,000 per year, despite those households representing the largest population demographic in the state.

Politicians have been selling out working-class Americans and serving the interests of the ultra-wealthy for generations. Tennessee’s elected officials are no different. Voters must put aside their cultural, often single-issue differences and work together to choose better candidates.

Working-class Tennesseans need elected leaders who represent their interests, not those of the monied few.