"The Beautiful Act" thrillingly passes, revealing the power struggle behind the 869 pages of text

Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher

Editor: TB, ChainCatcher

After a marathon vote filled with pressure, tug-of-war, and threats, the U.S. House of Representatives finally passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with a narrow margin of 218 votes to 214.

This 869-page bill sparked intense bipartisan disputes and led to a "public break" between Trump and Musk. Musk even threatened to announce the establishment of a "New American Political Party" the day after its passage.

According to White House arrangements, Trump will sign the bill at 5 AM Beijing time on the 5th, marking the beginning of this "fiscal experiment."

The Thrilling Legislative Journey of the One Big Beautiful Bill

From its initial proposal to its eventual success, the legislative path of the One Big Beautiful Bill has been fraught with twists and turns. In mid-May, Republican lawmakers initiated the legislative process using "budget reconciliation" to bypass the traditional 60-vote threshold in the Senate, advancing with a simple majority.

(Note: Budget reconciliation is a special legislative mechanism that allows budget-related bills to pass in the Senate with only 51 votes. Currently, the Senate has 53 Republican seats and 45 Democratic seats.)

On May 22, the House passed the bill by a narrow margin of 215 to 214. Before the vote, due to the extremely close party numbers, Republican Speaker Johnson made several last-minute amendments to meet the demands of some Republican representatives. However, even so, all Democrats opposed the bill, and there were divisions within the Republican Party.

On June 4, Musk publicly opposed the bill, calling it "disgusting," and began privately lobbying Republican lawmakers to try to prevent the president from signing it. This further escalated the legislative battle and pushed the bill into higher public discourse. (Related reading: U.S. Stocks Plummet, Bitcoin Crashes, Did Musk and Trump "Curse" a Financial Tsunami?)

Once in the Senate, the battle intensified. On June 29, the clerk read the 940-page bill text overnight, taking about 16 hours, a rare scene in Washington politics. On July 1, after Vice President Vance cast the crucial tie-breaking vote, the bill passed the Senate with 51 votes.

On July 3, the House voted again on the Senate version, passing it with the same margin of 218 to 214. During this process, Democratic leader Jeffries delivered a solo speech lasting 8 hours and 46 minutes to delay proceedings, setting a record for the longest speech in the House.

Throughout the process, Trump was heavily involved, making multiple calls to lawmakers, publicly pressuring them on social media, and specifically criticizing opponents for "making a big mistake."

Who Won, Who Lost? The Interest Map Behind the Bill

The final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill spans 869 pages, with complex content, focusing on massive tax cuts and significant reductions in social welfare spending. Multiple polls show that the American public generally "does not buy" this bill.

Source: Jinshi Data

With the bill's passage, clear "winners" and "losers" have emerged.

Winners: The Rich, Corporations, and Traditional Energy

The clear beneficiaries are high-income groups and large corporations. The bill not only makes the personal and corporate tax cuts implemented by Trump in 2017 permanent but also further expands tax breaks on capital gains, estate taxes, corporate R&D expenses, and shareholder dividends.

Data disclosed by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders shows that the bill provides $975 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans, while the wealthiest 0.2% receive $211 billion in estate tax exemptions, and large corporations benefit from $918 billion in tax cuts.

Additionally, the traditional fossil fuel industry received "green light" subsidies, while incentives for electric vehicles, solar energy, and other clean energy measures were drastically cut—this was also one of the key triggers for Musk's "outrage."

Losers: Low-Income Groups and the Younger Generation

In stark contrast to the winners, low-income families and marginalized groups face direct impacts. The bill cuts over $1 trillion in government spending, with healthcare and food assistance programs being the hardest hit. New insurance thresholds, work requirements, and changes in funding mechanisms are expected to result in over 12 million people losing health insurance coverage within ten years.

According to the CBO, U.S. debt is projected to increase by $3.4 trillion over the next decade due to the bill. This means the government will have to borrow more to fill the fiscal gap, with additional interest expenses expected to reach $600 billion to $700 billion. This heavy interest burden will ultimately be passed on to future generations, squeezing the younger generation's investment and welfare in key areas such as education and housing.

Industry Leaders' Perspectives on Crypto Opportunities

Although the One Big Beautiful Bill does not directly address cryptocurrency issues, industry insiders generally believe its passage is still positive news for the crypto market.

KOL Crypto Big Beautiful points out that the U.S. will significantly increase its fiscal deficit each year, leading to a continuous rise in U.S. national debt, which is undoubtedly a major boon for Bitcoin. Moreover, the successful passage of this controversial bill also demonstrates the strong control of the Trump administration in Congress, favoring the upcoming passage of crypto policies.

DWF Labs co-founder Andrei Grachev is even more optimistic, stating that with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, combined with the traditional market active season in the fourth quarter and a possible interest rate cut environment, Bitcoin and related crypto stocks are likely to hit new historical highs. While the altcoin market will also benefit to some extent, mid-cap coins are expected to perform relatively worse than Bitcoin.

Crypto KOL Phyrex analyzes that although the bill does not directly benefit the crypto industry, it reflects the U.S.'s internal de-globalization fiscal expansion and the drastic restructuring of global capital flows, which indirectly helps promote liquidity for cryptocurrencies, especially as remittance taxes will directly drive the value of stablecoins up.

BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has a different view. He believes that if Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" passes, the replenishment of the Treasury General Account (TGA) may lead to a tightening of dollar liquidity, causing Bitcoin to fall back to $90,000 to $95,000; if the replenishment goes smoothly, Bitcoin will fluctuate in the $100,000 range, with short-term difficulties in breaking the historical high of $112,000. Additionally, he predicts that before Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's speech at the end of August, the market may consolidate or slightly decline, and after liquidity is restored in early September, Bitcoin may see an increase.

As the One Big Beautiful Bill is implemented, crypto legislation is also entering an accelerated phase. The Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives has announced that the week of July 14 will be "Cryptocurrency Week," during which three important digital currency-related bills will be reviewed. (The GENIUS Stablecoin Act, the CLARITY Act, and a proposal to restrict the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currency)

The wind has risen, waiting for the echo.

Recommended reading:

U.S. House Passes the CLARITY Act, Is a New Era of Crypto Regulation Coming?

The GENIUS Act "Rises from the Dead," What Does It Mean for the Crypto Industry?

U.S. Stocks Plummet, Bitcoin Crashes, Did Musk and Trump "Curse" a Financial Tsunami?