Hours before House Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) noted at the House Rules Committee hearing on Wednesday that Republicans made a last-minute, 60-page amendment to their broad fiscal package.
At the hearing, Leger Fernandez read from the amendment and implied that Republicans are hiding a tax hike in the bill. Otherwise, she asserted, why would they be “taking out consideration of retroactive tax rate increase”?
Speaking to her Republican colleagues, the congresswoman said: “The only reason you need to get rid of that section is because you have a tax rate [increase] buried somewhere in here.” She added, “So there is a tax rate increase. That’s what you were doing.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) said the Republicans are “making it easier to raise taxes on struggling families.” When he asked his Republican colleagues, “Otherwise why would you waive, why would you have to waive it?”
GOP Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) replied: “I believe the explanation is that it’s very precautionary because of the name of the trust.”
It wasn’t enough to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP—Republicans just voted to authorize themselves to RAISE YOUR TAXES without the required 3/5ths vote.
Their 60 page, last minute amendment says it plain and simple.
They are getting ready to raise taxes on low income working… pic.twitter.com/lCbbJwgnIc
— Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (@RepTeresaLF) May 22, 2025
Foxx is evidently referring to the so-called “Trump baby bonds” in the bill. An aide, hearing Foxx’s assertion leans down to offer her clarification, and McGovern says in response that now “we’re talking about two different things.”
Foxx persisted, however, inspiring Leger Fernandez’s understanding that Foxx was telling the group that a tax increase will fund the baby bonds.
Leger Fernandez said to Foxx: “You have to approve of a tax increase. You’re approving of a tax increase because you’re increasing somebody’s taxes for the Trump baby bonds?”
Note: Under the bill, children born between January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2029 in the United States will receive $1,000 from the federal government in a “Trump account,” which will be invested on their behalf in financial markets. The name of the trust was initially proposed as a “MAGA account.”
In 2024, an estimated 3.6 million babies were born in the United States. If that rate stays steady and each gets $1,000, that means the Department of the Treasury will pay out $3.6 billion per year, and more than $14 billion over the four-year timeframe.
The New York Times reported that the “Trump accounts” are puzzling tax experts as “People could only contribute post-tax income to the accounts, and gains in the accounts would also be taxed when money was withdrawn. That would appear to make the ‘Trump account’ function much like a typical investment account, rather than a tax-advantaged account like an individual retirement account or a health savings account.”