OKPOLICY.ORG
This column originally appeared in The Journal Record on July 16, 2025.
In Washington, timing isn’t just strategy, it’s survival. Not just for the few bills that manage to get passed these days, but for our elected officials who vote on them.
While most Oklahomans this summer have been focused on backyard cookouts and planning trips to the lake, the Republican-controlled Congress passed what they proudly named “The One Big Beautiful Bill.” Behind that name is a carefully engineered blueprint to fast-track tax cuts for the wealthy, while paying for them by snipping the ropes of the social safety net for our working poor.
The deceptive part is that these cuts won’t take effect until after next year’s midterm elections. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a calculated move.
The politicians who voted for this – including every member of our congressional delegation – don’t want to face President Trump’s threats to primary any Republican who voted against his megabill. Perhaps not coincidentally, all five of Oklahoma’s U.S. Representatives and Sen. Markwayne Mullin will be up for re-election during the 2026 midterms.
Medicaid work requirements? They don’t begin until January 2027. Federal funding reductions for SNAP, the nation’s largest food assistance program, will begin in 2028. Cuts to rural hospital funding? Coming soon, but the brunt of them will hit in 2026. Student loan changes that make borrowing more difficult and repayment more punishing? They’ll be phased in over the next two years. Affordable housing support? On the chopping block beginning in 2026.
In short, they’ve hidden the pain behind an election-year curtain. They timed the negative consequences so voters won’t feel the impact until it’s too late to hold anyone accountable.
And the impact in Oklahoma will be especially brutal. One in four Oklahomans relies on SoonerCare, our state’s Medicaid program. More than 700,000 Oklahomans use SNAP. Nearly 50 state hospitals are at risk of closing, with 23 at immediate risk of closing in the next three years. College remains out of reach for many without financial aid. Affordable housing remains a growing problem for Oklahoma families. Clean energy projects – an economic development area where Oklahoma has been leading – will lose key incentives. All of this is at risk, but not immediately. And that’s the point.
By the time families start losing benefits, hospitals cut services, or food becomes harder to afford, the votes will be long counted. The damage will feel sudden later, but it was part of the plan all along.
