The Big Beautiful Lie: Jessica Fulton on What the 2025 Budget Bill Really Means for Black Households
In this episode of The Electorette, host Jen Taylor-Skinner speaks with Jessica Fulton, senior fellow with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, about the 2025 budget bill—rebranded by conservatives as the "Big Beautiful Bill"—and the devastating consequences it could have for Black households.
Rooted in the Joint Center’s policy brief, Centering Black Households in the 2025 Tax Debate, the conversation exposes how proposals like extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would continue to funnel wealth to high-income, disproportionately white households—while offering temporary, shallow benefits to working-class families. Jessica explains how policies that sound equitable on the surface—like tax deductions for tipped workers, child tax credits, and overtime exemptions—actually reinforce economic exclusion.
Together, they explore how tax policy has long been used as a tool of racialized wealth-building and why understanding these “wonky” details is essential to building a more equitable economy. They also touch on the dangers of cutting Pell Grants, dismantling agencies that support Black-owned businesses, and using budget reconciliation to pass policies that will have generational consequences.
This episode is a powerful call for greater transparency, stronger advocacy, and inclusive policymaking that truly supports all families—not just the wealthiest.
Episode Chapters:
(00:00) Tax Code, Wealth, and Racial Inequality
The Federal Tax Code perpetuates racial inequality, with implications for Black households, through policies like the 2025 Budget Bill.
(12:23) Tax Policy and Racial Disparities
Changes to child tax credit privilege higher-income households, exclude poorest families, and perpetuate systemic inequities.
(23:56) Tax Policy and Worker Income
Nature's financial burdens on low-income workers, tax treatment of tips and overtime pay, and erosion of worker protections.
(27:28) Tax Policies and Working Class Disadvantages
Tax policies can privilege certain workers, have political motivations, and create disparities between demographic groups.
(39:47) Tax Code and Racial Disparities
Examining how race affects taxation and economic disparities, and the importance of understanding and challenging these systems.
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