They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. And when it comes to the media’s dishonest freakout over the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” it looks like Stephen Miller just opened the blinds and let it shine.
For the average American — and yes, that includes this writer, who didn’t exactly ace Econ 101 — there’s been a lot of confusion surrounding President Trump’s latest budget push. That’s not by accident. If you relied solely on the Washington Post or CNN, you’d think the bill was some unholy fusion of economic doom and legislative malpractice. One outlet called it a “ticking time bomb” for the federal budget. Another practically declared it would summon a new Great Depression.
And then along comes Stephen Miller, Trump’s longtime advisor and now Deputy Chief of Staff, to torch the nonsense with a thread on X (formerly Twitter) so thorough, it ought to be required reading for every Capitol Hill intern and “fact-checker” with a press badge.
First, Miller addressed the ridiculous claim that the bill “codifies the DOGE cuts” — referring to the Department of Government Efficiency’s ongoing mission to rein in bloated bureaucracies. According to the mainstream narrative, the bill locks in cuts so deep they’d gut federal departments and doom grandma’s Medicare card.
Not so, says Miller.
“This is a reconciliation bill,” he wrote. “It can only touch mandatory spending like Medicaid and food stamps. It legally cannot alter discretionary spending like the Department of Education or federal grants. DOGE cuts are overwhelmingly discretionary.”
Translation: if you’re panicking about school lunch money vanishing overnight, take a breath. The bill simply doesn’t have the legal teeth to do what the fearmongers claim it does.
Next up: the accusation that this bill would explode the deficit. It’s a favorite line from fiscally nervous Republicans and every Democrat who suddenly discovered their inner budget hawk.
Miller blew that claim apart, too. The Congressional Budget Office, that holy grail of government forecasting, based its deficit concerns on the expiration of the 2017 Trump tax cuts — which were always intended to be permanent. If they stay in place, the CBO counts that as “new” spending, even though it’s literally just continuing current policy.
“In other words,” Miller said, “maintaining the tax cuts doesn’t add a single penny to the deficit. And on top of that, the bill cuts more than $1.6 trillion in spending.”
That’s right. It’s a net spending cut, folks — the very thing we’ve all been screaming about for decades.
Finally, Miller torched what he called the “fantastically false claim” that the bill spends trillions. According to some critics, just passing this bill magically means the entire federal budget is locked in for the next decade, and it’s all Trump’s fault.
Nonsense. Miller reminded everyone that this isn’t an annual budget bill. It doesn’t fund departments. It doesn’t lock in future spending. In fact, if this bill passed and the actual annual budget didn’t, there wouldn’t be any federal funding.
That hasn’t stopped the press, Democrats, and a few performative “fiscal conservatives” from acting like it’s the end of Western civilization. And let’s be honest — some of them are simply allergic to the idea of Trump doing anything that works.
As Miller summed up, the bill boils down to two things: cutting taxes and cutting spending. Period.
And for all the noise from the left about Trump’s “dangerous” budgetary philosophy, the facts continue to show otherwise. He wants to reduce the size of government. He wants to keep more money in your pocket. And he wants to fix the bloated federal machine that’s been running on borrowed time — and borrowed money — for decades.
Yet the media responds the only way they know how: with panic, projection, and a complete lack of basic economic literacy.
Yes, the media distorts. Yes, the opposition lies. But every now and then, someone like Stephen Miller comes along, lays out the truth in plain language, and shows how flimsy the attacks really are.
This isn’t about blind loyalty to Trump. No one — not even Trump — is above criticism.
But what we’re seeing yet again is how far the media will go to vilify everything Trump touches, even if it means lying about a bill that literally cuts waste and protects taxpayers.
In a time of growing darkness — where misinformation is currency and outrage is the default setting — a little truth can go a long way.
Thanks to Miller, the lights are back on.