Nebraska Congressman Adrian Smith wants you to feel good about the Republican tax law. In a new op-ed in the Omaha World-Herald titled "The tax cuts Republicans promised are working for Nebraska," he takes a victory lap for the "One Big Beautiful Bill" — the giant Republican tax-and-budget law he helped write.

Smith has been selling this bill for a while. He chairs the tax-writing subcommittee, and he's told Nebraskans the law prevents a roughly $1,500 tax increase for the average household and more than $5,000 for farmers. "We certainly don't want taxes to go up," he said.

Here's the part he leaves out of the op-ed: how that bill gets paid for, and who in Nebraska pays.

The same bill cuts Nebraska's health care

The "One Big Beautiful Bill" isn't just a tax cut. To help cover the cost, it makes deep cuts to the programs Nebraska families rely on.

According to the nonpartisan Nebraska Appleseed, the law will cost Nebraska up to $4 billion in federal Medicaid funds over the next decade. The result, they project: fewer doctors, more strain on rural hospitals, and worse care for families who already struggle to get it. And an estimated 55,000 Nebraskans are projected to lose their health coverage entirely.

That's not a side effect Smith failed to see coming. It's built into the bill he helped write and voted for.

It's already taking food off Nebraska tables

The same law tightened the rules on SNAP — the food assistance program that helps working families, seniors, and kids afford groceries.

In Nebraska, about 151,000 people receive SNAP benefits every month. And the cuts aren't theoretical — the state's own health department reported that about 18,000 Nebraskans have already lost food assistance under the new Republican law. In a state where nearly 1 in 5 kids faces hunger, that's real harm to real families.

Smith's op-ed talks about take-home pay. It says nothing about the 18,000 neighbors who just lost help buying food.

Who the tax cuts really help

Smith frames the law as relief for families and farmers. But the biggest, most permanent benefits in Republican tax bills like this one flow to the top — corporations and wealthy pass-through business owners who get to lock in deductions ordinary wage-earners never see.

Smith himself let the logic slip when he defended the bill, arguing that "even with the tax cut, businesses paid more in taxes because they were making more money." That's the trickle-down promise Republicans have made for decades — cut taxes at the top, and trust that everyone else comes out ahead. The trade Nebraska actually got is concrete: tax cuts weighted toward the wealthy, paid for with billions in cuts to the health care and food aid that keep working families afloat.

The bottom line

An honest scorecard of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" for Nebraska looks like this: a tax cut Adrian Smith is proud to advertise, and — in the same law, on the same page — up to $4 billion less for Medicaid, 55,000 people losing coverage, and 18,000 already cut off from food help.

Smith wrote the tax section and is running his reelection on it. But a congressman who's served since 2007 owes his constituents the whole story, not the half that polls well. When you count what the bill takes away, it isn't "working for Nebraska." It's working against a lot of Nebraskans. We deserve better.

Source

This post responds to Rep. Adrian Smith's op-ed in the Omaha World-Herald: "The tax cuts Republicans promised are working for Nebraska."