Gregory L Buhrow
Certified Public Accountant
A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act
... And Other Lies the Government is Telling Us!!!
My Republican state (TX) congressman, Lance Gooden, recently distributed more governmental propaganda to his constituents regarding what a great job he and the current administration are doing. It was a multi-page "2025 Annual Report" highlighting his legislative "accomplishments". Here are a few of the "highlights" in which I take issue ... because they are out-and-out mistruths and LIES.
Lie #1
In absolute terms, the OBBBA may be the largest tax cut in history. However, the economy and population is also at its highest level as well.
So, in order to determine if the OBBBA is the largest tax cut in history one must compare it against something that is a standard measure, let's say GDP or Gross Domestic Product.
Therefore, the largest tax cut in history was ERTA (Economic Recovery Tax Act) of 1981 under Reagan - almost 3% of GDP. The fourth largest would be the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) of 2012 under Obama - about 1.8% of GDP.
Coming in at sixth place is the OBBBA at 1.4% of GDP - less that 50% of ERTA!!
Lie #2 - A Whopper
The claim presented - as shown to the right - is that there will be "No Tax on Social Security".
This is a bald-faced LIE!!! The tax on Social Security has NOT been eliminated.
If a Social Security beneficiary receives a threshold amount of income in addition to their Social Security benefits, federal income tax is due on those Social Security benefits.
There is a new personal allowance, which acts like the old personal exemptions before the TCJA in 2017 for those taxpayers 65 or older of $6,000 (single) and $12,000 (married filing jointly).
That will reduce the tax owed overall but will not eliminate tax on Social Security.
See the example below:
Assume the following:
In an attempt to make this as simple as possible:
Single persons for each year - taxpayer 65 or over
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Interest income of $2,400
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Retirement income of $36,000
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Social security benefits of $30,000
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Standard deduction
Married filing jointly for each year - both taxpayers 65 or over
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Interest income of $3,600
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Retirement income of $48,000
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Social security benefits of $45,000
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Standard deduction
This example was generated with my professional tax software for tax years 2024 and 2025.
As you can see, the FEDERAL TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY HAS NOT BEEN ELIMINATED as claimed!! Taxable income is reduced because of the annual increase in the Standard Deduction and also because of the new 65-or-over personal allowance.