Big Beautiful Bill letter praising Hamadeh doesn’t tell full story

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OPINION — I’d like to offer a rebuttal to a recent letter-writer’s effusive praise for Rep. Abe Hamadeh’s support/vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill — OBBB.

Congratulations to the writer and her husband, who are now paying no taxes on Social Security; however, please be aware this is only for the lowest income brackets: Married filing jointly pay no taxes under $32,000; for Individuals it’s under $25,000.

This is very significant for the low bracket Social Security earners, but for those earners exceeding these limits, up to 50% to 85% of their benefits may be taxable.

While it’s true that the average tax refund for tax year 2025 rose by around 11%, it’s important to fully understand these Social Security tax cuts are temporary, they don’t apply to everyone and they expire after 2028.

In contrast, the OBBB handed significant tax benefits for the ultra-wealthy that shields massive generational wealth from top-tier estate taxes. Thanks to the OBBB, the top 1% received seven different types of tax cuts. And these tax cuts are permanent.

The top 1% takes care of its own and Rep. Hamadeh has enthusiastically supported this vast wealth shift in spite of the demographics of his constituency.

He has never once held a Town Hall meeting to actually hear from those he represents and in no way does he deserve any sort of praise for “representing” Congressional District 8, in my opinion. He doesn’t live in CD 8, doesn’t know CD 8 and he doesn’t deserve praise or re-election.

Congressional District 8 includes parts of Glendale, Peoria, north Phoenix, Sun City, Sun City West and Surprise. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.