- Reversing "big beautiful bill" tax breaks would raise taxes $860 for middle-income and $71,000 for the top 0.1%.
- McAdams said his top priority in office will be addressing housing costs and restoring cut healthcare programs.
- Diesel fuel prices hit record highs of $6 per gallon this week amid Middle East conflicts disrupting oil supply.
The Democratic nominee favored to win Utah’s newly drawn 1st Congressional District said on Thursday his party will seek to roll back President Donald Trump’s signature legislative achievement: the “big beautiful bill.”
Former Rep. Ben McAdams, who won his crowded June primary election with a majority of the vote, could play a pivotal role in making that happen.
His Salt Lake County seat is the result of a yearslong legal battle over redistricting. In November, a district judge rejected the GOP-controlled Legislature’s electoral boundaries, opting for a map drawn by activist groups.
This created a blue island, leaning anywhere from 14-24 percentage points toward Democrats. And it could be a key Democratic pickup to take the U.S. House.
Polls show Democrats in a strong position to sweep battleground districts nationwide. If Democrats take the House, McAdams said the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts could be the first thing on the chopping block.
“There’s a direct linkage between the cuts that hurt everyday families — SNAP and Medicare and ending healthcare subsidies — and handouts to billionaires and corporations,” he said. “It’s easy to just reverse that.”
Undoing the ‘big beautiful bill’
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The law made many provisions of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, instead of letting them expire at the end of 2025, and made healthcare reforms.
Reversing these tax breaks would result in an average tax increase of $80 per year for low-income taxpayers, $860 for middle-income taxpayers and $71,000 for the top 0.1 percent of taxpayers, according to the Tax Policy Center.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act resulted in tax decreases for roughly three-quarters of households. But about 45% of tax relief fell to those making more than $450,000. This came at the expense of healthcare benefits, McAdams said.
The law added requirements for Medicaid expansion adults to work 80 hours a month. It also limited states’ ability to tax hospitals to finance Medicaid as a way of demanding greater matching funds from the federal government.
While the reforms were intended to crack down on fraud, waste and abuse in the programs driving the national debt, McAdams framed them as a devious decision by Washington, D.C., to take from the poor to give to the rich.
“Washington made a choice,” McAdams said. “They chose a winner and they chose a loser: The losers they chose are the hardworking people right here in our district, and the winners are billionaires and corporations.”
Focus on affordability
McAdams made the comments during a “The Price is Not Right” press conference where he argued Republicans were not working to bring down core costs.
The average price for diesel fuel hit record highs of more than $6 per gallon this week as military conflicts in the Middle East cut off oil supply routes.
Tariffs appear to have also impacted the costs of certain products, like clothing and footwear, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
“Trump started a trade war and an illegal war in Iran,” McAdams said. “And people in Utah, people in this district, are paying for both wars every time they buy the essentials.”
With a likely victory in the general election, McAdams said his priority upon entering office will be to address housing costs. He refused to give specific proposals, but he said Congress must do more to facilitate construction.
His second order of business, he said, will be to “restore what got cut” in The One Big Beautiful Bill Act and to renew expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies from 2021 that the GOP Congress opted to let expire in 2026.
McAdams, who served in Congress from 2019-2021, also promised to sign on to legislation that would ban individual stock trading from members of Congress.
“The same people writing these rules are the same ones trading stock in the industries that they’re supposed to be overseeing,” McAdams said.
McAdams faces Republican nominee Riley Owen in the general election. Incumbent GOP Reps. Blake Moore, in the 2nd District; Celeste Maloy, in the 3rd; and Mike Kennedy, in the 4th; are each expected to win by more than 30 percentage points.