John Oliver had some strong words Sunday night for what Donald Trump has been calling the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
On Last Week Tonight, Oliver devoted his main segment to the sprawling piece of legislation that recently passed the House by a single vote—and that he said could reshape the country in quietly devastating ways.
He opened with a jab at Trump’s naming instincts—“It sounds either like a lumberjack with an OnlyFans”—before turning to the bill itself, which, according to Oliver, combines steep tax breaks for the rich with sweeping cuts to social programs like Medicaid and SNAP, all while being rushed through Congress with minimal transparency.
Oliver noted that even some Republicans have admitted they hadn’t read the full bill before voting for it—including Marjorie Taylor Greene, who later objected to a provision blocking states from restricting AI for the next decade. “Who among us hasn’t approved things we haven’t read properly?” Oliver quipped. “It’s why none of you noticed Apple’s new terms and conditions technically give them rights to your firstborn child.”
A major focus of Oliver’s critique was the bill’s expansion of work requirements for benefits—what he argued are essentially “paperwork requirements” that make it harder for eligible people to stay enrolled. He cited projections that millions could lose coverage or food assistance, not because they don’t qualify, but because they can’t navigate the red tape.
At one point, Oliver singled out a Georgia Medicaid program—Pathways to Coverage—which Republicans are said to have used as a model for the legislation, despite enrollment struggles, heavy bureaucracy, and high administrative costs. Even the program’s own poster patient, he noted, had his coverage revoked twice due to paperwork issues.
He also criticized GOP messaging, including bizarre metaphors from Dr. Oz, who now oversees Medicare and Medicaid. Oz compared Medicaid recipients to strangers living in your basement, which Oliver called “insulting and completely detached from reality.”
Meanwhile, the bill’s much ballyhooed tax cuts, Oliver noted, are heavily tilted toward the wealthiest households, while its budget math relies on slashing benefits for people who are poor, disabled, or caring for family members. “It’s a massive redistribution of wealth upward,” Oliver said, “accompanied by gigantic cuts to critical programs for the most vulnerable.”
As the bill heads to the Senate, Oliver warned viewers not to tune it out. “If it becomes law,” he said, “we’re going to look back on it decades from now the same way we look back at all the destructive sh*t Reagan did. And when that happens, Republicans can’t say they didn’t know what was in it, or what it would do.”
Watch the complete segment at the top of this post.
