Millions of Americans are looking forward to a federal income tax cut that won’t and cannot happen.

Both Donald Trump and the Republican Congress are touting a non-existent tax cut as part of Trump’s big beautiful (beautiful only in the eyes of certain beholders) bill, but to know or understand this, one has to know the full background of what happened more than seven years ago, which is an eternity in most people’s minds, particularly the minds of Trump supporters.

On January 1, 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took effect, reducing tax rates and increasing exemptions, with a whole host of other provisions. These lower rates have been in effect ever since then, but would have expired at the end of this year.

What the “big beautiful bill” does is to make those earlier tax cuts permanent and make a few additional temporary tax cuts (from 2025 through 2028) for some income from tips, as well as make some modest increases in allowable deductions and add a few targeted tax deductions, such as auto loan interest payments on U.S.- made cars. The “cost” of all this is higher taxes on green and renewable energy generation and reductions in health care programs for the poorest Americans.

The bottom line? Very few will get significant tax cuts from what they paid last year, except for people with a significant income from tips. And something like 10 million Americans will lose various health and SNAP benefits, while scores of rural hospitals will face cuts that may force their closure.

But Trump gets credit for a non-existent tax cut, or more charitably, for making his 2018 temporary tax cuts permanent. So he gets popular credit for doing the same thing twice.

Meanwhile, from what I can tell, the Democrats haven’t even been able to point this out in any effective fashion, which doesn’t bode well for their chances in upcoming elections.