The GOP budget bill would create a new levy of up to 20% for some foreign companies operating in the U.S. And critics say this levy, aka the revenge tax, would deter foreign investment at a critical moment in American economic history.

The provision would be used to "punish companies based in countries that try to collect new taxes from American firms," said The New York Times. That includes nations that levy a 15% "global minimum tax" under a 2021 international agreement and countries that tax digital services provided by U.S. tech companies. 

But foreign companies might not put money into the U.S. if they run afoul of the revenge tax. That "directly contradicts the president's investment vision" of bringing jobs and manufacturing back to America, said Jonathan Samford of the Global Business Alliance. Business lobbyists are in a "scramble" to kill the tax.

What did the commentators say?
The purpose of the tax is to "intimidate, not to raise revenue," said The Economist. The effects would be counterproductive. The tax would actually cut into government revenues by "scaring off foreign investors and therefore lowering American asset prices," the Joint Committee on Taxation found. And the Trump administration's "protectionist logic" doesn't just apply to goods and services provided by other countries but also to "capital flows." That's dangerous territory for a president who has "already made investing in America a riskier bet."

Foreign countries have been "seeking ways to pilfer our tax base" for years, said Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas) at Bloomberg Tax. The global minimum tax would "erode our tax base" while giving other countries the "ability to target and tax U.S.-owned companies." Taxing countries that take aim at U.S. companies "isn't 'revenge,'" but it does allow the federal government to "advocate for U.S. companies and workers."

What next?
The budget measure would give the Trump administration new taxing authority just as courts are "already debating the legality of the sweeping tariffs" the White House has imposed on global trading, said MarketWatch. The hope behind creating a revenge tax is that it "will never be applied," said Morgan Stanley credit strategist Michael Zezas. But that hope may not be sound. After all, said MarketWatch, Trump has already "proved willing to risk disrupting facets of the globalized economy." 

Some health experts believe the controversial claims made by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be due to an obsolete medical theory. Known as miasma theory, this belief system goes back centuries but has long been superseded by the basic theory of germs. Yet some on the fringes of the medical community still promote it, which could be driving some of RFK Jr.'s decisions.

What's miasma theory?
It's the disproven belief that diseases are "caused by inhaling air that was infected through exposure to corrupting matter," according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. It was believed this "bad air" could have been infected by "rotting corpses, the exhalations of other people already infected, sewage or even rotting vegetation."

Germ theory was discovered in the last few centuries, though, revealing that it "wasn't some mysterious stench in the air from rotting garbage that spread diseases," said NPR. Instead, "bacteria and viruses and other microscopic materials were actually what caused illness," Melanie Kiechle, a historian at Virginia Tech, said to NPR. Miasma theory is "debunked essentially."

Why is RFK Jr. a believer?
Kennedy "doesn't believe in a foundational scientific principle: germ theory," said Ars Technica. He wrote a section promoting miasma theory in his 2021 book, "The Real Anthony Fauci," which criticized the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the section, Kennedy "promotes the miasma theory but gets the definition completely wrong."

Kennedy's "unscientific belief that germs don't actually cause disease will likely have far worse consequences," said Jalopnik. This is a "threat to modern medicine and health in this country, as well as across the world." 

Many doctors believe this is all part of an effort to promote an anti-vax agenda. Kennedy is "trying to give this false veneer of intellectualism by saying, 'Oh, the miasma theory,'" Dr. Amesh Adalja, a scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Health Security, said to NPR. This is "obfuscation to support his idea that vaccines are not valuable."