MOUNTAIN TOP, PA — PA-08 Rep. Rob Bresnahan and GOP House Conference Chair Lisa McClain (MI-10) visited i2M, a plastics manufacturing plant in Mountain Top, on Wednesday, August 6. They were there to tout the benefits to businesses and employees from President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill (BBB). 

“What we’re doing here today is we’re talking about the real policies that make a difference in working class families’ lives,” said McClain. 

Speakers highlighted the BBB’s cutting of taxes on overtime. According to Bresnahan’s office, 23 percent of Pennsylvania workers regularly work overtime, and 64 percent work jobs that could benefit from this provision. 

McClain mentioned that, according to i2M founder Chris Hackett, Hackett works seven days a week, and most people at i2M work overtime. “Imagine what’s going to happen when they see their check—which is retroactive, by the way—and they get to keep more of their hard-earned money, and not have to give it back to the government,” she said. 

Bresnahan said that Hackett embodies what an entrepreneur is, and that he has made and continues to make significant reinvestment back into his business. 

The BBB “provided him a goalpost so he can make the R&D investments into the next generation of investment that he’s doing right behind us,” said Bresnahan. According to Bresnahan’s office, the BBB includes full expensing for investments into equipment and R&D, allowing companies to deduct the full costs of those investments from their taxes. 

Bresnahan also highlighted the BBB’s expansion of college saving plans eligibility, allowing the country to continue to invest in its skilled workforce, he said. “We’re always going to need electricians; we’re always going to need carpenters; we’re always going to need HVAC technicians.” 

Hackett said the BBB “has been extraordinarily important to small- and medium-sized businesses like i2M.” The increased predictability around taxes and ability to claim R&D expenses allow the company to make the strategic investments it needs to be able to grow, he said. 

“We are here touting the One Big Beautiful Bill—really, combating the truth with the lie,” said McClain. 

Representative Lisa McLain (left, MI-11) and Representative Rob Bresnahan (PA-08) discuss elements of the Big Beautiful Bill.

Supporting rural health care

Responding to a question from the River Reporter about the BBB’s cuts to social programs such as Medicaid, McCain said that Republicans are protecting Medicaid for those who truly need it. 

“Four-point-eight million people are able bodied, who are receiving Medicaid, who could work but are choosing not to work,” said McClain. “Our goal is to make sure that the people who need it most have it.”

In addition, McClain praised Bresnahan for playing an integral part in shaping the bill’s assistance package for rural hospitals. 

The Senate added a $50 billion “rural health transformation fund” to the final version of the BBB, a concession to Republican lawmakers from rural areas concerned about the impact the bill will have on rural health care, according to published reports. 

The fund will offset a little over a third of the estimated cuts to Medicaid funding in rural areas, according to a brief from national health coverage newsroom KFF Health News. Also according to KFF, while the cuts to Medicaid and similar programs are permanent, the health fund is temporary, funded for $10 billion per year from 2026 through 2030. 

Bresnahan was in Trump’s office as the bill was being finalized advocating for rural Pennsylvania to be covered by that rural health transformation fund, said McClain. 

The day McClain and Bresnahan visited i2M, the news broke that Commonwealth Health System (CHS) planned to sell the Regional Hospital of Scranton, Moses Taylor Hospital, as well as the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, to Tenor Health Foundation. 

“Our team has worked with both the governor’s team, as well a CHS’ team, as well as Tenor, every single day to make sure that there would be a continuity of care, including in that meeting with the President, said Bresnahan. “We had extensive conversations to make sure northeastern Pennsylvania would not be forgotten in that Rural Transformation Fund, so that the acquiring care provider would qualify.”