By Ashlee Banks
Special to the AFRO
House Democrats are blasting Senate Republicans for passing a sweeping tax and spending bill that they say will devastate low-income and minority communities by gutting Medicaid, enacting the largest cut to food assistance in U.S. history and rewarding billionaires with more tax breaks.
U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio-11) told the AFRO that the bill is “cruel, reckless and just plain wrong.”
“Senate Republicans just voted for the largest cut to Medicaid in history and the largest cut to SNAP in history. Millions of Americans will lose their health care if this bill becomes law, hospitals will close, and working-class people will become sicker, poorer and more in debt,” she said.
“All so the wealthiest Americans can get more tax breaks they don’t need,” the congresswoman added.
The bill, proposed by the GOP-led White House, passed the U.S. Senate in a dramatic 50-50 vote that was decided by Vice President JD Vance early July 1. Three Republicans Sens. Tom Tillis (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) broke ranks and joined all Democrats in opposition. The House is expected to vote on the amended version on July 2, with GOP leaders racing to get it to President Trump’s desk before his self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Democrats argue that the bill’s impact would be catastrophic.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.-01) called this bill a “reverse Robin Hood scheme” in a statement to the AFRO.
“After days of backroom dealing, Senate Republicans just passed an extreme bill gutting Medicaid, stealing food assistance, hiking electricity prices, and making it harder for millions to attain higher education,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.-04) called the bill “disastrous,” warning it would strip health coverage from more than hundreds of thousands of people in his state alone.
“The Senate GOP just passed Trump’s disastrous Big Ugly Bill, which will take away healthcare coverage for millions of Americans so that the ultra wealthy can get another tax cut. It is simply unconscionable,” Ivey said in a statement to the AFRO.
“I will vote NO on this disastrous legislation,” he added.
This bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, many of them permanent extensions of the 2017 Trump tax law, and imposes $1.2 trillion in spending cuts that mostly targets Medicaid and SNAP. It tightens eligibility and work requirements, including for older Americans and some parents and overhauls how the federal government reimburses states.
An analysis from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects the legislation would increase the number of uninsured Americans by nearly 12 million over the next decade and add $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit. Despite the ballooning cost, Republicans say the bill is a critical piece of their agenda and a major promise kept by the president
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.-7) called this bill “deeply harmful.”
“Every Senator that voted for it should be ashamed of themselves. I implore my House colleagues to reject this unpopular bill and listen to the cries of people across this country who stand to be harmed,” Pressley said in a statement.
“Trump and Republicans are trying to ram through this bill aligned with their dystopian vision for this country where billionaires get money they don’t need, while millions of people are poorer, sicker, hungrier and lack access to critical reproductive healthcare,” the congresswoman continued.
Pressley joins Reps. Brown, Ivey, Amo and other House Democrats in vowing to block the bill. They say legislation would have devastating effects for working families, minorities and the impoverished. They are gearing up for a fierce fight to stop the legislation in its tracks.
Rep. Brown told the AFRO that she will “fight this bill with everything I have.”
“Every lawmaker who supports this bill owes the American people an explanation and should have to look families in the eye and justify the harm they’ve unleashed,” the congresswoman added.