During Trump’s address to Congress in March, State of the People organizers, activists and journalists stood up a 24 -hour streaming channel. As the Senate and House debate Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” State of the People is broadcasting a marathon on its YouTube channel to fully inform the public on the devastating impact of Trump’s bill. From State of the People, here are some ways in which the legislation will impact our communities:
Broke: Money, Jobs, Economy
- This bill cuts $1.3 trillion in food assistance and health coverage while giving the wealthy that exact amount in tax breaks.
- It adds $3.25 trillion to the national debt which will weaken our economy at a time we can’t afford it.
- Kills jobs and increases energy costs: Puts 1.75 million construction jobs at risk — with unions warning, “this stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of the country”
- Puts 2 million clean energy jobs at risk and increases energy bills by hundreds of dollars across the country
- Trump and the GOP’s budget is the most regressive tax scheme in at least the last 40 years — possibly ever. The bill will “actively transfer” money from the poorest Americans into the pockets of the ultra-wealthy
- The impact of the “cuts” they are talking about is really a transfer of wealth reduce incomes among the poorest 20% of Americans by 3.8%, while increasing the incomes of the richest 20% by 3.7%
Sick: Healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA; Veterans
- Rips away health care from over 16 million Americans through over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act — including the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
- These Medicaid cuts are going to reach down into every corner of our nation’s health care system.
- Puts over 300 rural hospitals at risk of shutting down, ripping away critical, lifesaving care from hundreds of rural communities across the country.
- Seniors will lose care at home and be left with fewer nursing homes and fewer nurses.
- Kids with disabilities will lose home care.
- And never before has there been legislation so focused on denying care to eligible Americans by adding more red tape, and making it harder for anyone who relies on Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
- More than 37 million children are enrolled in either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a federal program that provides affordable health insurance to pregnant mothers and children who live just above Medicaid’s poverty threshold.
- Combined, Medicaid and CHIP protect nearly half of all children in the United States, beginning with important prenatal care, covering over 40% of U.S. births as well as nearly half of all rural births, and continuing to insure millions of vulnerable children into young adulthood.
Veterans: Over 9 million veterans are enrolled in VA health care, and millions more rely on Medicaid, Medicare, or ACA coverage to fill gaps — these cuts will gut their care and overwhelm an already strained VA system.
- About 1 in 10 veterans rely on Medicaid — especially post-9/11 veterans, low-income veterans, and those living in rural areas where VA facilities are limited.
- Veterans of color, women veterans, and disabled veterans are disproportionately impacted, as they are more likely to be dual-eligible for VA and public health programs now on the chopping block.
- These cuts would force many veterans to delay care, forgo treatment, or drown in medical debt — all while funding more weapons and war.
Hungry: Taking food assistance away from our kids and communities
- 5 million Americans lose food assistance (Congressional Budget Office SNAP projections)
- Work requirements expanded to age 64 (House Republican reconciliation bill text)
- New red tape around the child tax credit, making it harder to qualify for some of the benefits like school lunch programs and SNAP
- According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SNAP helps pay for groceries for more than 15 million children in the U.S. (USDA)
- Could force some states to end their SNAP programs. Over the last 50 years, SNAP’s nationwide availability has largely eliminated severe hunger and malnutrition throughout the United States. This bill walks away from the long-standing, bipartisan, and national commitment to food assistance that made that possible.
Additional Impacts:
- Endangers our communities by making it easier to buy dangerous firearms and silencers
- The administration proposes a 43.6% decrease in HUD program funding, from $77.0 billion to $43.5 billion. This includes a $26.7 billion cut from federal rental assistance programs as the responsibility for rental assistance would shift to the states. The proposal also eliminates the $3.3 billion Community Development Block Grant program, designed to support community infrastructure, public facilities, and programming.
- The Department of Health and Human Services budget would be reduced by 26.2%, from $127.0 billion to $93.8 billion. Within this, a new $500 million fund would support the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, designed to allow HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address nutrition, medication, and food and drug quality.
- A reform of the National Institutes of Health would reduce its budget by $18.0 million, requiring the closure of the National Institute on Minority and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Nursing Research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget would also drop $3.6 billion.
- Another $4.0 billion would be cut by ending the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program operated by the Administration for Children & Families.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs (-$646 million)
