President Donald Trump made a rare appearance on Capitol Hill earlier this week to pressure Republican holdouts into backing his so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” a sweeping proposal that would make permanent his 2017 tax cuts for wealthy corporations. It also includes massive cuts to federal programs, including Medicaid, food assistance and other safety net programs.
Afterwards, President Trump said there was a lot of “love” in the meeting. Outside the Republican conference, the bill has not been getting a lot of love. U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley has been outspoken in her opposition, especially about how the bill could hurt low-income families in her district and across the commonwealth. She spoke Wednesday on the House floor, saying “Medicaid has been a lifeline. Today, 42% of births in America are funded by Medicaid. Republicans — who claim to be pro-family — are coming for Medicaid with a sledgehammer. This big, shameful, unconscionable bill is unacceptable, but it is not inevitable.”
The bill has now passed the U.S. House and has advanced to the Senate. Congresswoman Pressley joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss what’s in the bill and how it could impact Massachusetts. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Arun Rath: Let’s get into it. You’ve called this bill a “cruel and calculated” attack on poor and working people. Could you talk about that?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: Donald Trump says he wants this one big beautiful bill, but there’s nothing big or beautiful about making people poorer. There’s nothing beautiful about making people sicker, making people more vulnerable, and that’s exactly what this Republican shameful bill would do.
And it is a Republican bill — a partisan bill. It’s important to make that point, because they’re the architects of wholesale harm. This bill is going to cause 14 million people to lose their health care and raise costs for millions more, and is going to rip food out of the mouths of millions of kids, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities.
Rath: Let’s get into the details and start off with Medicaid. Tell me if I have this number wrong — that the bill would slash Medicaid by over $3 trillion in the next decade?
Pressley: Again, just shameful when I think about the implications for the commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the immediate, the acute harm that would be felt. Again, 14 million people [nationwide] would lose their health care, and it raises the cost for millions more.
But in the commonwealth, over 955,000 people could lose their health care coverage under MassHealth. In my district, the Massachusetts 7th, which I should say is one of the most unequal Congressional districts in the country and arguably the most unequal in our Congressional delegation, approximately 135,000 enrollees could lose coverage. Medicaid, it’s been a lifeline. One in five Medicaid enrollees is Black. In my district, where life expectancy drops by 30 years already from Cambridge to Roxbury, this is incredibly frightening.
And as the co-chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, when you layer that with an already persistent and systemic crisis growing within the Black maternal morbidity crisis, the fact that one in five Black women are already more vulnerable to die in births or post-birthing complications, when you layer that with these cuts to Medicaid, it is going to exacerbate that crisis.
Rath: Let’s talk about food assistance. What are you hearing from your constituents who rely on food assistance programs or SNAP?
Pressley: Well, they’re afraid. I mean, I’m hearing from my constituents — and I listen to my constituents, unlike my Republican colleagues, who seem more concerned with keeping a job than doing the job they were sent there to do. They’re so fearful under this culture of grievance politics and retribution that’s trafficked by Donald Trump that they’re not listening to their constituents.
When I listen to my constituents, they tell me that cutting Medicaid, cutting SNAP, cutting social security, will be a death sentence for them. Those are the words that they use. This bill threatens 1.2 million people in the commonwealth who depend on SNAP to put food on the table. Food! I mean, this is an essential, right?
This bill threatens the roughly 187,000 people who depend on SNAP to feed their families. 20% of Black households have faced food insecurity in recent years compared to 7% of white households. So, again, it’s just wholesale harm.
Rath: Talking about these communities, we talked during the pandemic a lot about communities that were disproportionately hit, the health care inequities, and it seems like this is all going to those same vulnerable places.
Pressley: Absolutely. None of these should be partisan issues. Making sure that people can access critical health care, that they can cover their medications for chronic diseases like heart disease, blood pressure medications, asthma medications, formula for their baby — these things should not even be up for debate.
This bill is harmful. It is like all of their DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] cuts in the sense that it is void of common sense and compassion. But again, as ugly as it is, as shameful as it is, as unconscionable as it is, we just need four Republicans to listen to their constituents, four Republicans of conscience to say no and to reject this shameful bill. Just four.
Rath: What would it take? How optimistic are you that you could find those four Republicans?
Pressley: Well, I think the fact that Donald Trump had to come here and make an appeal to his caucus is evidence of the fact that there is not a unity in this caucus. And for some, that’s because they want to enact even more harm. They wish the cuts were going deeper.
But for others, it’s because they are now feeling the pressure of public outcry, and the fact that these cuts would not only be devastating, but these cuts are being done in the name of a tax break for the wealthy.
I mean, it is laughable that somehow Republicans have tried to convince the American people the Democrats are the party of the elites, when this is a cabinet of millionaires and billionaires who daily are enacting harm and moving policies to make themselves richer — whether you’re talking about stocks and trading, whether you’re talking about contracts, or whether you’re talking about cryptocurrency.
Rath: Finally, if this bill does pass, what can Massachusetts leaders do to mitigate the harm that you just laid out that your constituents would be facing?
Pressley: We’ll have to do everything. We’ll have to do everything. You know, everything will have to be on the table. I’m already in daily and regular communication with my colleagues at the municipal and state level, and certainly in close communication and in cooperative efforts with the Mass. delegation. It’s such an honor to serve alongside these people who never lose the plot, and the plot is the people. My Republican colleagues have lost the plot.
Before we start thinking about contingency plans and what we will do to help people weather this storm if it comes, I think people need to stay squarely focused on the fact that we can stave off this storm. We can stave off this harm. Pressure, pressure, pressure — tell your stories, amplify your stories, and insist that four Republicans of conscience do the right thing by their constituents and every person that calls this country home. You know, [Republicans] are not doing town halls in their district. Democrats are going into Republican districts and doing town halls because they’re running scared! They know that this bill is unpopular.
I mean, I even had a constituent reach out to me who has a Republican rep saying, “I’m reaching out to you because I can’t get an audience from my own member. I’m a 70-year-old hospice nurse taking care of a child, an autistic child. My son has autism. He cannot be left alone, it would be injurious and dangerous for him to do so. He relies on Social Security and Medicaid. I have another family member that supports me as a caregiver to him, and if they cut Social Security and Medicaid, it will be a death sentence for my son.”
She’s reaching out to me because she can’t get an audience with her own Republican member. [Republicans] are running scared because they know that this bill is harmful, and it is deeply unpopular.
