Big, Bad Bill is Cruel

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, the news today is about a bill. It is a big bill. The Republicans' big, bad bill is cruel, coldhearted, and completely unnecessary. It is not even fiscally responsible. It is actually going to add to the deficit.

This massive bill, which is more than a thousand pages, was and is being negotiated behind closed doors. The debate started at 1 o'clock in the morning, in the darkness of night. This bill is going to strip healthcare and food assistance from millions of Americans so billionaires can get trillions of dollars in tax breaks.

Mr. Speaker, who is afraid of the big, bad bill? A lot of people are, and for good reason. Make no mistake, if you rip healthcare away from millions of Americans, people will die.

Right now, this is the largest Medicaid cut in American history. In fact, a headline today summarizing the Congressional Budget Office score on this bill said: ``Wealthy gain, low-income people lose from GOP megabill.'' They are right.

There are about 1.4 million Oregonians on Medicaid, including one in three children. I challenge my colleagues to go to a pediatric cancer wing and tell a child with leukemia and their parents that they can no longer afford lifesaving treatment. If my colleagues don't have the courage to tell them to their face, then don't support this bill.

This bill takes food from hungry children. SNAP helps more than 775,000 Oregonians, 50 percent of whom are children, put food on the table. This bill would lead to a significant reduction in food benefits for families.

I guess billionaires can eat caviar in their mansions or on their yachts while launching celebrities in rockets on vanity tours of space, but everyday Americans will be left unsure about whether they will have enough to feed their families.

The top 20 percent of income earners are going to get at least 68 percent of the benefits in the bill, while Oregonians and Americans who benefit from Medicaid and SNAP will be left to suffer.

Student loan borrowers could be in debt until they die because of this big, bad bill. Many students who get Pell grants will be harmed. The bill will raise monthly student loan payments for working- and middle-class borrowers, affecting 15 million people across the country. That includes more than 50,000 Oregonian students and families who, with this bill, will have limited options for repayment relief. No question, unless you are from a wealthy family, this bill will close the doors of opportunity for the next generation to access affordable college.

Families will pay more for groceries, gas, insurance, and utilities, but oil companies and corporate executives will get tax breaks. This bill will hike the average household electricity bill by about 10 percent, forcing families to pay more while corporate polluters are getting a windfall. Nationwide, families would pay an extra $6 billion.

Republicans are going to make it easier for corporate polluters to poison our water and air. We will see an increase in the number of wildfires and floods that devastate communities, and that will lead to continued skyrocketing insurance premiums and property damage.

Farmers and ranchers are collateral damage. This bill green-lights more drilling and mining that will spoil water supplies used for irrigation and livestock, poisoning the land while fossil fuel CEOs profit.

Public lands belong to all Americans, not billionaire donors, but Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are going to privatize, drill, and destroy them for profit. That will eviscerate the very spaces that make us America the beautiful.

Finally, tucked into this bill is a 10-year block on State regulation of artificial intelligence, which might make sense if we had policies at the Federal level for safety, security, and bias. We don't, so the public will face uncharted and unchecked harm.

For all these reasons and more, I oppose this misguided legislation, and I urge every one of my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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