Jayapal Statement on the Big Bad Budget Betrayal

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), a Member of the House Budget Committee, released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the Big Bad Betrayal Bill 218-214:

“This is a cruel, horrific betrayal that will leave Americans poorer and sicker. It will throw 17 million Americans off health care and increase health care costs for everyone. It will shutter over 300 rural hospitals, close over 500 nursing homes, and defund Planned Parenthood clinics that provide cancer screenings and basic reproductive care. It will slash food assistance for millions of hungry families, the largest cut in the history of the SNAP nutrition program. It will make electric bills more expensive in every single state, make it harder to pay for college, and substantially weaken our public schools. It will kill over a million good-paying jobs and destroy our planet for future generations. It will supercharge ICE’s kidnapping and disappearing of people of all legal statuses, giving $45 billion more to ICE to pad the pockets of the for-profit industrial prison complex that is detaining immigrants without due process. It will explode the deficit by trillions of dollars—all so that Republicans can give $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest millionaires and billionaires.  

“The Big Bad Betrayal Bill is the largest ever transfer of wealth from poor and working people to the richest, and every single district and state—red, blue, and purple—will feel the effects. Under this legislation, the poorest Americans are dealt the biggest blow. Policies that are supposedly going to help working people—labeled “no tax on tips or overtime”—are instead another betrayal, structured to give very little help to very few people and set to expire in two years. When you add in the massive Medicaid and SNAP cuts, poor and middle class Americans will go backwards, not forward.

“Everything in this bill is structured to lift up the wealthiest millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. Those tax cuts are permanent, not temporary, and they amount to gold bars while poor and working Americans get breadcrumbs. Every Republican who voted for this bill in the House and the Senate sold out their constituents to make their billionaire donors richer and to bend the knee to Donald Trump. Thanks to Trump, Republicans, and this bill, people will die.

“The role of government should be to even the playing field for ALL Americans, to help Americans thrive, not just survive, and to create genuine opportunity for poor and working people. This bill does the exact opposite. I voted HELL NO and will never give up the fight to stand up for my constituents who deserve so much better.”

Jayapal voted no on the legislation when it first passed the House in May.

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