“Donald, there is nothing beautiful about making people sicker, poorer, and more vulnerable. And that’s exactly what this bill would do.”

Republican Reconciliation Bill Would Rip Away Healthcare and Food Assistance from Millions, Harm Everyone Especially Black and Brown Communities

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) co-hosted a press conference with Color of Change to oppose the Republicans’ cruel and harmful budget reconciliation package, which would gut critical programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to fund billions of dollars in new tax giveaways straight into the pockets of Trump’s billionaire friends. The bill is estimated to cause 14 million people to lose their healthcare and raise costs for millions more. It would also make the largest cuts to food assistance in American history, taking food away from millions of children, seniors, veterans, and folks with disabilities.

Across Massachusetts, over 955,000 Medicaid enrollees are at risk of losing healthcare coverage under MassHealth, the Commonwealth’s Medicaid program, due to the bill’s work reporting requirements for Medicaid. In the Massachusetts 7^th Congressional District, approximately 135,000 enrollees would lose coverage.

Republicans’ extreme budget plan also threatens the approximately 1,216,000 people in the Commonwealth who depend on SNAP to put food on the table, including 187,000 people in the Massachusetts 7^th Congressional District.

Congresswoman Pressley was joined by Representatives Summer Lee (PA-12), Shontel Brown (OH-11), Alma Adams (NC-12), Gabe Amo (RI-01), and Rashida Tlaib (MA-12), as well as Color of Change’s Interim Executive Director Portia Allen-Kyle, Families over Billionaires’ Campaign Director Michael Linden, and advocates from Color of Change.

A transcript of the Congresswoman’s opening remarks, as delivered, is available below, and the full video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley, Color Of Change Host Presser Opposing Medicaid Cuts for Trump’s Billionaire Handouts
U.S. Capitol
May 20, 2025

Good afternoon everyone!

Thank you for joining us. It is so good always to be surrounded by what I consider to be movement family. I am immensely proud to be partnering with Color of Change as we demand that Republicans take their hands off our healthcare, hands off our food assistance, and hands off other essential, life-saving programs.

Thank you to Portia, for standing in the gap in such a time as this. Thank you for the indefatigable efforts of the entire team at Color of Change, to the folks here today who are opening their hearts to share their stories with us all. 

And thank you my colleagues, Representatives Lee, Brown, Adams, Amo and Tlaib for their partnership and to our friends at Families over Billionaires for the work you do each and every day.

We stand here today because Republicans are trying to gut Medicaid, SNAP, and other essential, life-saving programs so they can line the pockets of billionaires including Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is stealing from the poor, the elderly, the vulnerable and everyday working families to line his own damn pockets.

This is the great Republican ripoff.

These attacks are precise, intentional, targeted. 

They mean harm to everyone who calls this country home, beginning with our most vulnerable.

They’re coming for our veterans, our elders, and folks with disabilities. 

They’re coming for those in need of life-saving medications for chronic diseases like asthma, high blood pressure, and dementia.

They’re coming for babies who need formula, parents who are just trying to put food on the dinner table.

And of course, they mean to harm our Black and brown communities who stand to be the most impacted by these devastating cuts.

Medicaid is essential healthcare. About 1 in 5 Medicaid enrollees are Black.  

SNAP is essential food for families. 20% of Black households have faced food insecurity in recent years, compared to 7% of white households.

As the saying goes, when the rest of America gets a cold, Black folks get pneumonia – and this bill is certainly a testament to that. 

I represent the Massachusetts 7th, a district that is vibrant, diverse, dynamic, one of the most unequal in this country, and was one of the hardest-hit Congressional districts by the first Trump occupancy.

And we have every reason to believe that this will be the case again in the second occupancy of the Trump White House.

Donald Trump was up here today threatening his caucus to fall in line behind his “one big, beautiful bill.” 

Donald, there is nothing beautiful about making people sicker, making people poorer, making people more vulnerable. And that’s exactly what this bill would do. 

Nearly 14 million people kicked off their healthcare. Food ripped out of the mouths of millions of children, seniors, veterans, and folks with disabilities. 

I mean seriously, the only people who’d benefit from this bill are toy spaceship billionaires like Elon Musk and Donald Trump himself.

The cruelty is the point. 

Republicans know exactly how cruel and unpopular this bill is. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be trying to move it forward under the cover of night at 11 o’clock on a Sunday or 1am on a Wednesday, like they’re doing this week. 

You know, Donald Trump and Republicans would love for us to stop fighting back.

Donald Trump’s a dictator. A dictator wants a citizenry that is uninformed, that is indifferent to the suffering of its neighbor, and that is inactive. 

They would love for us to cede this dark, dystopian vision that Donald Trump has for America as an inevitability.

But it is not. And the only way to beat a dictator is with defiance.

Our colleagues in the House across the aisle, you know, I’m asked all the time if there are opportunities for bipartisanship, to which I respond, “where is the party for bipartisanship?”

This is just a cult of cowards who have been complicit in wholesale harm. Just a cult of cowards. 

And the only way to beat a dictator is with defiance. 

So that’s what brings us here today. We won’t back down, not for a second. 

And Medicaid, SNAP, Head Start and the VA – these programs aren’t just line items in a budget. 

They are lifelines. They are lifelines. Policies determine who lives, who dies, who survives, who thrives.  

So together, we say: 

Hands off healthcare.

Hands off our food.

Hands off our bodies.

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