Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is once again taking a shot at President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill, dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
What Happened: On Sunday, Sanders posted on X with highlights from his recent remarks on the Senate floor regarding the proposed legislation.
Sanders calls the bill a “gift to the billionaire class,” which causes massive pain for millions of working-class American families, referring to it as “the most dangerous piece of legislation in the modern history of our country.”
The post is accompanied by a video of Sanders’ speech on the Senate floor, where he says that the bill provides $975 billion in tax breaks to the top 1%, along with a $211 billion estate tax exemption for the top 0.2%. “Congratulations, you hit the jackpot.”
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He said that large corporations would receive $918 billion in tax cuts, even as many move jobs overseas or invest in job-replacing AI technologies.
Sanders further warned that the legislation would make deep cuts to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, removing health coverage for over 16 million Americans. “This bill throws over 16 million people off the health insurance they have,” he said, citing projections from the Congressional Budget Office.
The independent Senator from Vermont also criticized the bill for forcing Medicaid recipients with incomes as low as $16,000 per year to begin paying co-pays. “For the first time, [it] forces millions of Medicaid recipients who make as little as $16,000 a year to pay a $35 co-payment every time they visit a doctor’s office,” Sanders said.
Pointing to a joint study by the Yale School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania, Sanders claimed the consequences could be deadly. “They estimate that if this bill goes through, over 50,000 Americans will die unnecessarily every year,” he said.
“In other words, this bill is literally a death sentence for low-income and working-class people,” he says.
Why It Matters: Sanders is joined by several of his Democratic peers, alongside experts, analysts and economists in pushing back against this bill.
Last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer referred to the bill as “flawed” and “irredeemable,” citing the same reasons as Sanders, that it kicks millions off healthcare, kills good-paying energy jobs, and takes food away from children, all the while bankrolling “tax breaks for billionaires.”
Economist Justin Wolfers calls it “pure reverse Robin Hood,” calling out the fact that it takes from the poor to give to the rich.
Wolfers says that the bill represents one of the “largest redistributions from poor to rich in American history.”
Even GOP senators, Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have warned against the bill, saying that it could fuel deficits and inflation.
Photo Courtesy: Jana Shea on Shutterstock.com
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