During an Instagram live on Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about how Democrats will oppose the Republicans' budget proposal, which includes cuts to Medicaid.
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00:00Some other things in terms of order to speak on, I'm happy to take some of your questions now, but it was so important and I wanted to get this message out to you all as well because in the next 72 hours, we have an opportunity to make a difference and to change the game.
00:15So thank you all so much. Someone said just called left a message. Thank you. Yes, I love to see that just instant action. That's what it's all about. I so so really appreciate you all.
00:30Just and that's all it takes, you know, like just quick call. It literally takes five minutes. If you don't like talking on the phone, Saturday is an amazing day to call because you go straight to voicemail and you can leave a voicemail and they'll log in for you.
00:45So thank you all so so much again. Link is in my bio and it's OcasioCortez.com slash save Medicaid. Someone said if we call Tuesday night, is that too late? No, it's not too late.
00:58I want to tell you, in fact, what is going to happen on Tuesday. So this markup is going to start at currently scheduled to start at Tuesday at 2 p.m.
01:08It will be live streamed on C-SPAN and probably on some other places like you can probably find it on YouTube and what have you. And what's going to happen on Tuesday is that these amendments are well, first and foremost, they're going to gavel in.
01:26They're going to introduce this bill. Everyone is allowed to issue an opening statement. So all I think 50 something around 50 something members of the committee will be giving at least a three minute opening statement.
01:39And then we go to markup. Now, what that means is that everyone is allowed to introduce amendments.
01:49And so Democrats are going to be issuing plenty of amendments to this bill. And we're going to drag this thing out.
01:57Okay, we're going to make this, we are going to grind this thing to a halt. I will be introducing amendments, the chairman will be introducing amendments, every single member of the committee will be introducing amendments to this bill.
02:14We are, we are, we are not going to let them do this in any kind of easy way. I'm ready. I'm going to be physically preparing, you know, I'm going to be staying in a seat for double digit hours.
02:32And we are going to make sure that this happens. Their goal, what Republicans are trying to do is that they're going to try to finish this probably by Wednesday at midnight.
02:43We may go longer. I don't know. We may be there till 11pm midnight, one, two, three o'clock in the morning. I don't, I'm, I wouldn't be surprised if we were there even longer.
02:55Because we're going to do everything that we can to, to grind this process to a halt to give you all as much time as possible to continue to organize, spread, call more people, get more people to call, and to really start building the momentum on this.
03:11And I want you all to know that, that, that the goal here is for this to really start to bloom.
03:17Tuesday is a major showdown, but it is not the last showdown. It is the first major showdown that we have culminating before it goes to a House floor vote.
03:27And I also want you to know that there are, in fact, many vulnerable members on that committee.
03:35And as we present, as we present amendments, they're going to think that they're slick.
03:41They think, and when I say that, what it means is that every amendment, there are people who are in really tight seats,
03:49and they think they can get out of a political bind by walking away from the committee and not showing up for the vote.
03:55Yes, they're going to try to not show up for the vote because they are so scared of, of, of having a record on this and because they are not used to people following what happens in committee.
04:10So usually, if a vote is tough, you can just take a walk on it, literally leave the room while the vote is happening.
04:18And they don't expect people at home to know that they are skipping votes because committee votes usually aren't as tracked by the public.
04:28And so by tracking it now, by blowing this stuff up now, by putting, shining a light on it now, in committee, they're going to get in trouble if they take a walk.
04:41Their communities are going to start to know that they're skipping votes.
04:44And so paying as much attention as possible, if you're a kind of person that, like, cuts clips or things like that, watching the hearings, having it on in the background, just making the view counts high, commenting on their Instagram posts, on their Twitter posts, etc.
05:02Digitally, physically, physically in their town halls, asking them about it, in the in phones, in voicemails, a lot of them are running away, and they're not hosting town halls.
05:12So you have to find them online, find them in in committee.
05:17And so we want to make sure that we are amping up that pressure as much as possible.