00:00Thank you all for being with me. As many of you know, the U.S. House of Representatives
00:04recently passed the so-called Reconciliation Bill by a vote of 215 to 214, a one-vote margin.
00:15Every Democrat voted against this bill. Almost every Republican voted for it. In the coming
00:22weeks, the U.S. Senate is expected to take the bill up. Let me take this opportunity to
00:29tell you what is in this piece of legislation. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality,
00:37this bill makes the obscenely rich, the oligarchs, even richer, while attacking the most basic
00:45needs of working families and the most vulnerable people in our society. This bill provides massive
00:53tax breaks to the richest people and largest corporations and pays for them by making gigantic
01:01cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, nutrition, education, and other programs that are life
01:10and death for working families, the children, and the elderly. This bill is what Trump economics
01:17is all about. If you are rich or a large multinational corporation, if you can make huge campaign
01:28contributions, you are entitled to massive tax breaks and Congress will give you those tax breaks.
01:36But if you are working class or poor, you can't make those large campaign contributions, you are entitled
01:45to nothing. You're not entitled to health care through Medicaid. You're not entitled to a nutrition
01:52program to feed your kids. You're not entitled to a decent education. Trumpism is about the belief
02:01that we live in a dog-eat-dog world where the big dogs are able to eat the little dogs. And that is
02:11the way it is. This bill would provide a $664 billion tax break to the top 1% at a time when the top 1%
02:23already own more wealth than the bottom 93%. It would provide a $420 billion tax breaks to large
02:32multinational corporations that are stashing their profits in offshore tax havens like the Cayman
02:39Islands. And by the way, this tax break makes it easier for those companies to invest in robots and
02:48artificial intelligence with the result that are going to be able to throw workers out on the streets.
02:55And how would Trump and the Republicans in Congress pay for these huge tax breaks for the wealthy and
03:02large corporations? Well, at a time when over 85 million Americans today are uninsured or underinsured,
03:10this bill slashes Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act by more than $715 billion. The Congressional Budget
03:21Office, the CBO, has estimated that this bill would eliminate health care for 13.7 million Americans.
03:30Almost 14 million Americans would lose their health care. Further, at a time when 22% of our seniors
03:38are trying to survive on less than $15,000 a year, and I don't know how anybody survives on that,
03:45this legislation will make it much harder for seniors to receive the care they desperately need
03:52in nursing homes. And here is something else that is really quite shocking. Just this week,
04:01Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania estimated that if this bill is enacted,
04:08over 50,000 Americans will die unnecessarily due to the massive cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
04:17It's not rocket science. If people don't have access to health care and can't get to a doctor when they are sick,
04:27many will die unnecessarily. But it's not just our health care system that would be devastated by this legislation.
04:36While this bill provides massive tax breaks to billionaires, it would cut $290 billion from nutrition programs
04:46and would literally take food away from more than 2 million children and at least 250,000 low-income seniors.
04:56So, as you may have seen on the TV program Meet the Press, Speaker Mike Johnson said there was a
05:06quote-unquote moral component to this bill, a moral component. He was referring to the fact that this bill
05:16would require Americans to prove that they are working at least 80 hours a month before receiving Medicaid
05:24or food stamps. Let us see how
05:28quote-unquote moral, quote-unquote moral, that requirement really is. Last year, some 20 million Americans were either laid off
05:39or fired by their employers. They lost their jobs. And in our dysfunctional and cruel health care system,
05:50when you lose your job, you lose your health care. And that is what Medicaid is supposed to be all about.
05:59It is supposed to be there for those people who need it the most, the people among others who lose their jobs.
06:07All of us remember what happened during the COVID pandemic. In March and April of 2020, 22 million workers lost their jobs
06:17in a two-month period. 22 million workers. People were lined up for miles at food banks to feed their families.
06:26What would have happened to them if they were unable to receive Medicaid or nutrition assistance?
06:33How many would have ended up in total desperation? How many would have actually died?
06:41Well, maybe you're thinking, you know, that was then. It will never happen again.
06:48Well, take a look at what happened when Wall Street crashed the economy. Between October of 2008 and April of 2009,
06:57an average of 700,000 Americans lost their jobs every month through no fault of their own.
07:06What would have happened to many of those people without Medicaid, food stamps, and other federal assistance?
07:13But it's not just COVID and the 2008 recession that we should be thinking about.
07:19Consider what will likely be happening to jobs in our country in the very near future.
07:28Just last week, Dario Amodai, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence,
07:39predicted that AI, quote, could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment 10% to 20% in the next one to five years, end of quote.
07:54Let me repeat. The head of one of the most powerful AI companies in the world is telling us that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs
08:05could be eliminated as a result of AI. And many blue-collar jobs will be eliminated through advances in robotics.
08:15And let us not forget, Medicaid does not just provide health insurance for individual Americans.
08:23It is the major source of funding for nursing homes throughout our country.
08:28Are my Republican friends going to suggest that seniors and people with severe disabilities work 80 hours a month
08:37before they can get Medicaid to pay for their nursing home coverage? Is that what they're thinking?
08:43And let me get back for a moment to the so-called morality issue.
08:48I happen not to be active in organized religion. Not my thing.
08:53But I have read the Bible. And this is what Jesus said. And I quote,
09:01For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.
09:05I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.
09:10I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me.
09:16I was sick, and you looked after me. End of quote.
09:21That, my friends, is what morality is all about.
09:26I would hope that my colleagues in the Senate, especially those who claim to be religious,
09:33remember that very powerful passage.
09:36And let us be frank. In no religion, not Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or any other,
09:46is it considered moral to enrich those who need it the least, while taking basic necessities, food,
09:55health care, away from the desperate people who need it the most.
09:59Together, we can and must defeat this terrible legislation. Thank you.
