Mark Warner Slams The Big, Beautiful, Bill: It ‘Would Literally Cut Food Assistance For School Breakfast’

Forbes Breaking News

During Wednesday’s Senate Democrats’ ‘Ask Me Anything’ Virtual Event, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) discussed the social benefit cuts in the Big, Beautiful, Bill.

Transcript

00:00Well, hey, everybody. Thank you so much. I want to really thank my friend, Jeff Merkley,

00:07who is literally at the lead on so many of these fights. And I want to get right to it.

00:16Anna on Facebook has asked, how can we protect people who are the most vulnerable? The over

00:228 million Americans who are most in need of health care coverage will be stopped

00:27from Medicaid as a result of this bill. And Anna, I got to tell you, it's actually,

00:33as Jeff just mentioned, it's more than 8 million. The estimates are closer to 13 to 14 million.

00:39And let's drill down for a minute on just the Medicaid losses. Who are those folks? They are

00:47folks, for example, in my state, over half the babies born in rural communities are on Medicaid.

00:57They could see those basic OBGYN rights disappear. It's a lot of kids who are special ed kids in all of

01:08our schools. Many of those special ed kids have their needs taken care of by Medicaid. They could

01:15lose those health care benefits as well. It's frankly, a lot of what's happening in this bill

01:24is not just on Medicaid, but it's, it's food assistance. Um, you know, I think we would all

01:31agree that kids ought to go to school, uh, not on an empty stomach, but this bill would literally cut

01:37food assistance for school breakfast, school lunches. And then if you had to like add on cruelty,

01:45just for the sake of gratuitous cruelty, this legislation also cuts food banks.

01:51Now let's not only throw you off of, off of your healthcare needs, let's make it more difficult

01:59for folks in rural America to, to find a hospital that will help them, um, with OBGYN needs. Let's

02:07not only take on school lunches, but then let's go ahead and cut food banks as well.

02:14This is not, we're a better country than this. Let me just add one other thing, Anna, that, that

02:18hasn't gotten as much attention. There may be some people that says, well, um, you know, I actually buy

02:24my health insurance, uh, through the exchange, the healthcare exchange that was created out of

02:30Obamacare where small businesses, individuals, a lot of folks who are gig workers, a lot of folks

02:37who are, you know, performers, they go to the healthcare exchange. And, you know, the question

02:44is, um, what's happened with those folks is they have decreased dramatically the premium support

02:52for folks who buy their health insurance through, um, through these exchanges. And you will see people

02:58that are making 60 grand a year, but they might have 700, 800 or $900 healthcare premium increases,

03:05even in the private marketplace, if this bill passes. So it is obviously awful for the most

03:14vulnerable Americans, but there's an awful lot of working middle-class Americans who will be hurt by

03:19this as well. Um, I want to take, uh, a question from Alex Casio. Um, here is, it's a very good

03:28question. Procedurally, what can be filibustered and can the filibuster be used to stop this bill?

03:36Unfortunately, Alex, the answer is no. And the reason is, and this will make things,

03:42this will make, for those of you who kind of scratch your head and saying, that doesn't make sense.

03:47Well, let me, let me explain. Literally back, I think it was in the seventies. Um,

03:55it was the eighties. There was a legislation passed that called budget reconciliation.

04:01And, you know, this was when our debt was not at 37 trillion. It was, it was a much smaller amount.

04:08And then, you know, a guy named Robert Byrd, the center from West Virginia said,

04:14we ought to be able to, if we can actually cut the debt or cut the deficit, we ought to have a special

04:21procedure that you can get 51 votes on and not have to get the full filibuster at 60.

04:29Well, the craziness is that budget reconciliation process, which is supposed to be about lowering

04:40the deficit and the debt has been changed around so much that this big, ugly bill that is unfair

04:53and dreadful for everyone in this country. Um, they're trying to use that budget reconciliation

05:00process. Now there are certain provisions in this bill, uh, that don't touch the actual numbers.

05:06Like I just talked about Medicaid that may get thrown out. Like some of this awful things that

05:12says that a, a court injunctive order can't be used across the country that could get thrown out.

05:18There are some, there's restriction in this bill that came over from the house that said

05:22no state should be able to do any artificial intelligence regulations. Do you really want

05:28to have the kind of, uh, potential abuse of, uh, non-consensual images or, you know, a young

05:34person's face put on a body that's not their own on, on an AI tool? Well, this bill is currently

05:40stated would preclude any state from saying, Hey, even if the feds aren't going to regulate AI,

05:45we are now, our hope is that will be thrown out. Um, it's actually even called the bird

05:53bath, uh, BYRD named after the Senator who put this whole process together. Um, but it's,

06:00but on these core financial issues, it really can get by with 51 votes. Now there are 53 Republican

06:09senators, and then you've got the vice president. So all we need is to get four to five

06:14Republican senators to say, and many of them are saying privately, Oh gosh, I think this is awful.

06:20Well, we need them not to just say privately to me or to other senators. This is awful.

06:25They need to actually vote their conscience. And this is why I would echo what Senator Merkley said,

06:30you know, even if you live in a state, uh, with democratic senators, you've got probably some

06:35Republican house members. You've got to make them reconsider because the procedural end up being,

06:42if the Senate is able to pass this bill, it will be changed. It will have to go back to the house.

06:49And remember this bill passed in the house only by one vote. So, um, even if you've got a state

06:55with democratic senators, uh, go to your Republican house members and let's elevate the issue of how

07:02awful this is. Um, I want to get somebody a question now from, uh, Sawyer Hackett's audience

07:08member, Mike. Um, I've heard, have heard the tax bill will raise prices. If it will, how much will

07:16it cost me? Well, there's a couple of different ways we're going to see price increase. Remember

07:21Trump got elected because folks thought grocery prices were going up too much. And obviously we've

07:27seen nothing really lower prices, uh, uh, from this president, if anything, his tariff policy,

07:36um, has actually increased prices. And I think you will see those tariff policies as they really

07:44hit closer to the end of June, because again, you know, some of those policies haven't really taken

07:51effect because there were things that were shipped before the tariffs got in place. But

07:55all of that, that shipping is kind of gone, have gone through the system. So most economists say,

08:01starting right after June, you're going to see dramatic price increases. Now the bill itself,

08:07how will it raise prices? Well, it's going to raise healthcare costs because whether if you,

08:12if you cut out Medicaid and then if you say to the private insurance market, those people who get,

08:19you know, even insurance premiums, um, you know, their prices will go up and that will disrupt the

08:28whole healthcare market. So you can say, well, gosh, I'm making, you know, $150,000, my family,

08:33I'm going to be okay. I get private health insurance. This bill will so disrupt

08:37the whole healthcare pricing system, um, that you will see healthcare costs, uh, go up dramatically.

08:47And that's even before, um, Mike, one of the things that's so darn unfair, this bill,

08:54literally, if you are making minimum wage in America, and most people are working minimum wage,

09:00you know, they got to work not one, but oftentimes two jobs. If you're making minimum wage in America,

09:06your taxes from this bill will go up 53%. No matter what they say, otherwise, we've got plenty of data

09:14that shows they'll go up 53%. People at the very top, um, that top 10th of 1%, on average, are going to

09:21get $188,000 tax cut. Now, listen, I'm, I was lucky to do well in business before I got involved in

09:29politics. I got no problem with, with, you know, people who take a risk getting rewarded, but there

09:35ought to be a fairness to our system. And if you're blessed to do well, paying your fair share ought to

09:40be part of that contribution and obligation we have as Americans. What is not fair is to say that folks

09:48who are making minimum wage are going to see their taxes go dramatically up, and that the richest

09:53people in America are going to have on average $188,000 tax cut. That's just not fair or right.

09:58So, Mike, thanks for asking that question. Um, Xavier from, from Instagram is saying,

10:03what can we do as citizens? Let your voices be heard. And part of this means, Xavier, you know,

10:10we got to have hard conversations. I think sometimes too much we get in our own kind of little silos and

10:16just talk to people that agree with us. Uh, I don't know you, but I don't know many, uh, Americans

10:22and including myself that don't have family members or friends or others who voted for Trump or voted

10:31for some of these Republican senators. And you need to say, is this really what you wanted? Did you want,

10:37you know, a place where the, the most vulnerable Americans lose their healthcare? Do you really want

10:44kids going to school hungry? Do you really want food banks cut? Uh, do you really want to have a

10:50tax code that even pushes more money to folks at the top and takes people at minimum wage and pushes

10:56them, uh, their taxes up by 53%? So I think if we can have people that, that maybe supported Trump

11:05come out and say, Hey, this is not what I bargained for. And as specifically as a citizen,

11:10one of the things I'd also urge you to do is where you can say, well, you know, my Congressman,

11:14my Senator may vote for this. Well, let your local Republican elected officials happen. This

11:19is only happening with one team. Those of us who are Democrats, we can raise our voices. We are,

11:25we are making our case, but this is all being driven by our Republican friends. They need to hear

11:33from those, that local school board member, that local city council member, that local state legislator,

11:38that Republican, that this is going to be bad for everyone. Last question, um, from Kate Barb. This,

11:45this bill will have a huge impact on rural communities. And this is exactly what I say.

11:49Um, the same communities who voted for Trump. Well, one of the things I've always done is

11:56I don't leave behind any part of my state. I've got wide swaths of Southwest and Southside Virginia

12:03that are as rural as any place in America. I am down there all the time saying, Hey, you know,

12:09we've got wide swaths of my state that there's not a rural hospital around where there's a rural

12:15hospital around, you know, they don't have OBGYN services that can deliver a baby. You have this

12:20bill passed. You're going to have rural hospitals across America closed down. You're going to have even

12:26less services, um, available. Uh, we've already seen these communities. I think about the fact that

12:33I've got about four or five big development projects that literally got awarded money

12:40before the end of the Biden administration from the IRA, the bill that did a lot of the energy tax

12:45credits. All that money has been frozen. They've already been screwed. So, um, you know,

12:52in many ways, this, this bill has a bigger tendency to hit rural, uh, Americans than most.

12:59I'm going to now turn it over to somebody who really is kind of our quarterback on particularly

13:04the tax issues. Uh, it's my friend, Ron Wyden from Oregon. Um, he has been the chairman of the finance

13:12committee. You know, when, when we made a lot of progress on healthcare, Ron Wyden was our leader

13:18when we made a lot of progress on the IRA, on, on the clean energy tax credits, Ron Wyden is our

13:24leader. Ron Wyden is now the ranking member, but not the chairman. That is until we take back the

13:30Senate. Um, but he is really the person that can dive as deeper details as you want on particularly

13:37the tax finance and Medicaid provisions of this awful bill. So let me turn it over to my dear friend

13:43from Oregon, Ron Wyden.

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