Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" of tax cuts and spending plans is now headed to the House of Representatives after it passed the Senate with a one-vote majority. DW spoke with Americans in Virginia, who are worried about the future of Medicaid and social programs.
00:00Since the U.S. Senate passed Donald Trump's mega bill, and it's impossible to know the exact details of the 950-page-thick, wide-range piece of legislation.
00:11But the headlines are enough to get these protesters in Vienna, Virginia on the streets.
00:17It will affect everybody, literally everybody, Republicans and Democrats alike.
00:21It's going to affect kids the most, the elderly, people who are in education.
00:26It's going to affect everyone. I mean, there's not a soul who it's not going to touch.
00:31This is the last day of USAID, and we know that children in Africa and other countries will die because they won't get the aid that they need.
00:41I am very concerned about the message that sends about our country's priorities,
00:47that we think that taking health care and food support away from the most vulnerable is more important than making everyone pay their fair share of taxes.
00:59These people are living in a society where they don't get fair wages in the first place, where they don't have good child care,
01:07and they're so reliant on this because of the structure of the United States.
01:13So not only are we taking away the last resort, but we're not giving them a chance to stand on their own feet.
01:22Hands off Medicaid!
01:24Hands off Medicaid!
01:26It's not getting the attention it deserves, and I think a lot of Americans are not looking at the details of this bill.
01:33They get caught up in the politics of it, which we're hoping we can change.
01:36It will take time before people feel the negative consequences of the bill, and the question is, you know,
01:42whether it will change the way they vote in the midterms in the end of next year,
01:47which will decide whether Donald Trump will keep the majority.
01:53I think there's a lot of constituencies, a lot of people who are going to be directly impacted,
01:58paying, having less services, having less access to health care, less jobs.
02:03I mean, we can go through the whole litany of changes that have been going on really rapidly,
02:07really sort of extra-constitutionally.
02:10And so I think there's a lot of people of different constituencies that may have even voted for the current officeholders
02:15who are going to change their mind and go a different way.
02:18We know that this bill will kick off 17 million Americans from their health coverage.
02:23We know it has the potential to close down 200 Planned Parenthood health centers across the country.
02:27So we know that Americans are going to be angry.
02:29They're not going to stand by while their health care is stripped from them,
02:33where reproductive health care services are more limited.
02:36And so, you know, I feel confident that they're going to hold their leaders accountable for these votes.
