00:00Hello everybody, it's an honor to be here with so many amazing leaders, amazing union leaders, organizers, Orange County Democratic Black Caucus, volunteers, of course the Orange County Democratic Party, and it's so great to be here at Pan American Behavioral Health. Thank you so much for your advocacy and having us here.
00:19You know, when the first federal funding freeze happened, you were one of the first people I called, and we spoke about the impacts to healthcare here locally, and obviously now with this horrible, big, ugly bill being passed into law, we are going to see the largest transfer of wealth from the working class, from the working poor, and from the middle class, to the billionaires and megacorporations in the history of this country, and that's saying something.
00:49We're going to see 17 million people kick off their healthcare, and it's actually not even just the biggest Medicaid cut in the history of this country, it's the biggest cut of healthcare in the history of this country.
01:03Changes to the Affordable Care Act. We're going to see hospitals and nursing homes close. One in four nursing homes are at risk of closing because of the spill. It defunds Planned Parenthood. It makes it so that way they're not eligible to take people on Medicaid.
01:19We're just going to eviscerate reproductive healthcare across the entire country. The largest cut to nutritional assistance, SNAP, WIC, we're talking about $5, $6, $7 a day so a family can feed their children.
01:35It's going to kill more than a million jobs. Because of cuts to the Inflation Reduction Act, people are going to see their energy bills go up in this country because of the spill.
01:44And you have to ask, why? Why are they making all these cuts? Why are they ripping people out of their healthcare?
01:50Why are they ripping away food from the mouths of children? We know right here, the Orange County School District, and I'm so glad to be here with one of our school board members in Gallo.
02:02So, because of a program through the federal government, are able to provide universal breakfast and lunch to all of our students in the schooling system here.
02:14That is at risk because of this budget.
02:17So, they're taking food from our kids, taking healthcare from our people, seniors, people with disabilities, children, low-income folks.
02:29And you have to ask, why? And the why is very simple.
02:32Because they are giving the largest tax break and tax giveaway that we've ever seen to billionaires and megacorporations and the wealthy Americans, the wealthiest Americans.
02:45They put in some crumbs in there for people because the first time Trump passed this horrible tax scam, he was the most unpopular at that point.
02:56All these things that they're touting, a lot of them are lies, don't even last two years.
03:03But these tax breaks for billionaires are permanent.
03:07Permanent.
03:09If you want to see the values of a country and the values of a person, look no further than the budget and where they put money.
03:18Our country needs to be focused on fixing our healthcare system, which is not even a healthcare system, it's a sickness care system.
03:24We need to focus on making sure that we're not ripping away healthcare from 17 million people, but that we deliver it to every single person in this country.
03:38And no, I didn't say health insurance, I said healthcare.
03:43Our people deserve to be healthy.
03:46Whether you're Democrat, Republican, or independent, it doesn't matter.
03:48And so this is going to really devastate working families here in Orange County, here in Florida's 10th Congressional District, and in rural communities across the state and across this country.
04:00We have some of the highest numbers of people who have healthcare because of the Affordable Care Act.
04:06People are going to be devastated because of the Medicaid cuts.
04:09But I also want to give a little bit of hope here because the biggest part of the Medicaid cuts really won't fully hit until right after the midterms.
04:21And this is why the elections are so important.
04:24We have to be able to walk into the United States Congress and deny Donald Trump anything he wants until we break down that number.
04:32And we can only fully do that if we take back the House of Representatives, which I know we can do.
04:41This is the most unpopular piece of legislation this century.
04:47Over 60, and we were just talking about this on a Fox News poll, 60% say they view it unfavorably.
04:54That's probably a little bit of a skew poll, too.
04:56So we know it's an unpopular bill.
05:01Everybody's against it.
05:02And what we have to do now is tell the stories of how this is impacting our community and how it will impact our community.
05:08And we will begin to feel these impacts over the next several months and over the next year.
05:13And I'm proud to be here with people who are dedicated to representing working people in this country.
05:19And the fact of the matter is because wealth inequality has gotten so much worse, because we have such a great political system where billionaires and corporations have such outside influence over the process.
05:32We're at a point now where the job that could cover everything 10 years ago can't cover everything now.
05:38And at the same time, they're ripping away the social safety net that we fought for.
05:42So thank you, everyone, for being here.
05:44And I'm proud to introduce one of my colleagues and my next-door neighbor, Congressman Darren Silva.
