This article was originally published on Word In Black.
When she considers the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the House could send to President Donald Trump’s desk as early as today, Rep. Marilyn Strickland, a Democrat representing suburban Seattle, Washington, sees downright cruelty: children going hungry, seniors without medical care and rural hospitals closing in districts like hers.
Strickland and other Congressional Democrats spent their Wednesday trying to beat back what they argue is an assault on the social safety net that helps U.S. voters — many of them Black — keep body and soul together. But after the Senate passed the legislation Tuesday, the House worked on the bill overnight Wednesday, and it seemed likely Republicans will have enough votes to send it to Trump’s desk for his signature by his July 4 deadline.
“This big, ugly bill is supposed to come to the floor today, and the mood is that every Democrat plans to emphatically vote no for this thing [because] it basically violates every promise that Trump and the GOP made,” says Strickland, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, to a Korean mother and a Black American father. She is the first African American to represent Washington State at the federal level, and one of the first Korean-American women elected to Congress in its history.
They’re going to take away food, and it’s going to disproportionately affect communities of color.
Roughly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and other safety net programs are part of the legislation. These programs, which members of the Black community disproportionately depend on for healthcare, could cause 14 million to 17 million people to lose access to healthcare insurance — a development Strickland decries.
“Of course, the meat of this is that they’re taking health care away from millions of people,” she says. “They’re going to take away food, and it’s going to disproportionately affect communities of color. We’re talking about Medicaid and food stamps and even elder care, which is going to affect a lot of people who are in nursing homes as well.”
Ultimately, the bill — which also gives big tax breaks to the wealthy and turbocharges funding for immigration enforcement — “is just bad policy. It’s been described as the cruelest piece of legislation that a lot of my colleagues have seen in their long, long careers here,” Strickland says. “It’s going to hurt folks; it’s going to jack up insurance rates. It’s going to try to decimate Obamacare and just do harm to the American people.”
Just ahead of the Thursday vote, Strickland gave an interview to Word In Black.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
WORD IN BLACK: Give us an overview of where things stand right now, what the mood is in the House of Representatives, and what is actually happening. House Democrats are going to emphatically oppose this bill as a bloc?
REP. MARILYN STRICKLAND: Yes, we are. You know, the Republicans are trying to gaslight people and say, “Well, it’s not going to [cause so much damage]. But it is exactly going to do this: it’ll kick 17 million people off of health care. I’m telling folks, don’t believe the gaslighting, because [Republicans] are sticking to this artificial deadline of the Fourth of July so that the President can have another big press event when, in fact, this bill shouldn’t pass.
So it’s being rushed through because there are people objecting to it, but I will say, sadly, what happens is at the end of the day, [Trump] calls them to the White House, he bullies them, and they bend the knee.
WIB: As you’ve said, we have seen this before. What are you envisioning will happen to your Republican colleagues today who are trying to hold out?
MS: There will be a lot of performative objections. They’ll talk about all the reasons it’s bad, why it increases the debt — which it will, by trillions of dollars. And then at the end of day, they just bend the knee. I think right now if we can get four Republicans to vote with the Democrats against this bill, we can save people a lot of pain, heartache and financial distress.
WIB: Apparently, the Senate added some $50 billion to the bill to offset the damage done to rural hospitals. Is it going to survive the House side, and is $50 billion really enough?
MS: Those are really good questions because there are quite a few rural hospitals that are on the verge of closing. This $50 billion is just an amount they’re putting in there to say they want to do [something]. But understand too, what happened is that the Senate took the bill and they actually made it worse.
Now you have some House Republicans saying, ‘Let’s stick with the original bill’ and they may try to put $50 billion back in there. But is it going to be enough to save rural hospitals? I don’t think so. You can talk about saving rural hospitals, but that requires sustained funding over a period of time. If you’re going to cut Medicaid, that means cutting into the sustained funding needed.
WIB: It’s not like rural hospitals were rolling in dough before this bill was introduced.
MS: Exactly, and they’re making these little temporary fixes that may last for a year or two. But as we know you can provide funding, but the question is always going to be, ‘how do you plan to sustain this’? And when you’re cutting this much money for Medicaid, that’s not sustainable for any healthcare organization.
WIB: How is this bill going to affect your district, your state, and the country? What else should our readers know about what this bill will cause?
MS: Any time you do something to take away health care or food assistance, you’re going to disproportionately affect the Black community. I tried to add an amendment that would exempt veterans from these draconian cuts. And I remind folks that when we talk about our military veteran population, 40% of those who serve in the enlisted ranks are people of color, so there’s a very large Black population of veterans as well. So, if you don’t support veterans [overall], you’re actually hurting Black veterans.
In my district alone we have close to 200,000 Medicaid enrollees. And these cuts will cause 20,000 of them to lose coverage — that’s 10 percent right off the top. And then the expiration of the Obamacare tax credit could end up affecting a quarter of a million people in Washington state alone. On top of that, there is the loss of SNAP benefits as well.
And I think about some of the false narratives that are being put forward that some are using to say the cuts aren’t going to be that bad. For example, their default position on anything is, ‘Well, it’s all those undocumented immigrants.’ But people who are not documented don’t qualify for Medicaid. There are people who are working but still qualify for Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
And in the case of health care, people need to know that even if you do not get your health care through Medicaid, it will still affect you, because insurance rates will go up, your wait times will go up, and it will affect the entire health care system.
WIB: There’s a lot of talk, usually from Republicans, about making the states step up. For instance, sending some of these benefits to the states as block grants. Is that happening and how does that help the states?
One in five people who are covered by Medicaid are African American.
MS: It’s a pathetic temporary fix and just an excuse for them to say they’re helping the red states. But here’s the thing that’s so interesting, the red states are the biggest beneficiaries of Medicaid coverage, and as someone who comes from a blue state — we pay for that. Our health care system needs sustainable, reliable funding to help cover the American people, and so a block grant here and there, that’s not going to solve your red state problem.
One in five people who are covered by Medicaid are African American. Black families and Black children face higher rates of food insecurity. As you know, food is about hunger, but it’s also about your ability to do well in school. It’s about your stability. And what you see happening overall through this bill is that they’re basically trying to decimate our social safety net.
And when I hear the term “well, able-bodied people,” able-bodied people do receive health care through Medicaid, and there are a lot of disabled people, but this idea that everyone who is covered through Medicaid is some ne’er do well, who’s just leeching off the system is a complete lie. In fact, many people who qualify for Medicaid probably aren’t even using it. And if you don’t get coverage through Medicaid, you think it won’t affect you. But yes, it will.
About Post Author
