Why is this important?

[If you're clear on the unfairness and damage of tax breaks for billionaires, and you understand Medicaid and why we need to protect it and not slash it to pay for those tax breaks, and you understand this is a big issue this month, you have permission to skip reading the details below and go ahead with the letter.]

Within the next few days there will be a vote on the House floor on a Republican budget proposal (the "big, beautiful bill") that would (1) renew special tax breaks for billionaires and (2) slash Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This combination is outrageous!

• Medicaid provides health insurance to 83 million low-income Americans, and rural health care systems would be among those most seriously affected by cuts. It covers nearly half of all births in our state.
• SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program. In an average month in 2024, SNAP helped more than 41 million low-income people afford a nutritionally adequate diet.

The Congressional Budget office says that more than 8 million people would lose health coverage over the next 10 years, and that a renewal of the Trump tax cuts would increase the national debt by $4.6 trillion (see the press release).

• Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman examined effective tax rates paid by Americans since 1960, and concluded that in 2018, after the passage of the billionaire tax cuts, working-class Americans paid a higher effective tax rate than billionaires for the first time ever (see 2019 article in the Washington Post).

We need to write to our U.S. Senators and Representatives right now and tell them that these actions are unacceptable!