This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: House members are rushing to return to the Capitol to vote on what many are calling the “big, ugly budget bill” by President Trump’s July 4th deadline, after it passed the Senate, just barely eked by, on Tuesday. The Senate reconciliation bill includes tax cuts for the rich, while increasing barriers for millions to access to Medicaid and food assistance. It also deregulates the AI and crypto industries and subsidies for renewable energy, even imposes new taxes on solar and wind farms. The bill includes a historic increase in funds to ramp up Trump’s mass detention and deportation efforts, which we’ll talk about next.
Vice President JD Vance was needed to cast the tie-breaking vote after hours of negotiations, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in voting “no”: Senators Thom [Tillis], Rand Paul and Susan Collins. The legislation passed after a compromise was worked out with Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, despite her concerns it slashes social safety net programs around the country. On Tuesday, Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern lambasted Murkowski for voting “yes” despite her concerns.
REP. JIM McGOVERN: And listen to this quote from Senator Murkowski, who just caved and voted for this bill. And you’re gonna love this. She said, quote, “My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet,” end-quote. I mean, my question to her is: If you really believe that, then why the hell did you vote for this bill? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s a dereliction of your duty as a United States senator and as a representative for the people in Alaska. I mean, when was the last time this current House of Representatives has fixed or solved anything? I mean, where have you been, Senator Murkowski? This Republican House is dysfunction on steroids.
And let me say to my Republican friends, I understand that the Senate just jammed you, but you don’t have to be complicit. I get it. I know the Republican leadership and Trump don’t want scrutiny. They don’t want the American people to understand what’s really happening here. This bill is a middle finger to millions of Americans. It isn’t just a bad bill; it is the most dangerous piece of legislation in modern history, dangerous because of the very real damage it will do to real people, sick people, hungry kids, families just scraping by. If this — if this is Republicans’ top legislative priority this Congress, it tells us everything about where your values lie, and it’s not with working families, not with struggling communities, but with megacorporations, billionaires and Donald Trump.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Massachusetts Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska responded to criticism of her vote in favor of Trump’s budget bill during an interview with NBC News’ Ryan Nobles, who caught up with her in the hallway.
RYAN NOBLES: Senator Paul said that this was — that your vote was a bailout for Alaska at the expense of the rest of the country.
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: Oh my —
RYAN NOBLES: That’s what Senator Paul said.
AIDE: Senator, we’ve got the —
RYAN NOBLES: I didn’t say it, ma’am. I’m just asking for your response.
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: My response is, I have an obligation to the people of the state of Alaska, and I live up to that every single day. I fight for my state’s interests, and I make sure that Alaskans are understood. … When — when people suggest that federal dollars go to one of our 50 states in a, quote, “bailout,” I find that offensive. I advocated for my state’s interests. I will continue to do that, and I will make no excuses for doing that. Do I like this bill? No, because I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests, but I know — I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that.
AMY GOODMAN: “But I know — I know that in many parts of the country, there are many Americans who will not be advantaged by this bill,” the Alaska senator said.
For more, we’re joined by Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, a grassroots movement with over a million participants and counting. They’re calling on voters to contact lawmakers to oppose the bill as it goes back to the House.
So, Ezra, this is not done. The Senate required JD Vance, the vice president, to cast the tie-breaking vote, and now it goes to — back to the House. Can you talk about what’s at stake here and Indivisible’s strategy in dealing with the House, both Republicans and Democrats?
EZRA LEVIN: I mean, what’s at stake is the worst bill in modern American history passing, the largest transfer of wealth from working-class and lower-income Americans to the rich, a massive cut to Medicaid, a massive cut to SNAP, historically massive, and funding a mass deportation force in this country at the levels of the Russian military. They want to take what they’re doing in L.A. and move that show on the road — do it in Austin, do it in Seattle, do it in Chicago, do it in New York. That’s what’s at stake right now.
And the good news is it’s not a done deal. As you said, they passed it by the skin of their teeth in the Senate. It took JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. And now they can lose up to three votes in the House, just three votes. If they lose four votes in the House, it’s done. And right now I can tell you, they don’t have the votes. They do not have the votes right now. The House leadership is doing their best to whip those votes, to try to convince them to come over, but they don’t have it yet.
So, our strategy right now is very, very simple. We need as many people as possible today, this morning, calling in to their representatives. If you’ve got a Democratic representative, great. Call them up. Thank them for fighting hard. Tell them that you are watching and that you’re cheering them on. If you’ve got a Republican representative, congratulations. You have such a large amount of power right now because your representative might be the vote that kills or delays this bill. It is very important. If you’ve never called your member of Congress, today is the day to do it. If you have called your member of Congress before, great. Get in touch with family members, colleagues, friends, neighbors. Tell them this is the day they need to get outside their comfort zone a bit and call their member of Congress. And if you’ve already done that and you’re feeling a little bolder, get a few friends together and go to your local member of Congress’s district office and show up and, in a friendly way, ask them to represent you. That’s the strategy. We’ve got 26 targets of House Republicans. We need four of them on our side today.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ezra, could you talk about some of those targets of House Republicans? Who are the —
EZRA LEVIN: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — the key figures that are more likely to vote “no” on this bill?
EZRA LEVIN: So, there are two types of House Republicans who are possibly going to vote “no” on this bill. The most right-wing members of the Republican caucus, the folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who don’t think this bill goes far enough, would like bigger deportation forces, would like bigger cuts to Medicaid, would like bigger tax cuts for billionaires, that’s one segment of the caucus. The other segment of the caucus are the folks who are in vulnerable districts, who are worried that they might lose their reelection because this bill is one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation in modern American history. This is folks like, in California 40th, Kim, Representative Kim; California 22nd, Representative Valadao; Schweikert in Arizona 1st; Ciscomani in Arizona 6th. This is representatives in Colorado, in Michigan, in New Jersey, in New York, in Pennsylvania, in Virginia. They’re all over the country.
If you are in a quasi-swing district and you were Republican right now, the top thing on your mind is what happened in 2017 and 2018. Republicans attempted to push forward a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. It was deeply unpopular. The public focused on it. The public was angry. And it led to the largest midterm margins in the history of the republic in 2018. Republicans don’t want a repeat of that, if they’re in a vulnerable district, so they’re very nervous.
What they hope is that people aren’t paying close enough attention. Millions upon millions of Americans don’t even know this bill exists, let alone what’s in it. That’s why Congress is moving so quickly now. I mean, ask yourself: Where is this deadline coming from? Is there a July 2nd deadline that we’re just not aware of? Why is the vote coming right now? They could do it next week. They could do it next month. They could do it two months from now. Why now? The answer isn’t about policy. It’s about politics. They understand how deeply unpopular this bill is. Leadership in Congress understands that the more time this takes, the more public attention there is, and the more difficult it’s going to be to wrangle their caucus to actually vote for this thing. That’s what’s driving this expedited process. So, I don’t know if we can win outright today and just kill the bill. I think that we can delay it, and delaying it might lead to a win.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And when you mention that most Americans don’t know much of what’s in the bill, could you talk about some of the provisions that have received least attention? For instance, what’s happening with the slashing of Pell grant funding?
EZRA LEVIN: Oh my gosh, Juan. So, here’s what we — everybody listening to this program, I think, understands this is an egregiously bad bill. They’ve looked at the reports. They’ve seen the cuts to Medicaid, the cuts to education, the cuts to environmental programs, the cuts to billionaires’ taxes. The sad fact is that most of the time, most people aren’t paying attention to what Congress does, because most of the time Congress isn’t doing anything. They’re not passing legislation. It’s a lot of partisan squabbling. It’s a lot of yelling at each other. But, ultimately, it’s gridlock. Congress just doesn’t move forward. The most recent poll that I saw found that only 8% of the American public knew that there were Medicaid cuts in this bill. Medicaid cuts are deeply unpopular. They’ve got a 15% approval rating in the deepest red districts in this country. We’re talking in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district, Medicaid cuts poll at 15%. And yet less than 10% of the public even knows that Congress is proposing the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
What I would recommend to folks, if you’ve never engaged with your member of Congress, if you’ve — if you’ve kind of checked out, you don’t think you have a role here, I would encourage you: Don’t hold back now. You don’t have to be an expert in this bill. You don’t have to be an expert in Pell grants or in Medicaid or in tax policy. That’s not where your legitimacy comes from. Your legitimacy comes from the fact that you are a constituent, and your vote counts as much as the highest-paid lobbyist in Washington, D.C. And if you happen to live in a Republican district right now, it counts for even more. So, don’t let your — if you haven’t read the thousand-page bill, that’s OK. You have valid opinions, and you should express them now, because they could actually do some good.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you something, Ezra. At the same time that this bill passed, we got the confirmation that Zohran Mamdani won, this huge —
EZRA LEVIN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — upset win. He won by 12 points over the former governor of New York. I mean, there was a point where Zohran Mamdani had 1% name recognition. Of course, Andrew Cuomo was extremely well known, was 40 points ahead. The whole campaign was about affordability, many of the issues that are being —
EZRA LEVIN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — addressed in this bill. In fact, Zohran Mamdani won more votes than U.S. senators in 27 states, including the Senate majority leader. Is this a warning to everyone in the House right now around this bill?
EZRA LEVIN: Look, Mamdani ran an incredible campaign, and he was up against a bully and an abuser and a tool of a broken establishment, and so it’s no surprise to me that he was catapulted not just to win by the skin of his teeth, but he trounced him. He really blew Cuomo out of the water. And that is great to see.
I think what it highlights is a couple of things. One, the voters want people to help solve their basic problems. They want to lower the cost of rent. They want to lower the cost of child care. They want to lower the cost of transportation. That’s what government should do. They should — the government should make it easier for people to live their lives. And that’s what Mamdani is actually promising.
Now, I think he won in part because of that proactive vision, but he was winning in a Democratic primary against a Democratic establishment that couldn’t be further from rank-and-file Democrats right now. You don’t have to be the left-most member of the Democratic Party to think the folks currently in charge have failed us and we need a new vision. And I think both of those things fed into Mamdani’s historic win here.
And I think if the Democratic establishment is smart right now, they would be rallying around him as the primary winner, because this is not the last contentious primary this cycle. We’re going to see contentious primaries in mayoral and congressional elections for the next year or so. And if the Democrats fail to rally around Mamdani because of some concerns about his progressive program, you might see a lot of progressives who — maybe they don’t win their primaries — refuse to rally around the Democratic establishment candidate. So, I think for the good of the party and, personally, for the good of the agenda that Mamdani is pushing forward, I think it’s very important that Democrats close ranks around him to go forward to a big win.
AMY GOODMAN: Ezra Levin, we want to thank you for being with us, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, a grassroots movement with over a million participants and counting.
When we come back, what many are calling the “big, ugly budget bill,” including historic levels of funding to ramp up mass detention and deportation at the expense of millions who will lose Medicaid funding in this country. We’ll go to Florida and D.C. to talk about “Alligator Alcatraz,” as well as the contents of the Senate bill. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “El Hielo/ICE” by La Santa Cecilia in our Democracy Now! studio.
