Source: US House of Representatives – Democratic Caucus
The following text contains opinion that is not, or not necessarily, that of MIL-OSI – June 30, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Vice Chair Ted Lieu and Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC) Chair Debbie Dingell and Co-Chairs Maxwell Frost, Lori Trahan and Lauren Underwood held a press conference to mark one year of Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill, which ripped away healthcare and food assistance from millions of hardworking Americans to give billionaires and giant corporations a tax cut. You can watch the full press conference here and read the transcript below.
CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: Good morning. I’m honored to be here with the leaders of the DPCC as we reflect on a year since the passage of the Republican Big Ugly Bill. On July 4, 2025, Trump marked the nation’s birthday by signing a law that ripped away healthcare and food assistance for hardworking families in order to give billionaires and corporations more tax cuts. As a result, today, millions of Americans are getting sick, but they can’t afford care, children are going hungry and families are going broke just trying to keep up with the costs every day. With their signature achievement, Republicans have made life harder for the working class, while the rich get even richer. And they’re even proud of this. Now, for America 250, Republicans are celebrating the anniversary by attempting to rebrand this toxic law as the ‘Working Families Tax Cut.’ Republicans are insulting the intelligence of the American people with this blatant lie. Americans are smart, and they know that their lives have gotten harder and more expensive under Republican leadership. But rather than defending the bill, they just want to change the name. And I know families won’t forget that Republican members Rob Bresnahan, Juan Ciscomani, Gabe Evans, Mike Lawler, Ryan Mackenzie, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn, Derrick Van Orden and David Valadao decided that Americans’ groceries and doctor visits matter less than someone with a net worth of $50 billion.
Imagine what we could accomplish together if Republicans made the wealthiest in our country pay their fair share. As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, we should remember the values the nation was founded on, including a government that was founded for and by the people. Not a government that was founded for the wealthy and the well-connected and the well-off at the expense of the working class. Trump and Republicans may always put billionaires first, but House Democrats will always put you first, the American people. It’s now my honor to introduce the Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, Ted Lieu.
VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. This year is a celebration of the 250th anniversary of our amazing country. It is a glorious country, and one of the reasons that we have such an amazing country is our ability to evolve and become a better place. So, 250 years ago, I could not have been a citizen of the United States. I was not born in the U.S. But because of laws that Congress passed, my parents were able to come here, immigrate legally, and then I was able to become naturalized. 250 years ago, Lauren Underwood and Lori Trahan and Debbie Dingell could not have voted. But because of a constitutional amendment and the people of America, women’s suffrage happened. And then today we learned from the Supreme Court that one thing did and still holds true: that if you are born in the United States, you are a citizen of the U.S. I am relieved and very happy that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of birthright citizenship today. That is what makes America great. We continue to be the best in the world because of the diversity of our country.
Inflation is up. Gas prices are up. Grocery prices are up. And what are Trump and Republicans focused on? A giant arch to honor Donald Trump, putting Donald Trump’s face on U.S. passports, putting Donald Trump’s face on a $250 bill, putting Donald Trump’s name on airports, putting Donald Trump’s name on federal buildings. This is not what the American people want, nor what the President promised, so we ask Trump and Republicans to focus on reducing costs, that’s the number one issue facing America, and stop putting Trump all over Washington, D.C. Now it’s my honor to introduce Debbie Dingell, the terrific chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. She’s going to tell you about the great work we’re doing in terms of messaging to the American people about what Democrats would do if we were to change the makeup of Congress.
DPCC CHAIR DINGELL: Well, good morning, everybody. Today is a birthday. I’m very proud of the 250th birthday of this country. Everybody should go back and read the Declaration of Independence and remind ourselves what they fought for and what we’re still fighting for today. So I’m proud of our birthday. The American people own this birthday. But today, the Republicans are, I would never use the word celebrate, but it is the anniversary of the day that President Trump signed, and I will not call it what he signed. I don’t think the American people think it was One Big ‘Blank’ Bill. I have called it One Big Shitty Bill. I have called it One Big Bad Bill. I’ve used a lot of other expletive phrases, but everybody asked me to behave today, so I’ll try to behave. I’m going to tell you the truth though. Because one year later, working families haven’t felt any kind of benefit, and if you got out of the bubble of the White House or the Mall, you would know what’s really happening to working families. They’re living with the consequences. Just this weekend, I heard from people everywhere about the cost of gas, about the cost of housing. I was in the grocery store, and a mother came up to me, and she’s a single mother and her child’s got asthma, and she can’t afford the inhaler because she couldn’t afford the Affordable Care Act bill this last year. And Medicaid is being cut, which is also the only source for many families and children, and it’s the largest payer of long-term care in this country. People are worried. Parents are worried about whether they can afford healthcare for their family. Seniors are worried about whether they can get their medicine. I was with a woman last week whose husband has Alzheimer’s, is close to dying, and she looked at me and said, ‘Who’s going to take care of me? Where is the money going to come from?’ Those are the stories that just get me.
People are asking whether the hospitals that they’ve relied on will still be there when they need it. Michigan has closed 10 since this bill passed. Hospitals are disappearing in rural America. So I want to say their fears are real because of this bill. President Trump and Republicans chose to finance massive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans by taking healthcare and food assistance away from millions of people. I just want to remind people we couldn’t come back and deal with the Affordable Care Act. How long were we out? But we had to come back during Fourth of July week to make sure those billionaires got their tax cuts that didn’t even expire until the end of the year. This bill included the largest cuts to healthcare and food assistance in our nation’s history, all while delivering more than a trillion dollars in tax cuts to the top 1%. We got new figures yesterday: over 8 million Americans have already lost their health coverage. You know they’ve lost their food assistance. And as I keep saying, rural hospitals, nursing homes and community health providers are facing impossible financial pressures. And families pay more for their healthcare, their groceries and energy. Wasn’t it nice that the President said the housing bill that was actually passed by a bipartisan group, he called it a yawn yesterday. My people at home don’t call it a yawn. They’re scared. Young people cannot find housing they can afford. The grief on their side is insatiable. So, the message here is that the Big Ugly Bill said, if you’re wealthy and well-connected, you’ll be taken care of. That’s not a yawn. If you’re a working family trying to make ends meet, who cares? You’re on your own. So we’re going to keep fighting to protect Medicaid, strengthen access, get uninsured people insured again, lower prescription drug costs, defend rural hospitals and help get young children and families struggling, who are working, that just can’t afford their food. With that, I’m going to turn it over to my colleague and one of the Co-Chairs at DPCC, Maxwell Frost, who is in touch with the many.
DPCC CO-CHAIR FROST: Thank you. It’s an honor to be in touch with the many, and it’s an honor to be here. Look, I just got to say, you know, your bill is bad and unpopular when, on the one-year anniversary, when you’re supposed to be celebrating it, you’re changing the name of it. I think the other thing that’s so important is not only changing the name of it, but the original name you gave it literally has the word beautiful in it. You put the word beautiful in it. And a year out, it’s so unpopular that you have to change the name. They’re calling it the ‘Working Families Tax Cut.’ We looked into the record. I wanted to make sure if I ever voted on the Working Families Tax Cut Act, because it sounds good, but we never voted on such a thing. We voted on the Big Beautiful Bill. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill. I like to say the name because they don’t want us to say it. It’s a bill that was beautiful for billionaires and mega corporations, because it cut our healthcare, it took away resources from working people, from young people, from seniors and it gave it to the richest people in this country. And it’s not surprising, because this is what Donald Trump has done his entire life. So of course, his first big legislative accomplishment coming into office again was to do the same thing. To figure out: how can I take resources from working people, from working families, and give it to people like me, give it to billionaires, give it to mega corporations. It’s the same old story. The rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and everyone else in between doesn’t have anything. The problem in this country is simple: everything is too expensive, and nobody has any money. People want us to focus on the issues right in front of them. I think a year out from this bill being passed, people are losing healthcare, housing is too expensive and most of the benefits from it go to the people who already have loads and loads of money.
What people want is simple. I encourage my Republican colleagues to go out and knock doors in their neighborhood, because when I knock doors, I hear about very simple things. People want a home that they can afford. Lower rents. They want to make sure that they can have a place to call home. Donald Trump is refusing to sign one of the only things this Congress has actually done, which is move forward a bipartisan piece of legislation on housing. He doesn’t want to make your housing cheaper because he wants to make it harder for you to vote, and so he’s refusing to sign the bill. People want healthcare that they can rely on, healthcare that they can actually afford without these crazy costs. People want a good job to support their family, where one job is enough, and where you have a wage that can actually pay for your bills. People want childcare when and where they need it, which is something that we’re going to work on delivering. And people also want time to spend with their family. They want paid and family sick leave. These are the things that people want. This is what I hear when I’m out knocking doors in my community. People don’t want a bill like the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ which is one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation, even though it has the word beautiful in it, in the history of this country, that gives most of the resources to the richest people. So the choice couldn’t be even clearer. We can keep cutting taxes for billionaires and making working families pay the price, or we can build an economy that actually rewards hard work and that actually rewards people. Where healthcare is protected as a human right, it is an American right, where housing is an American right, and where everybody has a fair shot of getting ahead. That is not the country that we live in now. We’re in the 250th anniversary of this nation, and the thing that I keep thinking about isn’t necessarily how far we’ve come. Of course, I think about that; it’s important. But I think about the next 250. 250 years from now, where will we want the folks celebrating the 500th anniversary of this country to be? And I’ll tell you, for me, I want our country to be able to say we’ve guaranteed healthcare to every single person. We don’t have people living on the streets, in their cars, in hotel rooms. People have a home. I don’t think that’s such a radical thing to say. And this is what Democrats stand for. Next up, I’ll bring up Lauren Underwood.
DPCC CO-CHAIR UNDERWOOD: Good morning. This Saturday marks one full year since House Republicans passed their Big Ugly Bill. I emphasize the word ugly because one year later, it’s been just that, especially for Americans’ healthcare. As a nurse and someone who’s dedicated my life and career to expanding and protecting families’ access to quality care, it has been horrifying to watch all of this unfold. The Big Ugly Bill is the largest healthcare cut in American history. One year ago, they ripped a trillion dollars of federal funding out of our healthcare system to line the pockets of all those guys that were in the front row of Donald Trump’s inauguration. When you combine those cuts with the impact of Republicans’ refusal to extend the extremely popular Affordable Care Act tax credits at the end of last year, it really is no wonder why we have this disaster that we all can see today.
The suffering that this legislation has already brought about is almost unbelievable, and pregnant women, new moms, kids, rural communities and people with disabilities are being hit the hardest. Hundreds of clinics and hospitals across 39 states have closed, and they are never coming back. Almost 10,000 healthcare workers have lost their jobs. The cost of healthcare has skyrocketed. Deductibles are, on average, $1,000 higher than they were this time last year. Millions of people are facing double- and even triple-digit increases to their premiums, and the data is showing those increases will continue into next year. Insurers are leaving the marketplace entirely, and we just learned yesterday that five million people have dropped out of the Affordable Care Act marketplace in the last year. That’s a 13% drop after years of record-breaking enrollment. These are not talking points. This is concrete and specific data that we have one year after Republicans passed this bill. It’s a crisis that all of us standing before you warned the American people about, and as I said from this podium then, every single one of these data points is more than just a number. Each one is a family that is now one illness away from bankruptcy. It’s a kid with asthma who can’t see their pediatrician. A dad going through cancer treatments who’s picking up extra shifts instead of focusing on his care. These are the stories that are playing out across communities in our country because one year ago, Donald Trump and the Republicans in charge made the decision to prioritize making billionaires richer over healthcare for working families. And guess what? They know it too. A couple of weeks ago, the Department of Health and Human Services, led by RFK Jr., the biggest threat to public health in this country, issued a rule suggesting that insurers offer people a loan to cover these surging costs. It’s outrageous and completely unacceptable, and it does not have to be this way. It’s been one year of the Big Ugly Bill, but House Democrats have not given up on this fight. Because whether you live in urban America or rural America, in a midwestern community like mine, or one of our great coastal cities, every single American family should have good, affordable healthcare. Our healthcare is a patriotic issue, and we are going to keep fighting. So, thanks again for being here, and I’m delighted to bring up my colleague, Lori Trahan.
DPCC CO-CHAIR TRAHAN: Thank you, Lauren, and thank you to Chairman Aguilar and Vice Chair Lieu for hosting us this morning. This weekend, America turns 250 years old, and whether families are filling up their tanks to hit the road or firing up the grill at home, they’re bracing for what it’s going to cost them. Because a year and a half into Donald Trump’s presidency, life has only gotten harder for the vast majority of Americans. Gas prices are up, grocery prices are up, prescription drug prices have skyrocketed and the cost of healthcare keeps climbing. So, as folks prepare for their Fourth of July weekend, what are Republicans in Congress doing to help the people that we represent? Are they putting a bill on the floor to make it easier to travel and see their family? No. What about legislation to make it a little bit more affordable to host a barbecue? Not a chance. How about something to give parents the peace of mind that they can afford a doctor’s visit when their kids get sick or injured? We all know the answer to that question. And instead of calling a single vote to bring prices down, Republicans instead have put a toothless resolution on the floor this week, celebrating the one-year anniversary of their One Big Ugly Bill. They’re taking a victory lap on the same bill that ripped healthcare away from millions of Americans and took food out of the mouths of hungry kids, all to pay for a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest 1% in our country. So when you fill up your tank or stop by the grocery store this weekend, and you’re wondering how the heck you’re going to afford that bill, just know that Republicans in Washington are throwing themselves a party, and hardworking Americans? Not invited. Thank you.
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