FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2025
CONTACT: Kirstin Snow, snow@pennpolicy.org
RELEASE– Don’t Cut Us Off Rally: Will Fitzpatrick Stand with Families or Billionaires?
Pennsylvania Policy Center Holds Presser in Doylestown
Doylestown, PA—On Monday, May 12, at 11 a.m., the Pennsylvania Policy Center, its Pennsylvanians Together campaign, and local electeds and constituents called on Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick to publicly state whether he will protect essential safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP—or support cuts that would harm working families in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Constituents, advocates, and impacted individuals have been urging Fitzpatrick to choose a side: families struggling to get by, or the ultra-wealthy who don’t need another handout. A video of the event can be found here.
Today, Marc Stier of the Pennsylvania Policy Center was joined by Commissioner Bob Harvie, Clerk of Courts Eileen Hartnett Albillar, and health care activist Sharon Moon — all from Bucks County — to call on Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick to oppose the Republican cuts to Medicaid and SNAP that were recently announced in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires.
WHO:
Marc Stier – Executive Director, Pennsylvania Policy Center
Bob Harvie – Bucks County Commissioner
Sharon Moon – Advocate for Medicaid
Eileen Hartnett Albillar – Bucks County Clerk of Courts
QUOTES:
Bob Harvie – Bucks County Commissioner
“Almost 90,000 residents of Bucks County rely on Medicaid to keep themselves healthy and safe, including half the residents of our Neshaminy Manor nursing home. Tens of thousands of other residents use SNAP to feed their families. At a time when families all over the nation are struggling to make ends meet and are living paycheck to paycheck, we need to be strengthening these programs, not gutting them for the sake of tax breaks for the 1%.”
“Now, more than ever, we need leaders in Congress who will protect workers, those of us who work one, two and three jobs just to make ends meet,” said Eileen Hartnett Albillar, Bucks County Clerk of Courts. “Most low-wage workers do not have access to health insurance through their employers and rely on Medicaid. Not only does Medicaid keep people healthy to enable them to continue working, it creates health care jobs. Any and all cuts to Medicaid should be off the table. Bucks County working families don’t deserve to be abandoned by Representative Fitzpatrick for the benefit of wealthy business owners.”
Sharon Moon – Constituent
“My dad had Parkinson’s and lived with my family. Knowing Medicaid was there to help pay for the around the clock care his doctors told me he would need at end-stage Parkinson’s, and which Medicare does not cover, allowed me to sleep at night. He died before we needed that level of care but I knew — even with his pension and social security — my family couldn’t manage to care for him the way he deserved without Medicaid.”
Marc Stier – Executive Director, Penn Policy Center
“Today is a perfect day for us to be here talking about potential cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Last night, the Republicans released a draft of the Medicaid portion of their legislation. It is as bad as we had feared. A Congressional Budget Office analysis tells us it will lead to 13.7 million Americans losing health insurance through Medicaid and the ACA. Others put the loss at up to 17 million people. Our rough analysis of the impact in Pennsylvania is that between 548 thousand and 680 thousand people will lose health insurance. And in the First Congressional District, represented by Brian Fitzpatrick, between 28,000 and 35,000 people will lose health insurance. It is unconscionable that so many people will lose health insurance in order to pay for tax cuts for the richest Americans.”
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