FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2025
CONTACT: Kirstin Snow, snow@pennpolicy.org
The House of Representatives’ decision to agree to a morally and economically bankrupt budget reconciliation bill is deeply troubling.
There is so much that’s appalling about what Donald Trump and the Republicans have done.
There is the shredding of the social safety net—deep cuts to Medicaid, the ACA, and SNAP—that will bring physical pain, economic distress, and thousands of premature deaths to the people of Pennsylvania and the United States. Seventeen million people in the United States and roughly 500,000 in Pennsylvania will lose health insurance. Four million people in the United States are at risk of losing SNAP while Pennsylvania losses will be between 400,000 and one million people per year.
There is the repeal of the efforts to address climate change, which will even more rapidly create natural disasters and economic dislocations—especially as the enormously successful effort to shift to renewable sources of energy to generate electricity are slowed and we face electricity shortages.
There is the extraordinary upward shift in income and wealth to the ultra-rich and wealthy corporations due to tax and safety net changes, which is not only profoundly unfair but economically damaging.
There is the huge increase in deficits, not at a time of economic decline, war, or pandemic but at a time when they are bound to lead to inflation.
There is the disgraceful defunding of health care organizations whose services include providing abortions, such as Planned Parenthood.
There is the creation for the first time in our history of a national school voucher program, while Trump also makes deep cuts in federal support for our schools.
The adoption of these policies is the product of a deeply ignorant and profoundly malevolent president who has come to dominate the Republican party with political threats and financial bribes that, so far, have been barely constrained by our constitution and our laws. Many members of the Republican party know—and some have even said out loud—that this legislation is not only deeply flawed but contrary to conservative principles. Yet Trump’s hold over his fascist cult following—and his willingness to act beyond the limits of the law—has left them so afraid that they’ve bowed to his wishes.
There is little question that these policies constitute a moral disaster in reversing our country’s commitment to protecting the right to health care and sustenance. But with the tariffs and other policies, they will also create economic distress. Huge deficits, the tariffs, the loss of workers due to Trump’s oppressive immigration policies, and higher electricity prices due to the repeal of much of Biden’s climate change policies will drive up a cost of living that is already out of reach for working people. And economic uncertainty, the loss of workers, and the Federal Reserve’s effort to contain inflation are then likely to create a recession.
The people of this country and Pennsylvania have fought back. In our state, we’ve seen an enormous grassroots effort led by organizations working together in opposition to this bill. This has included the Pennsylvania Policy Center and Pennsylvanians Together, the advocacy campaign we co-lead with many other organizations. This effort has convinced the vast majority of people in this state that this legislation should not pass. I’m incredibly proud of our partners, our staff, and our activists, who have devoted so much time and energy to educating people about this legislation. But the power of the Trump movement is such that we haven’t been able to sway any Republican member of Congress to oppose the legislation, except Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1), even though some of them know how wrong it is.
We all know that we’re in a fight about political and moral fundamentals—not just to stop this legislation, not just to protect the safety net, not just to restore economic equity, and not just to protect education, the climate, and so many other things that are vital parts of our collective life—but to protect democracy itself.
So let me say that I believe that however awful this moment is for us and people all over the country, we will ultimately triumph.
With this legislation, as with so much of what this administration has done, Trump and his henchmen have greatly overreached. The American people did not ask for Trump to pursue most of the goals that his barely educated knee-jerk instincts have led him to adopt, and they do not approve of them. And, if we continue to work together to educate people about this misbegotten legislation, and as the impact of it and his other policies become clear, their disapproval will deepen. So, I have no doubt that if we have free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028 the people of this country will stop this fascist movement cold.
I know there are reasons to be concerned about whether we will have free and fair elections in two and four years. But we must remember that federalism provides us with some protection: elections remain in the hands of the states. And while I, like others, fear that Trump will send the National Guard or Army into the streets as elections near, I have confidence that we and our local and state officials will fight back and not let them deter us from voting the fascists out of office.
More and more of us understand that everything we are fighting for is tied to the fight for our representative democracy because it is only representative democracy that can enable us to create a government that serves the people, not the billionaires. The fight for our democracy is deeply tied to the fight for the safety net; for economic equality; for efforts to mitigate climate change; for the rights of Black people, women, and the LGBTQ community; and for decency to immigrants. And as people come to better understand how the evil of this legislation and Trump’s administrative actions undermine all these goals, they will understand why we must fight for our democracy. Democracy is necessary if we are to have a government that seeks to create economic justice and secure rights for all. Or as Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, we will all understand that the question before us is whether “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall perish….”
As the stakes become ever clearer, the people of our state and country will stand up in defense of our terribly imperfect, but still admirable, history of self-government. Though there have been periods of backsliding, almost 250 years of self-government have brought us closer to the ideals that animate our country. We will not let Trump, his fascist thugs, or the cowards who fear them destroy our hope of one day realizing those ideals.