While state Republicans turn a blind eye to the extreme cuts their federal counterparts are pushing, state Democrats are taking a stand
WASHINGTON — Today, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) hosted a press conference with Illinois Speaker Pro Tempore Kam Buckner, Virginia Del. Michael Feggans, and North Carolina Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch on the disastrous impact Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts will have on the ground for 13.7 million people who will be kicked off of their health care coverage.
The DLCC “States of Play” presser series will continue with state legislative leaders from across the country responding to the extremism in DC.
Watch the press conference here.
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams:
- “No one is better suited to tell the stories of how the Republican budget moving through Congress will impact people than Democratic state legislators.”
- “It’s easy to sit in a gilded office in DC and cut people’s health care coverage when all you see are numbers and do not have to face your neighbors and constituents on a daily basis.”
- “At the end of the day, Trump and federal Republicans know they’re putting red, blue, and purple states in an impossible position. They are well aware but do not care that state budgets won’t be able to make up for the cuts they’re making. And that is by design. Their focus is to win the narrative and to delegate all the actual work and tough decisions to the states.”
Illinois Speaker Pro Tempore Kam Buckner
- “What do I hear? I’m hearing fear. I’m hearing frustration. I’ve been hearing fatigue from people who feel like they’re being treated as expendable. I was just in a senior center on the south side of Chicago, my district, and a woman pulled me to the side, and she told me that she worked for years for the US Post Office, that she had done her part, and her question to me was, ‘why are they coming for me?’”
- “These cuts don’t feel theoretical to real people. They feel like eviction notices. They feel like medicine going unfilled, a doctor’s appointment missed, a child’s inhaler not replaced. That’s what’s being debated in Washington, and folks know it.”
- “I’ve heard some of our Republican colleagues speak out about this, but not nearly enough. And I’ll say this plainly, if you see a wrecking ball swinging towards your community and you choose to stay silent, you are not a bystander. You are a part of the demolition group.”
- “Let me say this as clearly as I can. If Donald Trump and the Republicans of Washington succeed in gutting Medicaid, Illinois working families that I represent will suffer, and not by accident, but by design.”
North Carolina Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch
- “[Medicaid Expansion in North Carolina] changed lives. People who had gone years without seeing a doctor were finally able to get checkups. Families gained peace of mind. Rural hospitals found a financial lifeline. Pregnant women didn’t have to travel two and a half hours just to deliver a baby. Medicaid expansion brought hope, stability, and dignity to hundreds of thousands in our state, and now that is all under threat.
- I think that [Republicans] are concerned, but whether or not they have the steel in their spine to do something about it is something completely different. I would tell you that the Republican colleagues that I talked to behind closed doors are extremely concerned because they know it disproportionately affects their constituents.”
- “I look at my Republican colleagues here when they know that they put a trigger law in place that would then mean that 650,000 North Carolinians would lose their insurance. And I say I don’t know why we as Democrats care more about your constituents than you do, but we do, and we’re here fighting for them.”
Virginia Del. Michael Feggans
- “We should not have to rely on trying to improve our national budget by removing health care, by hoping that red tape is how we’re going to cut costs. We need to make sure that Congress, and especially when this bill goes to the Senate, that it is rejected, especially looking at how those cuts are going to hurt our constituents. We’re going to continue fighting here, not just in Virginia, but across the country, and that’s why I’m proud to be here today.”
- “We have, for example, in Chesapeake, Virginia, a brand new VA Medical Center that is open…. I’m actually a patient there. I recently went there for a checkup. It was like a ghost town. One of the reasons why it’s a ghost town is because of the federal freezes that have been happening. So within Hampton Roads, our constituents directly understand these DOGE cuts.”
- “[Constituents are] coming up to us, and they’re scared and they’re concerned because of the chaos and confusion. We’re letting them know that we understand and that we’re fighting for them, because that is what so many individuals want right now, at this moment. They don’t care if you’re a dogcatcher or a delegate. They just want to know that you’re fighting for them, that you’re fighting against the chaos and confusion that’s coming down from Washington, DC every single day.”
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) is the official Democratic Party committee dedicated to winning America’s state legislatures and building state infrastructure. Over the last decade, we have fought cycle-over-cycle to gain a dozen new legislative chamber majorities and we are leading the effort to bring national attention and investment to our ballot level. State legislatures are the building blocks of our democracy and have the closest connections to Americans’ day-to-day lives. From protecting fundamental freedoms and voting rights to growing the middle class, the DLCC and state legislators are moving the Democratic agenda forward and shaping the future of this country.
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