July 3, 2025
by Marybeth O’Mara
Well, this afternoon, the House voted to approve Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” a budget authorization for the upcoming fiscal year that Trump plans to sign tomorrow, on the Fourth of July. The Bill is anything but beautiful, and my Congressional Representative, Mike Quigley, has issued a statement referring to the “Big Ugly Bill”:
“There is nothing beautiful about this bill. No American will be untouched by the damage it will do to our communities. Seventeen million Americans will lose access to healthcare. Nine rural hospitals in Illinois are at risk of closing. Over 200,000 Illinois residents will lose access to SNAP food benefits. Illinois families will pay $400 more a year for energy. All of this, while ballooning our national debt by at least $3 trillion.
“Disturbingly, Republicans seem to know exactly how harmful this bill is because dozens of them pledged to oppose it. Just yesterday, the House came to a standstill for over eight hours because the House Freedom Caucus attempted to negotiate changes to the bill. They failed. Today, those members voted for the unchanged bill anyway.
“The bottom line is that Republicans are willing to sacrifice their constituents to keep Donald Trump happy. But I am laser-focused on protecting the residents of Illinois’ Fifth District and doing everything I can to safeguard Medicaid, SNAP, and every benefit that keeps Americans safe and healthy.
“I firmly believe that years from now, we will look back in disbelief and shame at the United States Congress for passing such a harmful bill.”
His neighboring representative, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, also released a statement even more pointed and emotional:
“I cannot support a bill that strips health care from working families while writing checks to billionaires and ICE.
“Trump’s ‘Big, Ugly Bill’ includes the largest Medicaid cuts in American history, leaving 17 million people with no health care. In my district, 278,000 people are enrolled in Medicaid, and thousands will lose their coverage under this bill. It raises costs, eliminates care, and punishes everyday families.
“It jeopardizes nutrition benefits for more than 40 million people, taking food off the table for children, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities.
“If that was not enough, this bill will pour $100 billion into ICE, building it into the largest police force in the country—even bigger than the FBI—and with more detention capacity than the entire federal prison system. All to supercharge Trump and Stephen Miller’s deportation agenda, which means more raids, more kidnappings, more people taken from the streets with no regard for due process, and more families separated.
“My vote is for working families—not for billionaires, not for fear, and not for cruelty.”
Democrats are unified in their opposition, and seem to have counted on some of their Republican colleagues to stand up to pressure from the White House and their Congressional leadership, but they (of course!) capitulated. Susan Collins remains concerned.
The cuts to health care and education alone will be the biggest cuts in US History, and ICE funding is slated to be increased TWENTY TIMES over the next few years, appropriating immigration and border control with more funding than the US Marine Corps, and with the authority to operate in US states and territories. Many pundits have speculated that this creates a paramilitary force with loyalty to Trump’s stated goals, and without the regulations that have traditionally constrained military action against US civilians. In addition, several Supreme Court decisions from the final week of this year’s term imposed additional limits on the ability of lower federal and state courts to regulate executive actions while allowing this particular executive branch to defy and ignore lower court rulings with which they disagree. We are clearly heading toward—if not already part of—an authoritarian police state.
During his record-breaking (for length) speech on the floor of the House today, Hakeem “Jeffries urged people to read the Declaration of Independence, part of which “reads like an indictment against an out-of-control king.” He joked that the framers of the Constitution had been fed up with “Project 1775” and so they implemented “Project 1776.”
“I know that there are people concerned with what’s happening in America,” Jeffries said. “But understand what our journey teaches us is that after Project 2025 comes Project 2026. And you will have an opportunity to end this national nightmare.”
With his Democratic colleagues cheering him on, Jeffries urged their supporters to “press on.” (Washington Post)
I fear what is already here and what is coming. I am trying to enjoy a family vacation with three generations of extended family, but I am wary because we are spending this time in a red state and I find myself side-eyeing the folks around me on beaches and in restaurants and shops as I wonder how they are feeling about all of this, and whether their perspective is as different as I suspect it is. But I am trying to create and cherish family memories of connection and fun that I can use to strengthen my resolve to continue to speak and work for these next generations.
I am not sure we will survive as a democratic nation until next year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which signified a break with submission to a monarchy, and the beginning of the world’s first—and longest lasting—democratic republic.
Enjoy the fireworks!
