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A projection stating that "Medicaid Is Not A Piggy Bank For Billionaires" is projected on the front of the Republican National Committee headquarters on June 26, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Our Care)
The Billionaire Oligarchs Are Dancing in the Street
The Republicans who passed this bill must pay a political price. It's time to get to work.
Jul 02, 2025
Editor's note: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders released the following after Republicans in the U.S. Senate approved their "big ugly bill" on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
The reconciliation bill that Republicans passed in the U.S. Senate by one vote on Tuesday will give the top 1% a trillion dollars in tax breaks. At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, the very rich just got much richer.
Pathetically, these tax breaks for the wealthy are paid for by a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The result of those cuts will be that over 16 million Americans will lose their health insurance and an estimated 50,000 will die unnecessarily each year. These cuts will also be devastating to rural hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers.
But that’s not all. While the very rich celebrate their good fortune in fancy restaurants, this bill cuts nutrition programs for hungry kids and, because of cuts to education, will make it harder for working class young people to afford college.
And for those of us concerned about climate change, this bill makes a very ominous situation even worse. It delivers massive reductions in funding for energy efficiency and sustainable energy while giving even more corporate welfare to the fossil fuel industry.
The Republicans who passed this bill must pay a political price. Starting now, we must work overtime to make certain that these corporate controlled politicians are defeated in 2026.
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Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. Sanders ran to become the Democratic Party presidential nominee in both 2016 and 2020 and remains the longest-serving independent member of Congress in American history. Elected Mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Editor's note: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders released the following after Republicans in the U.S. Senate approved their "big ugly bill" on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
The reconciliation bill that Republicans passed in the U.S. Senate by one vote on Tuesday will give the top 1% a trillion dollars in tax breaks. At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, the very rich just got much richer.
Pathetically, these tax breaks for the wealthy are paid for by a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The result of those cuts will be that over 16 million Americans will lose their health insurance and an estimated 50,000 will die unnecessarily each year. These cuts will also be devastating to rural hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers.
But that’s not all. While the very rich celebrate their good fortune in fancy restaurants, this bill cuts nutrition programs for hungry kids and, because of cuts to education, will make it harder for working class young people to afford college.
And for those of us concerned about climate change, this bill makes a very ominous situation even worse. It delivers massive reductions in funding for energy efficiency and sustainable energy while giving even more corporate welfare to the fossil fuel industry.
The Republicans who passed this bill must pay a political price. Starting now, we must work overtime to make certain that these corporate controlled politicians are defeated in 2026.
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. Sanders ran to become the Democratic Party presidential nominee in both 2016 and 2020 and remains the longest-serving independent member of Congress in American history. Elected Mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Editor's note: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders released the following after Republicans in the U.S. Senate approved their "big ugly bill" on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
The reconciliation bill that Republicans passed in the U.S. Senate by one vote on Tuesday will give the top 1% a trillion dollars in tax breaks. At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, the very rich just got much richer.
Pathetically, these tax breaks for the wealthy are paid for by a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The result of those cuts will be that over 16 million Americans will lose their health insurance and an estimated 50,000 will die unnecessarily each year. These cuts will also be devastating to rural hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers.
But that’s not all. While the very rich celebrate their good fortune in fancy restaurants, this bill cuts nutrition programs for hungry kids and, because of cuts to education, will make it harder for working class young people to afford college.
And for those of us concerned about climate change, this bill makes a very ominous situation even worse. It delivers massive reductions in funding for energy efficiency and sustainable energy while giving even more corporate welfare to the fossil fuel industry.
The Republicans who passed this bill must pay a political price. Starting now, we must work overtime to make certain that these corporate controlled politicians are defeated in 2026.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.