‘A Betrayal’: Bay Area Leaders React to US House Passing Trump’s Tax and Welfare Cuts

Updated 3:05 p.m. Thursday

The House of Representatives narrowly passed President Trump’s federal budget proposal on Thursday, slashing social safety net programs and extending tax cuts that Bay Area lawmakers say are a betrayal of the American people.

Votes largely fell along party lines, with the exception of Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who joined Democrats to vote against the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”

The legislation heads to Trump’s desk next, and he is expected to sign it on July Fourth.

“This bill is a betrayal that abandons the needs of hardworking Americans and balloons the national debt by over $4 trillion — not to invest in the future, but to reward the wealthiest in our country at the expense of everyone else,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the legislation as the “Big, Ugly Bill.”

She said the legislation makes the largest cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and federal food stamps programs in history.

An estimated 2 million California residents could also lose healthcare coverage as a result of more than $28.4 billion slashed from Medicaid funding to the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that rural hospitals could see services reduced or close their doors entirely.

Marnie Regan, director of government relations at Larkin Street Youth Services, said that the nonprofit’s clients, many of whom are homeless or formerly homeless young people, are especially at risk of losing access to these services.

Many of the 18- to 25-year-olds Larkin supports work gig jobs, or hold multiple part-time roles that don’t include health benefits, or allow them to cobble together the income necessary to afford enough food — making them dependent on public assistance for healthcare and nutrition.

“It’s that sort of invisible part of the workforce that we are very, very concerned about losing their benefits,” she said, adding that many of these young people are especially likely to forgo routine and preventative health care when they don’t have access to Medicaid.

“They’re worried about the cost … they don’t do dental care, there’s a lot of things that they just don’t access,” she told KQED.

The bill also blocks abortion care providers, like Planned Parenthood, from receiving federal funding.

While a federal law already prevents Medicaid from paying for abortions unless the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest or there is a threat to the pregnant person’s life, the bill would block Medicaid reimbursements for other care offered at these sites, like pregnancy testing, cancer screenings and contraceptives.

In a post on its website this week, Planned Parenthood said the bill could put as many as 200 of its health centers at risk of shutting down.

“The health and lives of 1.1 million patients across the country are at risk,” the organization said.

Newsom called the move to defund Planned Parenthood a “backdoor abortion ban.”

More than 5.5 million Californians rely on food assistance benefits in California, which are nearly entirely funded by the federal government, according to the California Budget & Policy Center.

Gina Fromer, the executive director of the service organization GLIDE, told KQED that its meal lines have already grown in anticipation of cuts to CalFresh, California’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The organization serves three hot meals on weekdays, and previously offered bagged food instead of a full lunch and dinner service on weekends. This week, she said, GLIDE returned to a more full meal schedule on the weekend because of growing demand — especially as other city food providers, like Saint Anthony’s — face cuts.

“We already have families in our food line who can’t afford the third meal [of the day], now they’re not going be able to afford the second meal,” she told KQED. “The impact is going to be devastating to GLIDE because it’s a strain on our resources already that are [stretched thin].”

All Republican members of Congress from California, including those in purple districts such as Rep. David Valadao, R-Bakersfield, voted in support of the bill.

“It was not an easy decision for me,” Valadao said in a statement on Thursday. “I’ve been a vocal advocate for protecting and preserving Medicaid for the most vulnerable in my district. I know how important the program is for my constituents.”

Trump earlier blasted the three Senate Republicans who voted against the bill — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — threatening to support their challengers in upcoming primaries.

Tillis announced his decision not to seek reelection on Sunday, the day after Trump threatened the senator online for opposing cuts to Medicaid that Tillis warned would devastate his state.

“It has been very, very clear that if a Republican does not vote for this bill, then Trump is going to come after them,” Rep. John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, told KQED this week after the bill passed the Senate. “They fear Trump.”

In addition to preserving tax cuts, the federal budget bill significantly ramps up funding for Trump’s immigration agenda. The bill includes nearly $45 billion for new detention centers and $14 billion for increased deportation operations and hiring more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“Republicans have a choice between governance for the people or cruelty,” Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, said Thursday in a statement. “It is undeniable that the policies in the bill will hurt communities in my district.”

Civil rights groups fighting against the bill said the impacts on vulnerable communities could be devastating.

“The bill will inflict generational harm on Black communities, people with disabilities, low-income families, veterans, immigrants, and countless others who already struggle to access basic necessities,” Janai Nelson, director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement.

The California Immigrant Policy Center, in a statement, called on Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers to “identify short and long-term opportunities to generate revenue to help mitigate the enormous harm this bill will cause.”

The bill also eliminates much of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits for renewable energy projects, efficient appliances and more, putting 686,000 California jobs at risk.

Democrats, including Simon, threw amendments at the bill this week in hopes of delaying the vote and maintaining funding for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Now, they’re scrambling to determine next steps for healthcare and other basic needs programs slashed in Trump’s budget.

“We will wake up tomorrow and fight another day, and many more days after that — until we create a society and government that we can actually be proud of,” said Simon, addressing her constituents in the statement. “That is what you sent me to Congress to do, and that is the clear-eyed goal I have for the coming months.”