ICYMI: In Senate Floor Speech Ahead of Reconciliation Vote, Shaheen Decries Republican Megabill as “Largest Transfer of Wealth from the Poor to the Rich in a Single Bill in History”, Urges Colleagues to Vote No
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor tonight to highlight the devastating impacts the Republican reconciliation bill will have on families in New Hampshire and across America. In her speech, Shaheen condemned the “Big Beautiful Bill” for ripping away health care and food assistance from millions of Americans, raising household energy costs, adding to the national debt and more in order to cut taxes for billionaires – labeling it the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single bill in history. Click here to view Senator Shaheen’s remarks in full.
Key Quotes from Senator Shaheen:
- “This bill is the largest cut to health care in American history. [...] Because of these cuts, more than 300 rural hospitals could close; more than 500 nursing homes could close. These are core programs and services that benefit our seniors, children, veterans, people living with disabilities and working families. [...]Over the past several weeks, past couple of months, I’ve toured New Hampshire. I’ve heard from countless constituents who are deeply anxious about what this bill means for them and their families. Again and again, they say plainly: without Medicaid or the ACA, they wouldn’t be here today.”
- “During this time of high food prices of increasing food insecurity, it's particularly critical for families to be able to rely on SNAP to help them keep food on the table. One of the ways this bill cuts the program is by requiring states to pay higher costs. Now, as the former governor of New Hampshire, I can tell you how much of a burden this is on our state's budget.”
- “For families concerned about energy costs, this bill only offers more pain. [...] This bill cuts off long-standing tax credits for consumers—for average, everyday Americans—to make energy saving improvements to their homes or to add rooftop solar to take control of their own energy bills. After countless promises to lower peoples’ energy bills, this legislation would do just the opposite.”
- “You know, I was first elected to the New Hampshire State Senate more than 30 years ago. This bill that we're considering today would do more harm to more people than any other law I have seen in my entire time in public office. This bill makes having a family more expensive by raising the cost of energy, health care and education. This bill takes food and health care away from seniors and families, and it does all of that—it does all of that—to give trillions of dollars more to corporations and to the wealthiest. And it explodes our deficit in the process.”
Full Remarks as Delivered:
Mr. President, I'm really here on the floor to oppose the reconciliation bill that we're considering today.
It would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single bill in our history.
This legislation would take away health care from millions of Americans. It would cut food aid for millions more. It would raise household energy and health care bills and it would add trillions to the debt, all to give the top, not just 1%, but the top .1% of people who make more than $2.5 million a year, an extra $250,000 a year.
At a moment when Americans are struggling with the high cost of living, this bill will take money out of the pockets of working people, the average household making less than $50,000. That's 30% of Americans. So 30% of Americans will lose about $700 a year from this bill.
Now, here are some of the ways that it hurts middle class Americans—the people who I'm very proud to represent in New Hampshire. Somehow the Senate took a bad bill, or what I thought was a bad bill from the House, and they made it much, much worse.
This bill is the largest cut to health care in American history. In total, the bill proposes more than $1 trillion, $1 trillion, in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. $930 billion of that is Medicaid alone. And because of these cuts, more than 300 rural hospitals could close. More than 500 nursing homes could close.
These are core programs and services that benefit seniors, children, veterans, people living with disabilities and working families.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 17 million Americans, including 43,000 Granite Staters, will lose their health insurance.
Now, over the past several weeks, past couple of months, I've toured New Hampshire. I've heard from countless constituents who are deeply anxious about what this bill means for them and for their families.
Again and again, they have said plainly: without Medicaid, without the Affordable Care Act, they would not be here today.
I heard from Danielle in Dalton, the northern part of New Hampshire. Danielle is a proud mother of three sons, two of whom have autism. Danielle’s sons rely on Medicaid for their health coverage and for their home care.
Danielle is not only their full time caregiver, but she receives a stipend from Medicaid to provide for their care. And thanks to Medicaid, both of her sons are able to work part time. They're able to live at home with their mom, and they're able to remain active in the community.
This bill would put all of that at risk. Danielle says her sons could have difficulty qualifying for Medicaid under these new rules, and losing Medicaid would be catastrophic for her family because it would likely force her sons out of work, out of her home and into a group home or institution.
And so it's going to cost a lot more if that happens. Her boys are now contributing members of society, and this bill threatens not only their livelihood and their independence and their future, it threatens their dignity.
I heard from Sean in Claremont. Sean shared with me his story of addiction to alcohol, cocaine and heroin, and his long road to recovery. After several near-death experiences, he found stability in a sober living home and enrolled in Medicaid. With access to treatment, he was able to hold a job and get his life back on track.
He eventually opened his own sober living home, Hope to Freedom, where he now helps others suffering from addiction so that they can enroll in Medicaid and begin their own journey to sobriety.
I heard from Carla in Exeter. Carla has twin three year old boys, one of whom had serious medical complications at birth. Now, she was able to have health insurance with her job, but as her family's medical bills piled up, she enrolled her son in Medicaid to ensure that he got the care that her family could not afford and her employee sponsored health insurance wouldn't pay for. He still needs extensive care to this day, and losing her coverage would put her family into devastating medical debt.
Probably the story that I heard that touched me as much as any was from a man in Berlin, in northern New Hampshire. He had had a number of substance misuse issues, mental health challenges, he said, without Medicaid, without the center—we were at a center where Medicaid helped pay to support people who needed help—he said, without this, I would just give up. I would commit suicide because there would be nothing for me.
These are just a handful of the countless stories I've heard these past few months. They're about real people. This bill isn't just words on a page. It's a direct attack on not only their health and their economic security, but their very dignity, their ability to have fulfilling lives and to contribute back to their communities and to society. We owe them better than this.
This bill would also make catastrophic cuts to food assistance that's provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP.
During this time of high food prices of increasing food insecurity, it's particularly critical for families to be able to rely on SNAP to help them keep food on the table.
One of the ways this bill cuts the program is by requiring states to pay higher costs.
Now, as the former governor of New Hampshire, I can tell you how much of a burden this is on our state's budget. And there are all kinds of provisions in this bill that are nothing but massive cost shifts to states, and this is one area.
The bill puts food assistance at risk for families with teenage children, as well as older adults, veterans and individuals experiencing homelessness.
In New Hampshire, an estimated 1,000 older adults could lose SNAP access.
These cuts will mean increased hunger across the country.
You know, we talk a lot about kitchen table issues here. Passing this bill is an explicit vote to take food off of families’ kitchen tables.
I heard from Rachel. She's a care coordinator at a behavioral health center in Claremont, which is in the western part of New Hampshire.
She told me, and I'm quoting here, “SNAP is not just a program, it's a lifeline. For the parents I work with, it means being able to send their children to school with full stomachs and functioning minds. For caregivers struggling to make ends meet, it provides some peace of mind knowing there will be something on the table each night. And for children, many of whom are navigating mental health challenges, SNAP supports stability, dignity and health during formative years. Without SNAP, the strain on these already vulnerable families would increase exponentially”.
And she goes on to say, finally, “SNAP is not a handout. It's a step forward for families working hard to survive and succeed against overwhelming odds”.
And on the energy front, for families concerned about energy costs, this bill only offers more pain.
In addition to cutting off tremendously successful incentives for electricity that are adding reliable, affordable and clean energy to the grid at a record pace, this bill cuts off longstanding tax credits for consumers, for average everyday Americans to make energy saving improvements to their homes, or to add rooftop solar to take control of their own energy bills.
After countless promises to lower people's energy bills, this legislation would do just the opposite.
Last year, 2.3 million families took advantage of the Home Energy efficiency tax credit and cut an average $130 off of their yearly energy bills.
Now, that may not sound like a lot to the Mar-A-Lago crowd, but it makes a big difference for families in New Hampshire who worry about how they're going to heat their homes.
American households are expected to pay an extra $170 billion in energy bills over the next ten years thanks to misplaced priorities in this bill.
And add to that 1.5 million good jobs that are likely to go away. And it makes you wonder if supporters of this bill have actually read it, or if they actually care about American energy dominance.
And on taxes. This bill spends more than $4 trillion on tax cuts, including nearly $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the biggest corporations.
But for taxpayers earning less than $30,000 a year, they would see an average tax increase—let me say that again, because I didn't say that quite right with the right emphasis—for taxpayers earning less than $30,000 a year, they would see an average tax increase in 2029.
And these are the same families who are going to be harmed most by extreme cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
Families making under $50,000 are likely to be worse off, and some could lose more than $1,500 a year under this bill.
So if you add to that the effects of Trump's tariffs, which raise the cost of living for a typical family by $2,000 a year, this makes it even worse for families.
So the bottom 80% of households, those making less than $175,000, will be worse off on average under this bill.
Now, I've talked about how this bill makes families pay more for health care, for energy and food in order to give more money to billionaires, but there are few other things that people should know.
First, because of the trillions of dollars this bill would add to the debt, interest rates are likely to go up. That adds more than $1,000 a year for a typical mortgage.
This bill makes it harder for students to afford the cost of college, and it removes debt protections for students who have been defrauded by their schools.
And this bill actually tries to prohibit states from regulating AI for the next ten years, making it that much harder to keep our kids safe online and to protect jobs from being lost to the use of this technology.
You know, I was first elected to the New Hampshire State Senate more than 30 years ago. This bill that we're considering today would do more harm to more people than any other law I have seen in my entire time in public office.
This bill makes having a family more expensive by raising the cost of energy, health care and education.
This bill takes food and health care away from seniors and families, and it does all of that—it does all of that to give trillions of dollars more to corporations and to the wealthiest. And it explodes our deficit in the process.
That's not what the people of New Hampshire are asking for, and it's not what Americans deserve.
And to my colleagues in the Senate, I say this: At a moment when Americans are feeling squeezed by the cost of living, we should be doing something about that.
Instead of gutting health care to pay for tax cuts, we should be expanding access to affordable, quality care.
Instead of turning our backs on working parents, we should be making housing more affordable, and we should ensure that every child has access to high quality, affordable early education.
Instead of cutting nutrition programs, let's make sure that no child in America goes hungry.
Instead of driving up food and energy prices, let's invest in the programs that help American families succeed.
President Trump calls this the “Big Beautiful Bill”, but it is a big betrayal of the American people.
There's nothing beautiful about taking away health care and food from working families to give more money to billionaires.
So I intend to vote against this legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to do the same.
I yield the floor.
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