WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Defend America Action is releasing a new report, first published by Common Dreams, on how Donald Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill is making America unaffordable. Because Trump and Republicans gutted health care and food assistance to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, nearly 15 million Americans are set to lose health coverage, and premiums have increased by 114 percent on average. Meanwhile, more than 4 million people have lost food assistance, and nearly 1,000 hospitals, nursing homes, and providers have shuttered, are at risk, or have cut services.

Defend America Action also hosted a press call on Friday with U.S. Representative Dina Titus (D-NV-01), former White House Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Jared Bernstein, Pennsylvania State Representative Arvind Venkat, MD, and Wisconsin State Senator Brad Pfaff to discuss the bill one year after it was signed into law.

“It’s been a year since this went into place, and it was a real betrayal of the middle class, despite the way the Republicans tried to brand it. Then they realized how unpopular it was and changed the brand to try to hide exactly what it does. But people weren’t fooled by it; they saw it, and now they’re certainly feeling it,” said U.S. Representative Dina Titus. “In short, this ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ has made people sicker and made people hungrier.”

“This bill literally took from the poor to give to the rich, as if the economic problem facing America was that poor people have too much and rich people have too little,” said former White House Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Jared Bernstein. “When it comes to helping Americans with their primary economic stressor these days, which is affordability, this budget bill makes life a lot more expensive for a lot more people.”

“I’ve never seen a more dangerous and purposeful attempt to make people sick and hungry than the One Big, Ugly Bill,” said Pennsylvania State Representative Arvind Venkat, MD. “Simply put, I’ve never seen a government policy that is more of an effort to rip away basic safety, health, and well-being from citizens than what this legislation does. The only silver lining in all of this is that anything that a legislative body has done, a legislative body can undo.”

“One out of every five people in the state of Wisconsin are on Medicaid. Of that, three out of five of residents that are in the nursing home in our state are on Medicaid. 40% of our state’s births get their health insurance through Medicaid. Over 30% of our state’s kids are on Medicaid, and Congress passed legislation last year that made health care more difficult for those individuals while giving tax breaks to the very wealthy,” said Wisconsin State Senator Brad Pfaff.

A recording of the press call is available here. Defend America Action’s new Big, Ugly Bill report is available here.