CNN Anchor Asks House Democrat: How Do You ‘Fight Back’ Against ‘The Wins Trump Can Tout?’

SIDNER: “Joining me now is Democratic congresswoman from Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Thank you for joining us. I know you are there on Capitol Hill and listening to all this. Look, here are some things that have happened. Gas prices, down. Economic indicators are decent. Brand new jobs report shows that it’s much better than expected. And border crossings are down. And now Trump’s mega spending bill looks like it’s going to be passed by Republicans. How do you, Democrats, fight back with the wins that Trump can tout?”

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: “Well, it depends on how you define wins, Sara. I mean, the way I can summarize this — this big, ugly bill best is, Republicans caved, Trump lied, and people will die. This bill does kick 17 million people off of their health care. That’s people who are on Medicaid, who are extremely vulnerable, like veterans and the elderly, the disabled and children. We’re talking about the largest cuts to nutrition assistance, meaning people are going to go hungry. Four million people lose their — their nutrition assistance, 31,000 in my district alone. You have 70,000 who will lose Medicaid. This is a bill that is going to cause tremendous pain. And it is incredibly unpopular with the — with the public because they don’t want their government to actually take away things that ensure that they can remain healthy and safe, and that their families can be cared for, and that they can have a middle class lifestyle. This bill is all in service to taking care of the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans. It explodes the deficit, and it raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion to give tax breaks to the wealthy. That jobs report you — you just mentioned, the overwhelming majority of those jobs are actually government jobs and education jobs that look to be more like substitute teachers. There are really not many jobs in that jobs report that they can point to that are in the private market. So, it’s a hollow jobs — jobs report and you’re going to see, over the next year and a half, the incredible pain that this big, ugly bill will — will cost people. And we are on the House floor behind our Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to make sure people know just what’s in it, because the Republicans are doing this again in the dead of night when people don’t know what’s going on.”

SIDNER: “You — we’ve been seeing ads from Democrats already hitting the airwaves about this bill. Voters will get the tax cuts first, it appears, in this bill and then the Medicaid cuts. Those work requirements, for example, could start by 2027, and states can delay that until 2028. Have Democrats calculated when voters will feel the impacts of this bill and whether they can then use it in the midterms against their opponents?”

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: “Absolutely. A lot of the most significant Medicaid pain happens right away.”