Americans are begging Democrats to put up a resistance to the Trump administration as MAGA strips the federal government for parts.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was put to task by a concerned parent during a Healthcare Education Project discussion Monday morning, who argued that the liberal party’s continued inaction in the face of sweeping Medicaid cuts would end many American lives.
“I know you need to engage a lot more people,” the woman said. “My son recently had a transplant, in January.… Because of that, he needs to take his anti-rejection medication every day in order to survive for the rest of his life.
“If these Medicaid cuts go through—to give tax breaks to billionaires that really don’t need it—my son is basically sentenced to die, because he will not be able to afford the medication for anti-rejection,” she continued. “And like him, there are many, many others in the same situation.
“So we need you to engage the others, to fight hard, to go as low as you have to just like the Republicans do, and fight for ours,” she added.
In response, Jeffries likened the current struggle to the civil rights era, and agreed that Democrats “have to show up with the same level of strength, resilience, and courage” as their historic heroes.
“The odds were stacked against us in 2017 that we could save the Affordable Care Act, but together, we did,” he said. “And as long as we show up, stand up, and speak out with the same level of energy, courage, and strength, we’re going to save Medicaid, stop them from enacting this cut, and protect the health care of the American people.”
Still, Jeffries’s efforts have only stretched so far. Despite vehemently opposing the Republican budget resolution over the last several weeks, Jeffries ultimately defended Senator Chuck Schumer’s leadership on Tuesday after the Senate minority leader pushed his caucus to vote for it.
Jeffries told reporters that he still believes Schumer should lead Democrats in the upper chamber. The comments followed a moment last week in which Jeffries dodged a question on Schumer’s future.
Constituents in Arizona similarly torched Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego at a town hall on Monday, urging the politicos to “get in the mud” with Republicans.
“We can do better, and we should do better. We owe it to every Arizonan,” Gallego said, before telling his constituents that they should instead pile the pressure on Republican lawmakers.
Republicans have pitched an $880 billion cut to Medicaid in order to pay for an extension to Trump’s 2017 tax plan, which will overwhelmingly benefit corporations and is projected to add as much as $15 trillion to the national deficit.
Medicaid insures more than 70 million Americans. The popular social program, established in 1965 under President Lyndon B. Johnson, represents nearly $1 out of every $5 spent on health care in the U.S. It pays for more than 41 percent of births in America, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and is the largest financier of nursing home care in the country, according to HuffPost.
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