‘A big, extremely ugly bill’: WA Rep. claims Trump’s tax bill will be ‘incredibly damaging’ for people nationwide

House Republicans are working to secure votes for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after it passed in the Senate, The Associated Press (AP) reported Tuesday.

The bill would provide more permanent tax breaks and add new ones for various individuals and businesses. It would also provide $350 billion for defense and immigration, with less spending on Medicaid and food assistance.

“This is a big, extremely ugly bill,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (WA-D) said on “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. “It would be incredibly damaging to people across the country, and definitely people in our region, taking away health care from millions of people, taking away food assistance, meaning folks aren’t getting basic healthy meals. Kids aren’t getting basic healthy meals. Energy costs are going up.”

The Congressional Budget Office predicted the bill would add approximately $3.3 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade if passed, according to The AP.

“There are just many terrible, ugly things in this bill,” DelBene added. “I’m going to absolutely be voting against it and working hard to do everything I can to prevent it from moving forward.”

New version of Trump’s tax bill

Now that Trump’s tax bill has passed through the Senate, it will return to the House for another vote before landing on the president’s desk. The significant differences between the new version of the bill and the one the House previously pushed through include even greater cuts to Medicaid — instead of 14 million people losing health care, it would be 17 million people — and more federal debt, DelBene explained.

KIRO host Charlie Harger mentioned Republicans are using no tax on tips and no tax on overtime as key incentives for the bill.

“I think the Republicans are doing everything they can to distract folks from what this bill does,” DelBene responded. “This bill gives tax breaks to the wealthiest and the well-connected. It cuts health care, devastating millions of people in terms of their access to health care across the country. It would close rural hospitals, raise energy costs.”

She added that a front-running issue was affordable living, particularly in terms of the cost of housing, food, childcare, healthcare, and energy.

“There is nothing in this bill that helps working families,” DelBene said. “It will be devastating to our communities, and again, just increase the debt tremendously, putting that on our kids. So there’s nothing good about this.”

WA Rep. says no positives with Trump’s tax bill

When asked if there was anything good coming from Trump’s tax bill, DelBene responded, “This bill will be damaging to our country and damaging to our communities. There’s nothing about this bill that will help our communities.

“We have to be strong and stand up against it and actually fight for policies that do lower costs, fight for policies that help address housing costs and build more affordable housing, help us address the cost of food,” she added.

KIRO host Manda Factor asked if DelBene saw everything being resolved by the Fourth of July.

“I think for him, he wants a marketing opportunity,” she replied. “This isn’t about doing something to stand up for the American people.”

DelBene said that even though countless polls have shown disfavor for the bill, Republicans aren’t taking the time to actually read the legislation.

“If they were listening, they’d be less worried about getting this bill done because the president wants it done, and more about standing up for their communities, reading the bill, and voting against it,” she said.

Listen to the full conversation below.

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