Rep. McBride on Passage of Republican Budget Bill: “This is Trumpcare—Plain and Simple”
Washington, D.C. — On Friday, Congresswoman Sarah McBride (D-DE) condemned House Republicans for passing H.R. 1, a sweeping budget that she says represents the most extreme rewrite of the country’s health care system in history.
Speaking during the debate on the House floor, McBride warned that the bill—crafted behind closed doors and rushed to the floor at the direction of President Trump—would inflict lasting harm on working families across Delaware and the country.
“This bill is Trumpcare, and Trumpcare means 17 million more Americans uninsured and all the rest of us paying higher costs and driving further to get care,” said McBride. “Over the last several months I've met with hundreds of Delawareans. Parents, patients, providers, hospital leaders, teachers, nurses, people across the state of Delaware, everyone asking us, pleading with us to kill this bill.”
The bill includes the largest cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and rural hospital support in American history—all to partially pay for over $3 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
When enacted, the legislation will:
- Strip health coverage from more than 54,000 Delawareans, including tens of thousands of children, seniors, and people with disabilities
- Eliminate food assistance for 37,000 Delawareans
- Put at least one of Delaware’s three rural hospitals at risk of closure due to deep Medicaid cuts
- Add $4 trillion to the national deficit
“Budgets are moral documents,” McBride said. “And this one tells working families, veterans, and seniors: you’re on your own.”
Throughout the process, McBride fought to blunt the bill’s worst impact, offering amendments to protect Medicare and joining a discharge petition to protect Medicaid and SNAP. She joined dozens of Democratic colleagues again on Wednesday to motion for an amendment that would block any cuts to Medicaid or SNAP. Republicans in the House blocked all efforts.
“They are importing the worst parts of the private health care system into Medicaid and into Medicare to make it more complicated, to push people off of care, to make people just give up entirely on getting care,” McBride said during the Rules Committee hearing on HR 1.
McBride vowed to continue working with serious legislators in both parties to reverse the damage of the bill and pursue a better path forward rooted in dignity, opportunity, and stability for all Americans.
“Delaware families work hard. They play by the rules. And they deserve leaders who do the same,” said McBride. “I’ll never stop fighting to build a government that works for them.”
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