MEMORANDUM

To: Members of the Press

From: Kristen Crowell, Executive Director, Fair Share America

Subject: With families’ health care costs spiking, Americans want a budget debate about their lives – not inside baseball and shutdowns

Giveaways to rich special interests have health care costs skyrocketing for working families and the middle class. Instead of having billionaires pay their fair share in taxes and lowering the cost of coverage, Washington is making working families foot the bill for inflationary tax breaks for the rich.

But Congress is back in Washington and focused on the federal budget in a way that is pure inside baseball. Appropriations bills are crawling forward, negotiations have just begun over short-term spending, and the threat of a shutdown looms. These debates can feel fun for political insiders but also make up the kind of back-and-forth that frustrates people about partisan entrenchment and the government not getting anything done.

The stakes for everyday people are very real. If Congress fails to fund the government that corrects drastic health care cuts from the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), families across the country will feel even more economic pain. And the reason we’re at this cliff is no mystery: GOP leaders chose to blow a $4.5 trillion hole in the budget with the OBBBA’s tax breaks for billionaires and corporations, and now they’re demanding working families pay the price.

People around the country are harmed by this failed leadership, the rigged tax system, and the devastating cuts baked into the OBBBA. And they’re furious that leaders who promised to fight for them are raising their costs, selling them out to a wealthy establishment.

FOR TOO MANY PEOPLE, THIS IS ABOUT SURVIVAL

I spent 10 weeks traveling all around U.S. this summer, from Arizona to Alaska, and heard peoples’ fears firsthand: they could be cut off from their health insurance during a serious illness, not be able to afford treatment or medication, or not be able to provide for their families with rising food and energy cuts and massive cuts to programs like SNAP. This is the worst possible time to cut public services.

Congress could use this appropriations process to correct the worst mistakes in the OBBA – and this is what members fighting for everyday people should be talking about:

• Repeal the Medicaid and SNAP cuts and onerous paperwork requirements designed to reduce access to these programs.

• Extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (PTCs), which help families afford ACA marketplace coverage and are set to expire at the end of the year. (Republicans chose not to extend the PTC in the OBBBA, so insurance premiums are expected to rise starting November 1, when open enrollment begins on the ACA marketplace.)

• Roll back the tax cuts for the rich and corporations that have added $4.5 trillion to the national debt and will trigger mandatory cuts to Medicare starting January 1st, if Congress doesn’t act.

• Fund the IRS so that it is able to collect billions in taxes owed by wealthy tax cheats.

OUR MESSAGE

People don’t want to hear bickering over a government shutdown. Instead, they want to hear an alternative vision for the future. People from Alaska to Iowa to Georgia and more have told us: they want accountability and a fair tax system that funds the things that allow us all to thrive – healthcare, schools, and communities – instead of giving handouts for the wealthy few and leaving nothing for the rest of us.

The GOP trifecta has full control over the government in Washington and it’s their misplaced budget and tax priorities that got us here. States, communities, and families are already feeling the negative impacts of OBBA: health clinics and rural hospitals rolling back services in anticipation of Medicaid cuts, food banks and school lunch programs shutting down due to SNAP cuts, and state governments forced to make impossible choices about what they can still afford to fund. All of this so that the rich and corporations could get another handout they didn’t need.

If you’re interested in speaking with Kristen, please contact Ashley Woolheater, ashley@fairshareusa.org.

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Fair Share America supports the movement in the states and nationally to make wealthy individuals and the most profitable corporations pay what they owe so that all of us can thrive. We are a groundbreaking, federal and multi-state initiative focused on building long-term civic engagement and political power to deliver lasting tax justice.