On July 4, 2025, the President of the United States signed an extensive budget reconciliation bill that will bring extraordinary pain upon millions of families across the nation. This bill will take health coverage and food access away from millions of the most vulnerable people across the country in order to give the wealthiest people massive tax cuts. The bill signed by the President will be detrimental to the economy and will bring the most direct harm to low- and middle-income families, including Massachusetts residents.
MassBudget President Viviana Abreu-Hernández, PhD, issued the following statement:
“This Billionaire Bailout Bomb bill targets millions of individuals and families already struggling by eliminating their healthcare and food support in order to help the rich get richer. Not only is it inhumane but it is also fiscally irresponsible, raising the national debt limit by over an estimated $3 trillion dollars over the next decade.
The bill signed by the President on July 4th also extends tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest in the country. According to an analysis of the bill from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the wealthiest top 1% by income will receive $1.02 trillion dollars in tax cuts over the next decade. During that same period, there will be $930 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which provides health care access to low-income individuals and families.
It is important to put this bill in context because it is part of a larger national agenda, commanded by the President, that intentionally targets the most vulnerable people. Current estimates forecast that around 300,000 in Massachusetts could lose health coverage due to changes in Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Our partners at Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) estimate that 150,000 Massachusetts residents are at risk of losing some or all of their household’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) due to the changes in this bill, leaving families unable to afford groceries.
The elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs; the illegal deportation and incarceration of non-citizens; the imposition of higher tariffs (which will translate to higher costs for everyday Americans); the defunding of Planned Parenthood where low-income women get high quality healthcare; staffing cuts to Head Start which disproportionately provides Black and Hispanic low-income children with early education and care, the cancellation of scientific research grants studying gender, race, income inequality, environmental justice, climate change, and diseases that affect BIPOC; and the withholding of federal education dollars that districts across the country rely on to provide needed services and support in schools – all of these actions have been crafted and intentionally implemented to further concentrate wealth, and power, in the hands of a few. The main objective of this strategically planned national agenda is to reinforce racist systems and power structures that allow the ultra-wealthy (and white) to maintain control of the country.
Inequity is the result of existing power structures that systemically and unfairly deny a specific portion of the population something they rightfully earned. This leads to unequal access to resources, opportunities, and outcomes. The President’s agenda and this bill further worsens racial and income inequities, rolling back decades of historic advances that were moving the United States toward being a better country for all.
At MassBudget, we believe it is vital for our state to use all resources possible to meet this moment. This starts with helping the hundreds of thousands of people in Massachusetts who will struggle even more to meet their basic needs after they are left without access to health care, food, and more as a result of the passage of the budget reconciliation bill. And it doesn’t stop there. As a state, we must raise additional revenue – through corporate fair share and other progressive revenue policies – to minimize the impacts of this harmful agenda on the people of the Commonwealth. We have work to do. Massachusetts, as one of the richest states in the nation, has the opportunity and imperative, to step in to lead in the face of federal uncertainty.”
