By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / March 26, 2025
This article originally appeared in Alice Embree’s Substack.
The New York Times provided the autopsy report on the budget bill that passed by one vote.
The tax and spending bill passed by House Republicans early Thursday includes hundreds of provisions and would add an estimated $3.3 trillion to the national debt by extending and expanding large tax cuts, partially offset by cuts to Medicaid, food benefits and other programs. Below is a table that lists the 10-year cost or savings for nearly every provision, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.
The table that accompanied the article reveals the magnitude of costs associated with the extended tax cuts. They dwarf the other costs. Health care, food assistance, student loans, and the climate took the major hits.
Ezra Klein’s podcast guest, Catherine Rampell, summed it up a few words:
It is a transfer from the poor to the rich, from the young to the old, and from the future to the past.
Tell the Stories to Those Who Aren’t Hearing Them
As the facts were revealed by the media, so was the path forward. That happened at a Town Hall with Congressman Greg Casar on Saturday, May 24th, in Austin, Texas. The event began with testimony from those who will be harmed — from the disability community, from a doctor, from a farmer who had served on a rural hospital board, from a caretaker, from a mother who adult son with Down Syndrome. Congressman Casar listened from the front row before he took the mic.
Danny Saenz of ADAPT of Texas
I’m 65 years old, a member of ADAPT, and have lived in Austin since 1986. I’ve been able to live independently with some assistance. I’ve worked from time to time and been an active part of the community.
Since 2003, I’ve needed more and more assistance, helping me get out of bed, meal prep, laundry and minor housekeeping. Many people have stuck with me for a longtime, like one woman I call my Czech grandmother. But after time they’ve had to leave for a better-paying job. The base rate in TX is only $10.60 an hour.
We hear, “Your family will take care of you.” But that isn’t always easy. I was one of five siblings and only three of us are left. The one who helped me before has issues of his own.
We need Medicaid assistance to be expanded, not cut. That would help people with disabilities and older people, but also the workers. A lot of them need food stamps, medical assistance themselves.
As ADAPT says, we need five keys: accessible and integrated housing, autonomy over our lives, community services, durable medical equipment and maintenance, living wages and benefits for attendants.
Recently I was arrested for refusing to move from protesting at the Rayburn Building outside the room where the hearing was being held. We’re literally fighting for our lives. Cuts in wages or hours or services or equipment will make it harder for us to stay independent
I’ve seen many a time, when enough people are willing to join together; they’ve been able to change the way the government does things. I believe together we can make a more perfect union.
Albert “Sparky” Metz, Adapt of Texas
I am 68 years old. My attendant, Pansy, is 69. Medicaid allows me to have attendant services to deal with my cerebral palsy. Pansy helps me with showers, feeding, cleaning, brushing my teeth, shopping. I’m very fortunate. Pansy is my only caregiver right now and she’s willing to stay with me.
If the Medicaid cuts go through, it could cut Pansy’s work hours or pay, and that would hurt the quality of life for both of us.
Pansy has heart problems and kidney damage. She does everything she’s supposed to, but the under-staffing means Medicare payments don’t all go through, and she winds up with a stack of bills. Cuts will mean even fewer people to process paperwork. There’ll be more situations where people like Pansy need help but don’t get it, even though they try and try.
From 1981-1991, I had to live in a nursing home in my hometown in Oklahoma. My dad, who was a wheelchair repairman, got me out. I moved to Austin to my own apartment with the help of Medicaid and Medicare.
When I was institutionalized, my girlfriend there died from lack of care. There was no investigation of what happened. I don’t ever want to go back to a place like that. As ADAPT says, separate never means equal.
I got involved in ADAPT through a friend who’s passed away. It means I can fight for my rights and the rights of other people, too. If disabled people get the care they need, they can have independence, work and contribute to society and be sane.
I’ve been arrested 4 times for civil disobedience. I believe our government needs to know that we are going to be fighting back against these cuts. If everyone bands together, it will help get what we need for ourselves and each other.
Beverly Moore
When I was pregnant with my second child, my doctor suspected he had a birth defect. I was a graduate student at UT and researched all possible scenarios. My husband and I decided to continue the pregnancy.
In the decades before the ADA, children with Down Syndrome weren’t even allowed to attend school or be in public places. I started fighting against that in the 1960s, before I had kids. I knew these children could be taught and once they did, they didn’t forget. I knew that they’re always loving, always caring, and always cooperative. We used to call Cyrus our Buddha baby. He made a wonderful funeral usher; his presence would calm people down.
Cyrus aged out of high school at 22, and aged out of being covered on our insurance. He was then covered under Medicaid and still is, at age 45. He does Special Olympics all year round; I taught special ed, and my husband and I coached him for many years. Just in Texas, there are 25,000 Special Olympics athletes. For each of them, there’s a family and a community.
My son is a guitar-strumming, rock-and-roll-loving guy who is well known to Austin musicians. He stands in front of the stage and worships them. My son s sees the best of everyone. It never occurs to him that people want to hurt him. He once rescued his big sister from a prickly patch and carried her to the farmhouse on his back. At 82, I’ve seen my son take care of me more than I’ve taken care of him.
I can’t imagine my son having to face a future without care and independence. I can’t imagine they’re talking about scrapping this for tax cuts to billionaires. We’re fighting for civil rights and medical rights, rights for families, the right to live.
These cuts are the beginning of scrapping health care for people without high dollars. They consider us the most dispensable. But our nation can easily afford it – the money is miniscule compared to what they’re spending on everything else.
None of us need to be labeled as dispensable. They’re doing it to people of color and people from other countries, to women. Next they’ll come for people with disabilities, and after that, for all of us. We have to fight with and for all of us.
Speak to the people in your lives. Urge them to join us in fighting these cuts in Medicaid and for a society that values everybody.
Pay Attention to the Fine Print
We need to understand the fine print in the budget bill. As Congressman Casar said,
“These aren’t work requirements — these are paperwork requirements.”
The intent is to cull out Medicaid recipients with new eligibility deadlines. Working parents can lose eligibility if they don’t alert an office of their child’s birthday. The DOGE administrative cuts have broken the points of access, fired caseworkers answering phones, and disrupted online access with systems that shut down at 9:00 p.m. — after the kids are asleep. The “savings” attributed to the work requirement are not based on any increase in employment numbers. The savings are attributed to lower rolls that are in turn based upon paperwork barriers.
Build a Counter Culture of Solidarity and Resistance
Members of the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans (TARA) spread the word about the Town Hall and built a coalition of co-sponsors. They, in turn, spread the word.
In the Trump / Musk world, division and fear rule. As Congressman Casar put it, “We are not better off because someone else is worse off.”
He called upon us to build out a vision and agenda that honors health care as a human right — Medicare for all. We need to have our eyes on that prize, not on calling out the cuts by a thousand knives.
Congressman Casar, drawing on his own experience as an organizer, reminded everyone that they need to think of themselves as organizers, as people who have to build for a future that we all deserve even while fighting to stop the real dangers at hand. As a Congressman, he reminded us that it is a small number of votes that can block senate passage of cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. He said that the phone calls matter. You never know whom you might touch with a story. He said that outreach to friends, family, and neighbors matters. We can call people into a big tent.
Our magic potion is creativity. Our strength is solidarity.
