Neal & McGovern to GOP: Ain’t all that corruption a beaut? (stills via YouTube)

Republicans in the United State House of Representatives jammed through their budget and spending bill this week. The bill will fund trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy and a massive expansion of the increasingly reckless and authoritarian Immigration & Customer Enforcement. Given their rank in the Democratic caucus, both reps for Western Massachusetts featured prominently in the debate.

Springfield Congressman Richard Neal is the top Democrat on the House’s tax-writing committee. Worcester Congressman James McGovern leads Democrats on the Rules Committee, which governs debate. Neal’s committee already spent 18 hours with the bill. Republicans held the Rules hearing in the dead of night hours before floor debate, plowing through hundreds of amendments. They advance no meaningful amendments to the House floor.

“Not only are they stealing from the American people to give billionaires another tax break, they’re too afraid to even debate the ideas we offered—bringing their big, ugly bill to the floor with zero amendments made in order,” McGovern said in a statement after the Rules hearing ended.

The bill, literally titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to parrot Donald Trump, passed 215-214. One Republican joined all Democrats to oppose the bill. A handful of Republicans did not vote, but most of them would have supported the bill had several Dems not died since this Congress convened.

Debate also took place overnight. Neal, speaking on the floor at 4:15am, emphasized the dead-of-night session, simply, “to avoid scrutiny.”

The bill cuts hundreds of billions from Medicaid. A large part of that will stem from harsher work requirements. However, the practicality of such cuts may be limited. Neal, speaking on Focus Springfield’s Government Matters, noted that a substantial amount of Medicaid now funds nursing home care. It is unlikely people recuperating in a nursing home can work much.

The two programs also fund a massive chunk of hospitals’ revenue. On Government Matters, he noted that most hospitals in Western Mass depend on federal health programs for more than 70% of their revenue.

“In our region, these hospitals, again as employer and employee giants, they are much dependent on Medicare and Medicaid,” he said.

By some estimates, federal health programs supply Baystate Medical Center in Springfield with over 70% of its revenue. It is both a safety net hospital and an anchor of employment in the city. (via baystatehealth.org)

The Springfield Democrat returned to this subject during the floor debate, challenging GOP colleagues to call hospital operators in their districts and ask about the risk of closure if health funds diminish further.

The bill will also severely cut food assistance programs. Millions could lose access to food nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps. McGovern, who has championed efforts to eliminate hunger, noted its impact across the social safety net.

“This bill is a moral disgrace,” he said on the floor this week. “It takes food out of the mouths of hungry kids and veterans and for what? To shovel tax breaks into the overflowing pockets of billionaires and giant corporations.”

On the spending side, the bill would dramatically expand ICE and give it and other immigration authorities more funding than the Bureau of Prisons or many other federal law enforcement agencies.

Between Neal’s appearance on Focus Springfield and the vote, Republicans introduced a manager’s amendment, which facilitated last minute changes the GOP needed to keep their caucus together. However, none of the changes meaningfully altered the bill’s nature as a giveaway for the wealthy. On Government Matters, Neal called it a “big beautiful tax cut for billionaires.”

SOLD! To the highest bidder. (WMP&I)

On the floor, Neal spoke about the Republican tax bill, that had been significantly, if not dramatically rewritten in only the last day. A key detail stood out. For somebody earning $1 million, Republicans would give them $81,000 in tax breaks. Anybody making less than $50,000 would, on average, gain $1 a day. Many such Americans would lose substantially more than $365 in other government services thanks to cuts in the legislation.

Speaking before the House adopted the rule to debate the legislation, McGovern zoomed out. He alluded to both the giveaways and carveouts in the bill and the broader and abject corruption of the Trump administration. Meanwhile, working people, time and time, get “screwed.”

“That’s the Republican agenda. That’s what you guys think is big and beautiful: greed, corruption and tax breaks for billionaires,” the Worcester Democrat said.