Indiana Sen. Jim Banks can’t defend what they’re doing in Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” so he’s got to lie about it instead. As we’ve discussed here again and again, the bill will absolutely knock millions of people off of their health insurance, no matter how many times Republicans come back and lie about it on Fox not-news.
Thom Tillis dared to tell the truth about what the bill does, and now he’s announced he’s not running for reelection after voting against Trump’s Big Beautiful Turd, so Trump got his scalp with Tillis.
Banks won’t suffer the same fate since he’s more than willing to lie for Trump as he did during his interview on Fox News Sunday, as host Shannon Bream just nodded along.
BREAM: Okay, so this one, Senator Chris Coons, your colleague from across the aisle, is going to be up next on the show, and he said that this bill hurts everyday Americans, it takes away health care, health care insurance coverage, food for people in need.
He says that this administration has not gotten prices down, and now this is going to be a tax break for billionaires and the wealthiest Americans.
Polls show us that that messaging is landing, that people are very skeptical. They have very negative impressions of this bill.
BANKS: Well, it’s just not true. I mean, it’s a good thing that the clerk in the Senate right now just passed page 600, so they’ve got a little ways to go, but they’re reading the bill and the truth is in the bill.
The Medicaid reforms would affect able-bodied Americans, those who are sitting at home who can work, who don’t work, who don’t have a sick kid or a sick mom.
They shouldn’t receive Medicaid without working and and on top of that, the the bill would take Medicaid away from illegal immigrants.
One of the most important amendments that we’re going to vote on hopefully sometime tonight or tomorrow morning would be whether or not illegal immigrants should get Medicaid, and Democrats are going to have to vote on that and tell the American people whether or not that’s fair to those men and women who work hard every day and pay taxes, that go to work that people who can work but don’t work and illegals should get Medicaid instead. Those would be the Americans who are affected.
But at the end of the day, this is the biggest tax cut on working class families. If we don’t pass this bill, everyone’s taxes on average will go up $2000 a household, and that’s not fair to the regular Americans who work hard every day. That’s what this bill is all about.
As we discussed here, and as The Kaiser Family Foundation reported, here’s the work status of most of the people on Medicaid:
In 2023, most Medicaid adults under age 65 were working (Figure 1). Among adults under age 65 with Medicaid who do not receive benefits from the Social Security disability programs, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and who are not also covered by Medicare (referred to hereafter as “Medicaid adults”), 92% were working full or part-time (64%), or not working due to caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or school attendance. The remaining 8% of Medicaid adults reported that they are retired, unable to find work, or were not working for another reason.
They know who they’re going to harm, and they don’t care.
Banks is also lying about who it benefits. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth breaks down the damage that will be done here: Congressional Republicans’ budget bill is the most regressive in at least 40 years
