DCCC Chair DelBene Dodges on Border Provisions in BBB

On Wednesday’s edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press Now,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) responded to Vice President JD Vance touting the border security funding in the reconciliation bill by changing the subject to health care and other provisions.

Host Kelly O’Donnell asked, “[W]hen you talked about health care, one of the things I want to point to is what Vice President JD Vance said and how he is framing this argument. He is viewing this as ‘Massive tax cuts, especially no tax on tips and overtime. And most importantly, big money for border security. This is a big win for the American people.’ Those issues poll well, especially with groups of working-class voters and we know that Democrats are trying to win back those voters. That’s how JD Vance framed it, as making it about the border. Do you think that is an argument that has traction, and do Democrats need to address that piece of it?”

DelBene responded, “[H]e talked about the changes to Medicaid as being minutiae, as being insignificant. This is a $1 trillion cut to health care, 17 million people across the country losing their health care, this is working families across the country, shutting down rural hospitals, shutting down nursing homes, all to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy and the well-connected and anything that they’re doing for working families is only temporary. Their focus is on permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest and on gutting important programs that people depend on, gutting health care, nutrition programs, raising energy costs, this hurts working families across the country and people see it. In poll after poll, when people learn about this bill, they hate it, and the more and more they learn, the more and more they dislike it. And I think a lot of people would agree with Elon Musk’s statement that this is a disgusting abomination.”

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