Key Point: “[DNC Chair Ken] Martin told Washingtonian on Friday … ‘We were in and out of homeless shelters. When we went grocery shopping, we had to use food stamps. If it wasn’t for Medicaid, I wouldn’t have had any healthcare. Those are the types of programs that me and my family relied on throughout most of my childhood.’ Martin hasn’t talked much about that chapter of his life, but he wants to now, because the Republican spending bill feels so personal to him.”

Washingtonian: For DNC Chair Ken Martin, the Big Beautiful Bill Is Personal

By Sylvie McNamara 

• “We struggled mightily when we were young,” Martin told Washingtonian on Friday. “We were in and out of homeless shelters. When we went grocery shopping, we had to use food stamps. If it wasn’t for Medicaid, I wouldn’t have had any healthcare. Those are the types of programs that me and my family relied on throughout most of my childhood.” 

• Martin hasn’t talked much about that chapter of his life, but he wants to now, because the Republican spending bill feels so personal to him.

• According to the Tax Policy Center, the top one percent of Americans would see an average tax cut of almost $80,000. Meanwhile, the bottom 30 percent of Americans would see their incomes reduced, primarily due to benefit cuts. … Additionally, the CBO expects 16 million Americans to lose their health care under the bill, due to changes in both Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act … [and] public-health researchers have warned that the bill could cause 51,000 preventable deaths each year.

• A recent KFF Health Tracking poll, for instance, suggests that nearly two-thirds of Americans view the legislation unfavorably, while only 35 percent support it.

• So, in these final days before the president’s deadline, the DNC’s strategy is to build public opposition. In particular, elected Democrats have been flooding local media with accounts of how the bill could devastate their communities … 

• Martin has no idea what his own mother would have done without Medicaid or food assistance. “I mean, she struggled as it is. We were so poor, we didn’t have much. Without the programs that were helping her, it’s hard to imagine—clearly, it would have been much more difficult.”