MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Ken Martin, DNC Chair
DATE: June 28, 2025
RE: Republicans Are Gutting the Programs That Millions of Families Like Mine Have Relied On

Democrats are the opposition party, and there’s a lot to oppose: Trump’s cost-hiking trade war, cuts to critical government agencies, and of course, the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which would rip away health care from 16 million Americans, shutter nursing homes and rural hospitals, spike energy prices, and deny hungry children food assistance. 

Every single House Democrat voted against Trump’s budget bill. But as urgent and necessary as opposing Trump and Republicans’ big betrayal of a bill is, opposition is only part of our work. To truly stand up for working Americans, we need to offer them an alternative to fight for. 

To understand what I mean, it might be helpful to know a little more about me. I am the son of a single mom who had me when she was 15 years old, who was raising four kids by the time she was 20. Throughout my childhood, we were in and out of shelters, and we knew the feeling of fear that lives alongside poverty. We also saw what my mom sacrificed to make sure we could have a warm dinner most nights. My family got by because of her strength and because of the support we received from our community and our government. 

Thanks to federal programs, a kid like me got a shot at the American dream: a roof over my head, a warm meal, an education, a meaningful career, a family of my own. Though decades have passed, I haven’t forgotten where I came from — or what I am fighting for. 

This weekend, Senate Republicans will work overtime to rip health care and food assistance away from working families so billionaires can get a massive tax handout. In fact, analysis shows Trump’s budget bill is a trillion-dollar reverse Robin Hood of unprecedented proportions. If passed, this bill could represent the largest transfer of wealth from working Americans to the ultra-wealthy that this country has ever seen. Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• 16 million Americans, including young people, seniors, veterans, and the disabled, will lose health care because of Trump and Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid and changes to the Affordable Care Act;
• In fact, cuts to Medicaid would harm Americans living in Republican-represented rural communities the most. This budget could trigger over 300 rural hospitals across the U.S. to close;
• If Republicans get their way, 4.5 million Americans would go hungry;
• And during what is undeniably a cost-of-living crisis in America, energy prices for 56.7 million electric and 26 million natural gas customers would spike while factories that provide good-paying jobs close as a result of clean energy investment rollbacks.

The numbers are so daunting it’s easy for them to lose their meaning. But behind each data point is a human being — a kid, a grandfather, or a mom like mine, working around the clock to provide for her family.

We’re fighting for the army veteran from Bakersfield, California who relies on Medicaid funding to care for his son who suffers from a spinal disorder. We’re fighting for the man from Noatak, Alaska, who works three jobs to support his family and afford sky-high energy costs. We’re fighting for the great-grandmother living in the Rio Grande Valley who relies on SNAP benefits to feed her grandchildren. We’re fighting to keep 35 hospitals in rural Kentucky open so families don’t have to drive hours to receive emergency medical care. 

Democrats are fighting for real people while Republicans betray them to help the wealthiest people in the world get richer. What’s more? Republicans know they’re on the wrong side of this fight. Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Thom Tillis both lamented that their plan to steal from the working class to give to the rich might lose them majorities in the midterms.

Well, we have bipartisan agreement there. Democrats have been laser-focused on communicating the stakes of this budget fight to the American people. The DNC and Democratic state parties have hosted 130 town halls and mobilized more than 16,000 grassroots supporters across the country. Our efforts are working. The more Americans learn about this bill, the more they hate it:

• 72% of adults — including nearly half of Republicans — say they are concerned that more people will become uninsured;
• Seven in ten adults worry that hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care providers in their communities would be negatively impacted by these cuts; 
• Americans oppose Trump’s billionaire-first budget by a nearly 2-to-1 margin — and to add insult to injury, after learning about the bill’s regressive effects, Republicans even oppose it by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.

And that veteran in Bakersfield, the man in Alaska, and great-grandmother in the Rio Grande Valley aren’t just real people — they’re also real voters living in vulnerable Republican House and Senate districts. Too many people view politics as a sport — but to me, and to millions of families, this is personal. Democrats are joining arm and arm with the American people to oppose Trump and Republicans’ disastrous bill. 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Republicans are fighting for billionaires. And as Democrats empower candidates who will fight for working families in critical elections in 2025 and 2026, Republicans will have to answer for their votes against their constituents at the ballot box.  

Vulnerable congressional Republicans can either vote against this bill now, or get voted out in November.