URGENT: House passes bill out of committee, goes to floor for vote as early as Wed. 5/21
UPDATE 05/18/2025: Per Alt. National Parks Service:
Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t just about tax cuts it quietly guts federal protections and reshapes entire agencies. Here’s what’s buried inside:
Closure of the U.S. Department of Education
25% expansion of logging in national forests, bypassing environmental reviews and fast-tracking timber production
Rollbacks on clean energy incentives, cutting tax credits for EVs and renewables, gutting key climate provisions
More public lands opened up for drilling, mining, and logging, with royalty breaks for fossil fuel companies
Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, ending U.S. participation in global climate efforts
Executive Order 14215, forcing independent federal agencies to follow White House legal interpretations and centralizing authority under the presidency
Pension changes for federal workers hired before 2014, cutting take-home pay by raising required contributions, reducing future payouts, and eliminating early retirement supplements
REINS Act-style regulation repeal, where major federal rules expire unless Congress re-approves them every 5 years allowing Trump to quietly erase protections without rewriting laws
Expanded executive control over agency budgets, allowing the White House to move federal funds internally without explicit congressional approval
Restoration of impoundment powers, giving Trump the ability to block or delay spending already passed by Congress reviving powers stripped after Watergate
Creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), placing White House–aligned teams inside every federal agency with access to internal systems and influence over hiring and daily operations
Sharp cuts in regulatory enforcement, with agencies like the EPA, CFPB, and Labor and Transportation Departments halting enforcement of key safety, environmental, and anti-discrimination rules
Trump’s personal control over economic policy, strengthening his power to direct tariffs, pressure private companies, and dictate pricing with little resistance treating the U.S. economy like his own business
This bill isn’t just “big.” It’s a roadmap for dismantling oversight, hollowing out federal protections, and handing Trump sweeping, unchecked control. Read the fine print.
House proposes sweeping cuts to social services to fund tax cuts to the 1%
05/13/2025: As you've probably heard, on Sunday night Mike Johnson and the Republicans in the House of Representatives announced their plan for the "BIG, BEAUTIFUL" budget, and it's just as bad as we said it would be, with deep cuts to social services like Medicaid and SNAP, and tax breaks that only truly benefit the wealthy. They are working frantically in committee starting this week and have committed to voting before Memorial Day, so the time to act is NOW.
A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million, and 3.9 million will go uninsured. States would have to reduce payments to health care providers, curb benefits like home- and community-based services, and/or reduce enrollment. Hospitals and clinics will close. Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in CA) covers 44% of the children in our district, and half the children in CA. And there's a domino effect on other seemingly unrelated services; for instance, some suggest that states might seek savings in K-12 education to make up for the loss of federal dollars.
SNAP (known in CA as Cal-Fresh) is widely recognized as one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the U.S. In our district, 1 out of every 10 children under 18 are living in poverty. But House Republicans have decided to cut the SNAP benefits that 42 million Americans rely on to put food on the table. SNAP serves 15,000 households in our district. 35% of those households have children, 54% have a senior, and 52% have a person with a disability. And all of them will go hungry if House Republicans get their way.
Trump says his tax cuts are for everyone, but the reality is the greatest benefit goes to his billionaire friends and the wealthiest 1% - those making $1 million or more a year. On average, they'll get back $78,717 per year. That's more money than 1/4 of households in our district make each year in income.
And essentially half the tax cuts go to the top 5% of households! That isn't fair! It isn't right!
The average tax break for someone making under $50,000 would be just $273; that's not even enough to feed a family of 4 for a week! Almost 20% of the households in our district - about 186,000 people - make under $50,000 per year. And the proposed cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will drastically affect our poorest neighbors; on balance, even after their tiny tax break, they will be far worse off than they are now.
Young Kim has said "Balancing the federal budget must not come at the expense of those who depend on these benefits for their health and economic security" in a letter to Mike Johnson signed by 11 other House Republicans - including David Valadao of CA-22 but NOT Ken Calvert in neighboring district 41.
But the letter also states "We support targeted reforms to improve program integrity, reduce improper payments, and modernize delivery systems to fix flaws in the program that divert resources away from children, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and pregnant women – those who the program was intended to help." This is just a game of semantics! You can see they are leaving themselves an out for cuts for working families, the working poor, and the unemployed. Those are our neighbors and they need healthcare, too!
Finally, even those among us who aren’t directly affected will feel the financial pain of these cuts. Uninsured people cost the system money when they do need health services, and those costs are passed on to the rest of us. Sick and hungry working-class people can’t get to work to do essential jobs, which means restaurants, stores, and service companies will be understaffed - and that makes prices go up. And if their funds are cut, the working class cannot contribute to the economy, so spending slows. Small business owners will suffer as their costs increase and their revenues go down. Bottom line - this budget sucks for everyone.
We know Young Kim is feeling the pressure, but we need to keep it up and push even harder for the sake of the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people in our community who will no longer have access to healthcare if this budget passes. They are rushing it through public comment and committee this week, hoping to vote it through before Memorial Day. We can't let that happen!
Please FLOOD THE PHONES with your calls starting today. Be specific so they can't pretend they don't understood: "No cuts to Medicaid. Period." Call the House switchboard: 202-224-3121 or use the 5 Calls app.
Young Kim's offices (call them all): https://youngkim.house.gov/contact/
DC - 202-225-4111
Anaheim Hills - 714-984-2440
Mission Viejo - 949-268-6706
Call or text your neighbors, reach out via email or social media, go knock on their doors. We need everyone in this fight!
Sources:
https://www.factcheck.org/2025/03/both-sides-spin-who-would-benefit-from-extending-trump-tax-cuts/
https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-cuts-trump-tax-cuts-bill-1e2b12a91a3d12ceb0420ce7053de58e
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5297278-house-republicans-agriculture-snap/
https://www.kidsdata.org/region/2052/congressional-district-40/summary#37/family-economics
https://censusreporter.org/profiles/50000US0640-congressional-district-40-ca/
https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/how-much-should-i-spend-on-food/