Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer laid out his plan to try to stop Republicans' destructive "One Big Beautiful Bill" from passing—and said voters will play a big role in that effort.
In a letter to Senate Democrats on Sunday, Schumer said that aside from procedural efforts their party will use in Congress to try to dismantle parts of the legislation, Democrats must recruit Americans to call their GOP legislators and mobilize demonstrations in order to scare Republicans out of voting for the disastrous bill, which would rip Medicaid and food stamps from millions of people while implementing massive tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the rich.
"Public sentiment is everything," Schumer wrote. "To my core, I know that if the American people truly knew how deeply devastating, damaging, and deceitful this Republican plan is, they will reject it. So we must continue to rally the American people in the shared fight to stop this radical agenda."
Schumer laid out what Senate Democrats are doing to mobilize Americans to fight back against what would be Trump’s signature legislative accomplishment, which Schumer described as “one of the most destructive and shamelessly self-serving pieces of legislation in modern American history.”
President Donald Trump
“Our caucus has done in-state events, held numerous Spotlight hearings, engaged earned and social media to push back, taken to the Senate floor, held rallies, and more to educate the American people on what’s happening and to call out Donald Trump and the Republicans’ radical agenda,” Schumer wrote. “Their extreme vision is a threat to our democracy, and we’re not backing down. We’re doubling down—and we’re just getting started.”
Schumer—who has faced backlash from the Democratic base for not sufficiently standing up to Trump—also said Senate Democrats will seek to get the Senate parliamentarian to throw out provisions of the legislation that violate the budget reconciliation rules, which allow for changes to only so-called mandatory spending. (That sort of spending includes Medicaid, Medicare, federal retirement plans, food stamps, and farm programs.)
“In the Senate, our Committees have been working overtime to prepare for the Byrd Bath, targeting the litany of policies included in the Republican plan that are in clear violation of the reconciliation rules and in some cases, an assault on our very democracy,” Schumer wrote, referring to a process named after the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd in which Senators can challenge provisions in budget reconciliation bills that they believe do not stick to the reconciliation rules.
“For example, House Republicans snuck in a devious policy to restrict the authority of federal courts to hold government officials in contempt when they violate court orders,” Schumer continued. “Republican’s naked subservience to a lawless President is gravely dangerous and Senate Democrats won’t stand for it. Should Senate Republicans include this rotten provision, I vow, alongside all of you, to fight tooth and nail to strike this authoritarian attack on our system of justice.”
However, given that Democrats do not have a majority in either chamber of Congress, they need voters to scare Republicans out of voting for the bill by showing just how much of a backlash the party would face in the 2026 midterm elections.
Public sentiment was critical to killing the GOP’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act during Trump's first term.
In 2017, Democrats and Democratic-aligned groups held rallies and protests across the country to urge Republicans not to repeal the ACA, which would have led to tens of millions of Americans losing their health insurance. Those protests ultimately led the late Sen. John McCain to join two other Republicans in voting against the repeal effort, killing it and saving millions of people from becoming uninsured.
The House GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” would have similarly disastrous consequences for Americans should it pass. Independent analysis shows it would lead to nearly 14 million people losing their health insurance, such as by having their Medicaid coverage stripped away or losing subsidies to afford ACA plans.
Voters seem to understand that. They’re showing up to Republican lawmakers’ town halls following the House passing the bill before the Memorial Day holiday, to scold their representatives for voting for the legislation.
And Republicans' responses at these town halls could haunt them in next year’s midterm elections.
For example, responding to a constituent’s fears that people would die from being kicked off their Medicaid coverage, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa condescendingly said, “We all are going to die” someday.
As backlash to her cruel comment mounted, Ernst then made a horrendous response.
“I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth,” Ernst said in a selfie video she filmed in what appears to be a graveyard. “So I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”
If that’s the message Republicans are going to run on next November, then the GOP is in deep, deep doo-doo.
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