FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 31, 2025
CONTACT: Unai Montes, press@peoplesaction.org, 202-660-0605 (bilingual)
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal Join National Power-Building Networks To Unite Communities Facing Devastating Federal Cuts in Multilingual Online Event
Watch the Recording: ppls.ac/fightforward
Washington, D.C. – In response to deep cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, food assistance, housing and education, national power-building networks building an Organizing Revival, representing more than 500 grassroots, power building organizations, community-based groups, unions and labor locals, and millions of people across the country, held a massive a multilingual online organizing call on July 30, to provide Americans with a toolkit in English and Spanish, and other resources to take effective action during the Congressional August Recess period, and challenge the Trump regime through Labor Day and beyond.
“Soon, every one of us will know a family torn apart, a hospital or nursing home closed, a loved one who is hungry, or is forced onto the street. We fight forward for everyone who will be hurt by the deep cuts to health, housing, and education to fund tax breaks for billionaires and mass deportations,” said People’s Action Institute Executive Director Sulma Arias.
“We all know these things are wrong. Even the lawmakers who just voted for them know they’re wrong. Ever since Trump announced his Big Betrayal Budget, everyone harmed by these cuts has worked together as never before. Our national power-building networks are building an organizing revival. Our movement for social change is ready,” Arias added.
“This bill hands out over $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1 percent, and 900 billion in tax breaks for large corporations. This is morally obscene. We should not be taking away health care from low income children so that billionaires can get another tax break. The American people overwhelmingly reject these massive cuts to Medicaid, and to the Affordable Care Act, and to nutrition, and education. All of which is in this terrible bill,” said U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“60 years ago our government made enormous progress in providing and guaranteeing health care to seniors and lower income Americans through the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Our goal as a nation should be not to cut these programs, but to guarantee health care for all Americans. Now is the time to finish the job. Now is the time to pass Medicare for All.” Sanders added.
“Everyone deserves to earn a living wage working one job instead of three. You deserve affordable childcare and education for your kids without mountains of debt. You deserve comprehensive health care from the day you’re born to the day you die. You deserve a planet that is living and breathing for generations to come. You deserve a retirement with security and dignity. And don’t let anyone tell you that we cannot afford it. America has never suffered from scarcity. We suffer from greed. If giant corporations and greedy billionaires just paid their fair share in taxes there’d be plenty to go around to make sure every American can thrive, not just survive,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).
“We’re not going to let them allow us to blame each other for their cruelty. Because it’s not trans kids or immigrants who are raising your rent and cutting your wages, it’s the billionaires and the mega corporations. Strength emerges in times of crisis. Our intersectional movement, our coordinated resistance, our love, our power will eclipse their cruelty,” Jayapal added.
“The current administration and their billionaire buddies want to destroy all forms of public good and crush working class people. They hope we will become paralyzed, fighting just to save protections we’ve already won, too overwhelmed to also move forward. But our movement doesn’t step back – We step up!” said National Nurses United Assistant Director of Campaigns Jasmine Ruddy.
“In 1965, when Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law, this country was at the height of the civil rights movement. The Selma march and the brutal attacks of Bloody Sunday happened that same year.
It’s not easy to keep pushing when it feels like every battle is happening at once. It takes courage and unbreakable solidarity. But everyday people have always found ways to advance all forms of justice. In 2025, we refuse to tolerate billionaires profiting from the suffering of working people. If we know that the system can fail people even in the best of times. Then we know that when we find ourselves in the worst of times – as we do under this increasingly authoritarian regime – that it’s time to fight harder!” Ruddy added.
“Engaging in civil disobedience at our Congressman Jeff Hurd’s office was transformational – helping us connect the dots between what is happening in Congress and the day-to-day struggles we face in our lives here in Colorado. Our congressional district spans 27 counties in southern and western Colorado. We united these rural communities to tell our representative, loud and clear, that Medicaid saves lives – our lives. Medicaid cuts kill. We’re holding our representative to account,” said Center for Health Progress Co-Executive Director Theresa Trujillo.
“Medicaid Expansion in Missouri was the result of many long hard fights. Legislators were consistently told that not passing Medicaid Expansion would result in hospital closures. Yet, they refused to fund Medicaid even after the citizens’ initiative passed. Since 2014, a total of 21 hospitals have closed in Missouri, with 12 of those closures occurring in rural counties. Senator Josh Hawley gave his word he’d protect Medicaid. Yet, he voted to gut Medicaid. Now, more than a dozen other rural hospitals are reportedly at risk of closure. Hawley must be held accountable,” said Missouri Faith Voices/Faith In Action Leader W.T. Edmonson.
“We had a Medicaid rally in a heatwave in front of Congressman Jefferson Van Drew’s office. To say someone in the grip of substance use can ‘just go to work’ is not only ignorant – it’s dangerous. It shows a complete misunderstanding of the very crisis taking lives every day in this country. When this bill takes effect, make no mistake: Within 2 years, overdose deaths will rise. People will die waiting for care.
People will be denied a chance at recovery. And families will be left grieving – again. This fight is different,” said New Jersey Resource Project Lead Organizer Elissa Tierney.
“Let’s be clear: this law enacts the most severe health care cuts in modern U.S. history. Millions will lose coverage – not because their needs have disappeared, but because the President and Republicans in Congress chose to cut them out. The result? Closed hospitals that hinder access to care. Skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket costs for everyone – including those who still have insurance. And more medical debt,” said Community Catalyst Senior Director of Policy and Strategy Mona Shah.
“These outcomes aren’t inevitable – they’re political choices that put profits over people and threaten our health and economic security. But people understand the stakes. We’re not backing down. We’re organizing with hundreds of partners nationwide to build lasting power, expose corporate greed, and create a system where health is a right – not a privilege bought and sold,” Shah added.
“At just 9 years old, I was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and doctors didn’t expect me to live past 25. My grandmother, raising me on a hairdresser’s salary, couldn’t afford the care I needed – but Medicaid made it possible. I’m 58 today, a community leader, and living proof that Medicaid truly saves lives. I wouldn’t be here without it,” said Progressive Maryland Member Crystal Jackson Parker.
“I was just 18 years old, right out of high school, when I began providing homecare for my older sister Valerie. She has bipolar schizophrenia, asthma, memory loss and she depends on daily medication that she simply cannot afford on her fixed income. Without Medicaid, she would be left without the care, the medicine, and the support that keeps her alive and stable. I don’t understand why we keep letting the wealthy take more while people like my sister fight just to survive. We need a government that puts people first,” said National Domestic Workers Alliance Georgia Chapter Member Kingia Randall.
“In East Baton Rouge Parish, 90,000 households struggle to afford the bare minimum. In Louisiana overall, one in two households are barely making it. More than 76% of my income goes straight to rent, utilities, and my car note. I receive just over $500 a month in food stamps for a family of four. That money is gone in less than two weeks. There’s no cushion, no margin. Just me, stretching every resource to care for my children and keep us afloat. So when they passed this ‘One Big Betrayal of a Bill,’ it was a gut punch. It told families like mine that our survival is negotiable. But I’m not just raising children! I’m raising awareness, and I’m raising hell when I have to. Because silence doesn’t feed our families, and respectability never paid the bills,” said Institute LA/Community Change Member Tia Fields.
“I’m raising a mixed-status family here in Tennessee, where new laws are bringing fear into our homes. Congress has funneled unprecedented billions of dollars to ICE and Border Patrol, fueling aggressive raids, surveillance, and the detention of immigrant families. This is not about safety, it’s about control. It’s about criminalizing our existence and destroying our communities. But we’re fighting back. We’re turning fear into power. We’re protecting our families, our freedoms, and our future,” said MICAH Memphis/Gamaliel Member Daisy Angeles.
“Everyone has seen the ICE raids conducted by armed and masked federal agents with no accountability for their abusive actions. With the anti-immigrant policies in the Big Betrayal Bill, and the massive increase in funding for ICE, we will see these attacks escalate around the country. Individuals affected have been here 10, 20, or even 30 years. People in L.A. and across California have come together to defend our neighbors and loved ones. We need this all across the country. And for our elected leaders – in Congress, in states, and cities – to stand up, to protect our families, and to fight for our communities with everything they’ve got,” said CHIRLA Deputy Director of Policy Marisol Hernandez.
“These aren’t just cuts to healthcare, food assistance, student loans, and renewable energy investments, this Big Betrayal deal is a tradeoff for billions of dollars towards an economy of death. Our communities want to build schools and hospitals, not Alligator Alcatraz or Cop Cities. A budget is a moral document, and this regime is putting corporate profits and violence, above care and resilience for our people and the planet. We cannot relent. It is up to us to make sure that this generation and the next one has a fighting chance. By building coalition together and mobilizing to defend our vision of a caring economy, we can turn this tide,” said Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Executive Director Cindy Wiesner.
“Let’s get real: this budget is a straight-up robbery. Corporations, from tech giants to landlords who hike up our rents and refuse to fix unliveable conditions, rake in profits at the expense of working people. This bill is also an investment in authoritarianism here and abroad. It funnels billions to support Israel’s military genocide of the Palestinian people – bankrolling mass violence and apartheid with our tax dollars. We cannot, and will not, stand by while this happens. With renters and immigrants, with poor and working-class people, across race and place – we are the majority. And when we rise up, organize, and refuse to be silent, no billionaire can buy that kind of power,” said United for a New Economy Executive Director and Right to The City Board Member Carmen Medrano.
“Who’s pushing these cruel policies? Greedy billionaires, who want cuts to services, so they can keep more for themselves. And, it’s not just Trump or Elon Musk we have to worry about. Joe Lonsdale got rich off of surveillance: he cofounded Palantir, a software company ICE uses to deport people. He also invests in private prisons and owns Promise – a company that monitors people when they are released from jail. And he founded the Cicero Institute, a right wing think-tank that has introduced over 320 bills criminalizing unhoused people, nearly 220 of which have passed. Just last week, President Trump issued an Executive Order to make not having a home a crime, everywhere in the country. They’re starting with unhoused people, immigrants, and trans people, but they’re coming for us all. We must fight back against the billionaire agenda on a local, state, and federal level. We must demand housing, services and care,” said Co-Director of VOCAL-TX Paulette Soltani.
“This bill rolls out the red carpet for billionaires and drowns working families in red tape,” said Economic Security Project Senior Director of Campaigns Anna Aurilio.
“People are going to lose healthcare, food, and cash just so the wealthiest people in the country can get a tax cut they don’t need. It’s devastating, but it won’t stop the activists, organizers, faith leaders, families, and working folks who convened today from fighting for an economy that truly works for everyone,” Aurillo added.
“While the task at hand feels at times daunting, together, whether it’s through bold actions, like being willing to face arrest, or in quiet non compliance, we all must move – and we can win,” said Popular Democracy Co-Chief of Campaigns Jen Flynn Walker.
“Billionaires want to trade our democracy away in an effort to thwart accountability to the people. Authoritarians follow suit because an informed and active citizenry is the foe of every oligarch and corrupt authoritarian. They happily trade our freedom as ransom. We see the assault on due process, equal protection and birthright citizenship as inextricably linked to the active dissolution of safety nets like Medicaid, HUD, the Department of Education and more. Our ideological opponents built the world they desired, and we changed it through struggles. That’s why we must continue to organize and strive to shape a narrative in which all of us are born free; to continue this fight at every level; to deepen our relationships with the incredible organizations working hard in our backyard. Each one of us can help each one, teach one at this critical juncture of our nation’s history,” Walker added.
“Our Organizing Revival is a long arc bent toward justice that will not snap under the weight of authoritarianism. We are the Antidote to Authoritarianism. We are the Architects of a New America, We are all G-d’s Children worthy of respect, dignity and decency. We refuse to let hope die on our watch. We will work in solidarity as we build a bigger movement to wrestle back control of this country. Stay loud. Stay loving. Stay unstoppable,” said Faith in Action Executive Director Bishop Dwayne Royster.
“When people cry out in pain, the divine responds and accompanies us. What our faith traditions affirm is the agency of all people, and the power of our organizing,” said Kairos Center Founder and Executive Director Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis.