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Late last month, House Republicans passed what they call their “big, beautiful bill,” and it is now in the hands of Senate Republicans. There’s nothing beautiful about a bill that slashes health care, increases hunger, and lowers the income of every American earning less than $51,000 per year.

In many communities, the impact will be disastrous, so it should be clear to everyone by now that hard-working Americans aren’t the priority for congressional Republicans. Their priority, which is the centerpiece of this bill, has been to ensure that billionaires reap big tax break benefits.

Republicans maintain that if they had not acted, taxes would have increased next year when the Trump tax cuts of 2017 are set to expire. That’s true, though it’s important to note that 70% of Trump’s tax law benefited the wealthy, meaning it is disproportionally the wealthy who would see their taxes increase.

But when they claim that the cuts they are making to the bill won’t cut services, and will only eliminate “fraud, waste, and abuse,” they are lying, and they know it.

To be clear: Democrats support extending tax cuts for hard-working Americans, and we are happy to work with them on those extensions, but we oppose big tax breaks for billionaires. And while we are all-in on eliminating any fraud, waste, and abuse, this bill and the cuts already implemented by the Trump White House have nothing to do with waste, fraud or abuse.

This bill Republicans are so proud of represents the biggest cuts to health care and nutrition programs in American history — all to provide the biggest tax breaks in American history that predominantly go to the wealthy. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, at least 16 million Americans will lose their health care, potentially including 131,397 El Pasoans on Medicaid. In fact, 97,903 children under the age of 19 will lose their health care and 28,000 seniors over 65 in our community will be impacted as well.

These cuts don’t just harm the seniors, children, and Americans with disabilities who rely on Medicaid. These cuts will hit hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes that rely on that same funding, plus their employees and the small businesses that rely on contracts with these health care providers.

Republicans also claim that their cuts target undocumented immigrants on Medicaid and that the Medicaid work requirements will ensure that lazy Americans don’t sit at home getting free health care.

Here are the facts: undocumented immigrants are not allowed to enroll in the federal Medicaid program, and Republicans have not provided examples of this alleged abuse. Furthermore, 90% of Americans who receive Medicaid benefits already work; those who do not work include Americans with disabilities who cannot do so.

Republicans know full well that “work requirements” essentially amount to paperwork requirements. In states where these paperwork requirements were implemented, recipients weren’t fully informed of the new rules, which included re-enrolling monthly, having to complete the process online (not everyone in America has WiFi or a computer) and other obstacles that led to Americans losing their coverage. Not because they weren’t working, not because they didn’t want to follow the rules, but because the rules weren’t made known or were too onerous. It’s a way to knowingly attempt to kick people off their health care.

Republicans are also slashing $300 billion in funding for SNAP, a nutrition program that addresses food insecurity and which would affect 152,000 El Pasoans. I have yet to hear the justification from Republicans for these cuts — which, combined with the cuts to health care and nutrition programs alone represent $1.1 trillion and are being made only for the purposes of paying for the massive tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

There are some good pieces of this bill, provisions Democrats support — like a modest increase to the child tax credit and eliminating tax on tips. We have long fought for the child tax credit, and many of us (myself included) are supporting a bill that would eliminate taxes on tips. However, these tax breaks in the Republicans’ bill expire in two years; meanwhile they made the tax breaks for billionaires permanent. This bill gives temporary crumbs to working families and ensures abundance for the top 1%.

And in an act of incredible fiscal malpractice, Republicans are blowing up our national debt, adding as much as $2.4 trillion to it.

President Trump and congressional Republicans cannot say they are about ridding the budget of waste, fraud or abuse when they are growing the deficit this way. And while they claim there’s no money for health care, it seems there’s plenty of taxpayer money for their misplaced priorities, like spending $45 million on an authoritarian-like military parade to honor Trump’s birthday, and at least $400 million to refurbish a Qatari luxury jet that the president gets to keep once he’s out of office.

Their budget will hurt Americans who are not wealthy. Economists from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan scorekeeper, released their analysis of the tax benefits of the Republican bill. If you belong to the top 0.1 percent, you’ll love this bill because you’ll see your after-tax income increase by an average of more than $389,000 starting next year.

But if you are making less than $51,000, you will lose out and see your after-tax income decline by about $1,600. In El Paso, 43% of our neighbors and loved ones earn less than $51,000, according to U.S. Census data — they will have less money in their pocket because of the Republican budget plain and simple.

While most Republicans are being dishonest with the American people about the costs and cuts associated with their bill, there are a few Republicans who are telling you the truth. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has very clearly stated that this bill cuts Medicaid benefits and describes other changes as a hidden tax on the working poor who are buying health care coverage.

Health care has always been a priority for me. As county judge, I worked to significantly increase access to El Pasoans’ health care through University Medical Center — its programs and the clinics we built around town, and El Paso Children’s Hospital. I knew that these health care assets wouldn’t just provide world-class care to El Pasoans, but they would also help us create jobs. And they did. In fact, over that time, the investments we made helped make health care one of our top industries, grew jobs and resulted in significant wage increases in that sector for our community.

This Republican bill puts all of that and more at risk. There’s still time to kill this bill — we just need four U.S. senators willing to stop this historic transfer of wealth from the working class to the wealthy and protect your health care.

Please make your voices heard. If this bill fails, Democrats stand ready to work across the aisle for a tax cut bill that cuts your taxes, protects your health care and America’s nutrition programs, and ensures the wealthy pay their fair share.

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