Unidentified speaker cites CBO saying tax-health bill would cut Medicaid, Medicare and leave about 14 million without coverage

An unidentified speaker, listed in the transcript as "Speaker," warned that a large tax-and-health bill would ‘‘truly hurt working Americans’’ and cited new Congressional Budget Office findings that the measure would sharply reduce health coverage.

The speaker said CBO projections show the bill combines what they called the largest cut to Medicaid in American history with major reductions to the Affordable Care Act and a reduction in Medicare of "over $500,000,000,000," asserting those effects would lead to roughly 14,000,000 people losing health insurance. "This big bill for billionaires will truly hurt working Americans," the speaker said.

The speaker also highlighted distributional numbers the CBO released that evening, saying the bottom 10% of Americans would be made worse off while the top 1% would receive the largest benefits. They framed the package as a way to subsidize tax cuts "that mostly go to the top 1%."

Beyond health programs, the speaker listed other cuts in the bill, saying it contains "the largest cuts to nutrition assistance and food programs in American history" as well as reductions to education programs. They argued that even with those program cuts, the package "doesn't come close to paying for the cost of the tax cuts," and said the remainder would be added to the national debt.

As fiscal context, the speaker noted that Moody’s had delivered a credit downgrade the previous Friday and used that development to underscore the bill’s potential fiscal risk. Closing the remarks, they urged colleagues to reject the measure and yielded back.

No formal motion or vote appears in the transcript; the remarks are a floor-style statement urging rejection of the proposal.