US Rep. Gwen Moore on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Frederica Freyberg:
The dust is settling after passage of the federal tax and spending reconciliation bill, which is now law. What stands out for its impact in Wisconsin? We turn to Democratic U.S. Representative Gwen Moore of Milwaukee for her take on what it means for people in her district. And thanks so much for being here.

Gwen Moore:
Always good to be with you, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what does stand out for its impact in your district and across Wisconsin?

Gwen Moore:
Well, I think the thing that is most outstanding in this bill is the impact that will have on health care, on the Medicaid cuts, BadgerCare, as we call it in Wisconsin, the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare cuts. And when you combine the work requirements to receive Medicaid and when you — the confluence of all those forces means that they’ll probably be something like 276,000 people in Wisconsin who will not receive any kind of health care. And when you just — just the work requirements themselves will cost 68,000 individuals with no dependents to lose health care. And so the theory of the case is that these are just lazy boys in their mama’s basements playing video games, and there’d be no harm and no foul to cut them off. Notwithstanding the fact we don’t — we believe this is not a real person. This is just a trope. We’re saying that in Wisconsin, a person who, say, has two minimum wage jobs working at fast food restaurant, they will — at minimum wage, working full time – they will make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid. So they’ll be — whether they work or not, they won’t receive Medicaid. And then there are numbers of people who are truly eligible. They have children. They’re already working. Most people who receive Medicaid are already working, but the numbers of the bureaucracy and the paperwork that they have added into the bill is really something that they have monetized. They have monetized people’s mistakes so that if you don’t re-up or come in every six months to reconfirm that you’re still disabled, or that you will find yourself off Medicaid, and then those of — you remember Frederica, Wisconsin was one of those states, I believe it was about 11 states that hadn’t taken advantage of the expansion of the Affordable Care Act. And those people will see their premiums go eight, nine times the amount that they’re currently paying. So say, for example, they were able to get a silver plan. And for the purposes of keeping the math simple of $100 a month. They might find themselves with six, seven, $800 a month. We are thinking that the food share cuts, SNAP cuts. Not only will it cost thousands, hundreds of thousands of people to be cut off food share, but it will also mean that the state itself would have to pay 75% of the administrative costs of the of the food stamp program, the SNAP program, as well as if there are — an error rates in excess of 6%, they’ll find themselves having to pay for portions of the food stamp program, which to date that burden has never been — an unfunded mandate that will be placed on not only Wisconsin, but statewide. So it is really a bad bill.

Frederica Freyberg:
People who fall off of Medicaid because of the provisions of this bill and potentially the burdensome kind of paperwork, what will they do for health care then?

Gwen Moore:
That will increase the amount of uncompensated care that hospitals have to pick up. And it also means that hospitals will have to make decisions about what kind of health care they will or will not provide. We’ve seen in the past, just recently, in our own community, maternity wards, closing. Where hospitals will decide we aren’t going to do cardiac catheterizations anymore. One of the things is, is that, you know, the president predicts that people won’t even pay any attention. They won’t even notice. Some of these provisions don’t come into effect until after the 2026 election. But that doesn’t mean that hospitals won’t have to start planning how to not deliver services now.

Frederica Freyberg:
We know that the Trump administration is apparently making good on its promise to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. And with it, as you suggested, funds that go to high poverty K-12 schools and special education. How pointedly will that be felt in Milwaukee?

Gwen Moore:
Oh my God. I mean, you know, when you think about their raison d’etre that there’s waste, fraud and abuse? I mean that — to cut education is like cutting the lifeline of a community. When you think about preparing the future workforce, I can see it causing employers to flee the state. These Republicans have demonstrated a real distaste for education. I mean, and every, everything from K-12 to higher education, where they’re, you know, conditioning Pell Grants in a way that’s never been done before. Cutting off those — the ability for parents to borrow money to send their kids to college. It is like a really big mistake that’s going to put not only Milwaukee, but the nation behind.

Frederica Freyberg:
You’ve said that there “is truly no bottom to this bill’s cruelty,” but what can you and other opponents do about it?

Gwen Moore:
Well, you know, Frederica, I, you know, I, I, you know, I did, I did not have a good 4th of July. I was very, very upset. But you know what? It ain’t over until it’s over. I think now, as we go through this process, we are going to continue to talk about it. We’re going to continue to try to win the midterm elections, win the hearts and souls and minds of people. I know I’ve talked to several people who confess to me that they voted for Donald Trump, but they had no idea that that he was going to do the kinds of things that he has done to them, because indeed, the president’s base needs Medicaid almost more than anybody. The president’s base needs SNAP. And they certainly need educational opportunities. They’re not, you know, and I think that many people who sort of thought that he was going to focus on throwing out violent criminals who were immigrants and they were going to get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse. And of course, nobody wants waste, fraud and abuse. But no one knew that, that all these cuts were just going to result into a big bonanza. You know, $4.5 trillion for wealthy people who don’t really need it. While there are debates about whether or not we should serve breakfast and lunch to school children. Nobody knew that that was a tradeoff.

Frederica Freyberg:
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, thanks very much for joining us.

Gwen Moore:
Thank you. You be well, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:
Thank you.
Next week we speak with First District Republican U.S. Representative Bryan Steil.