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The bad decisions of the last six months are beginning to show up in the economic data.
Yesterday, the Joint Money Committees convened in Richmond to hear testimony from the Governor and the Secretary of Finance [[link removed]] , followed by a meeting of the Emergency Committee on the Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions [[link removed]] .
Over more than six hours of hearings, the data showed that Virginia's alarm bells are ringing because of President Trump's tariffs and his 'Big, Beautiful Bill'.
Inflation [[link removed]] is at its highest point in three years, unemployment [[link removed]] is rising in Virginia faster than anywhere in the country, and the most troubling indicator is that the Governor and his administration have no plan to respond, claiming a 'Rainy day fund' less than $5 billion will protect Virginia from many billions of dollars in lost economic activity and tax revenue.
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My office receives numerous inquiries about the contents of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill', H.R. 1, and what it means for Virginians. Here are some of the top questions we get about H.R. 1:
QUESTION : Does H.R. 1 pay for tax cuts for billionaires?
Real Answer: Yes. According to the Tax Policy Center [[link removed]] , 60% of the tax benefits in the bill go to the wealthiest 20% of taxpayers. The bill expanded programs like the qualified small business stock exclusion for startup investors, 75% of the benefits of which go to millionaires. The changes marketed as benefiting working class Americans such as “no tax on tips” and “no tax on overtime” would provide minimal benefits, and no benefit to the majority of service industry workers who already don’t owe federal income tax. To offset these tax cuts, Republicans made cuts to a variety of programs Virginia relies on, with the biggest cuts in Medicaid.
QUESTION : Will tens of millions of people lose Medicaid?
Real Answer: Yes, and many more will lose insurance coverage they purchased through the Affordable Care Act. The nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts come mostly from reduced enrollment due to 'Community Engagement and Work Requirements' - in other words, people losing insurance because there are too many hoops to jump through to keep it. If Medicaid recipients somehow beat the odds and complete all the paperwork and other requirements that are created, no savings materialize, and this bill’s colossal debt impact increases from $5 to $6 trillion. This market disruption will raise premiums across the board - and unless Republican majorities in Congress act to extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies we will have massive premium increases and an estimated 60 to 100,000 Virginians [[link removed]] losing insurance coverage. According to the Director of Virginia's Medicaid program, Virginia would need to raise taxes by at least $250 million per year to replace these ACA subsidies.
QUESTION : Will hospitals close as a result of this bill becoming law?
Real Answer: Yes. This bill recklessly slashes healthcare funding, including measures that fund rural hospitals like the Medicaid Provider Tax. In an effort to quell the panic legislators from rural states are hearing from their health systems, this bill sets up a Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion slush fund that will be used to try to prevent catastrophe in states where one of President Trump’s allies might be at risk of losing an election if the healthcare system collapses. Yesterday, the Director of Virginia's Medicaid program said Virginia hospitals stand to lose about $14 billion from reductions in Medicaid - and the 'Rural Health Transformation Program' will bring in a comparatively meager $100 million to try to keep vulnerable facilities from going out of business.
QUESTION : Does the bill harm our national security?
Real Answer: Yes. Trump has targeted the CIA, FBI, and Department of Justice with some of the most devastating job cuts to career professionals because he doesn't trust his own government - and this has disproportionately harmed the Northern Virginia economy . Despite massive job cuts, the bill doesn't make significant cuts to defense spending despite bipartisan agreement that this is the most bloated part of the budget. The bill also guts services veterans disproportionately rely on including Medicaid and SNAP - changes to federal SNAP requirements will increase the cost of Virginia's current program by $360 million before we even begin to replace lost federal funding.
QUESTION : Does the One Big Beautiful Bill increase the deficit?
Real Answer: Yes. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill increases the deficit by $3.4 trillion over ten years. The White House’s own propaganda [[link removed]] acknowledges that under the bill “Primary deficits flip to surpluses by 2034”, because in 2034 the middle class tax cuts that were extended by this act will expire, while the upper class tax cuts will not. With the dramatic reduction in services and funds delivered from the federal government, Virginia has tough choices to make about how to use our own resources.
QUESTION : Does this bill harm our cultural, artistic, and scientific institutions?
Real Answer: Yes. This bill, the more recent budget rescissions package, and Trump administration policy generally have been devastating for our cultural and artistic institutions such as PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. These institutions fund a variety of artistic cultural programs that appear under different names, which will slowly disappear from our communities as they run out of funds. The damage done to the National Institutes of Health, CDC, and other crown jewels of public health and medical research in the United States are exemplified by Secretary of Health RFK Jr's decision to cancel all research into the vaccine technology that delivered the COVID-19 vaccines in record time. Not only does this harm our response to future pandemics, it drives valuable scientific and medical research to competing nations in Europe and Asia.
Trump's budget, his tariffs, and the flawed reasoning behind the Republican economic policy are leading to a weakening dollar and increasing treasury bond yields as investors across the world lose confidence in us, entrepreneurs and scientists seek more stable markets overseas, and American families are left holding the bag, paying higher taxes and receiving fewer services to offset tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.
Virginia Democrats are already responding, with improvements in the works to unemployment insurance, landlord/tenant law, healthcare and medical debt, and anything else we can think of to protect the people of the Commonwealth from the harm being done at the federal level.
Virginia has critical elections in less than 100 days - can you make a contribution now to support our campaign to win the majorities we need to fight Trump's power grabs?
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The Democratic Party is down after last year's critical election losses, but we are not out - and Virginia Democrats will never stop standing up to defend our communities and to build a better Virginia. Now more than ever, we can't stand by and let the progress we have made get rolled back. Now is the time to fight back!
Onward to Victory!!!
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Senator Saddam Azlan Salim
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Office of Senator Salim
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Merrifield, VA 22116-0249
United States
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