By Emily Singer Daily Kos Staff Senate Republicans barely got the votes on Tuesday to pass the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” Act—which could lead to roughly 17 million people losing their health insurance, cause millions more to have their food stamps yanked away, and cause energy prices to skyrocket.
Vice President JD Vance sought to get GOPers on board by saying that all of those negative things are just "immaterial" "minutiae" compared to the money the bill provides to help Republicans deport immigrants.
"The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits. The OBBB fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass," Vance wrote in a post on X. "Everything else—the [Congressional Budget Office] score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions."
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Not only is Vance's statement absurd as he claims that actively harming the poorest among us is not important, but his statement is also false.
The nonpartisan CBO has said immigrants actually help lower budget deficits.
"People are rightly noting that kicking millions off of Medicaid is not 'minutiae,' but the premise is wrong here too. Of the reasons to deport undocumented immigrants, federal fiscal health is one of the worst ones. CBO found they *lower* deficits by ~$1T over the next 10 years," Ernie Tedeschi, director of the Budget Lab at Yale, wrote in a post on X. "That’s because undocumented immigrants tend to pay taxes funding programs like Medicare & Social Security (despite the stereotype, most undocumented immigrants who work are above the table) but are often ineligible to receive benefits."
Democrats immediately pointed out the cruelty of Vance's tweet
"The 17 MILLION Americans you’re kicking off their health insurance aren’t 'minutiae,'" Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, wrote in a post on X. "Republicans are about to force the largest loss of health care in American history — and they clearly couldn’t care less about working families."
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) pointed to one of his constituents who is at risk of losing his Medicaid coverage in his response to Vance's tweet.
"Ben, a disabled 14-year-old from Chesterfield, VA, isn’t 'minutiae,'" Warner wrote. "His health insurance isn’t minutiae. His future isn’t minutiae. Medicaid matters and I am fighting to protect it."
Vance was needed to help Republicans pass the travesty of a bill with a 51-50 vote—which hurts the poor and working class in order to give tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the richest few.
Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, all either said they were voting no or had “serious reservations” about the bill.
“As I've said from the beginning, I have a lot of serious reservations about the bill,” Collins told reporters Tuesday morning. “I'm going to wait ‘til we're done, know what direction we're going in, before announcing my position.”
Republicans tried to get Murkowski on board by making a specific carveout for Alaska that would keep the state from losing its Medicaid and food stamp benefits—while screwing everyone else.
There was also talk about trying to flip Paul to a yes by lowering the debt ceiling increase from $5 trillion to $500 billion.
However, Erik Wasson of Bloomberg News reported that Senate Majority Leader John Thune was confident he had a deal to get the bill to pass, though it’s unclear what that deal entails.
As we’ve said repeatedly, never bet against Republicans caving to Dear Leader’s will.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after the Senate passed the bill on Tuesday.
