Sen. Jon Ossoff slams President Trump’s spending bill

“It guts the Medicaid program," Ossoff said. "It puts nursing homes and hospitals at risk. It will drive up health insurance premiums for working and middle-class families in Georgia."

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Today, the United States Senate passed President Donald Trump’s spending and tax cuts bill, with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie breaking vote.
After voting against the bill, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) reacted to its passage, calling the bill a “catastrophe” for healthcare access in Georgia and the state’s economy.

“It guts the Medicaid program,” Ossoff said. “It puts nursing homes and hospitals at risk. It will drive up health insurance premiums for working and middle-class families in Georgia.”

Ossoff says 70% of seniors in Georgia’s nursing homes are on Medicaid, with 40% of children across the state being covered by the program, and half of all births. Ossoff says the more than $1 trillion cuts to Medicaid will push hospitals and nursing homes to their financial brink. He adds that a reduction in manufacturing incentives in the renewable energy sector will be devastating for Georgia’s green energy industry.

“Georgia, because of the manufacturing incentives that we passed several years ago which are now being destroyed, Georgia has made out better than just about any other state in the country,” Ossoff said.  “This bill is a direct attack on the industry that is driving Georgia’s economic development, job creation and wealth creation in our state right now.” 

The bill now returns to the House of Representatives, which will vote on revisions made in the Senate. Ossoff called on Republicans in Georgia’s U.S. house delegation to stop the bill.

“There was a time when members of Congress put their state’s interests first,” Ossoff said. “If Georgia Republicans in the House support this bill, they’re putting partisan allegiance and loyalty to the president above the state of Georgia.”

Republican lawmakers are looking to finalize the package before Trump’s self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.