U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, speaks with members of the media after a town meeting with students at Essex High School in Essex Junction on Thursday, January 12, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerBURLINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called President Donald Trump’s recently signed “Big Beautiful Bill” the “worst and most destructive legislation in modern history of this country,” saying it could lead to higher health care costs for Vermonters, among other issues.
At a press conference at his Church Street office on Monday, Sanders criticized H.R.1, which was signed into law July 4. The Vermont senator underlined it gives tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the country while making cuts to health care, education, food assistance programs and public media.
“Some 45,000 people in our own state are going to lose health insurance,” he said. “The cost of health insurance for the average person is going to go up. It will be devastating for hospitals, for nursing homes and for community health centers.”
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A recent report released by Sanders and based on responses from more than 750 health care providers across the U.S., estimated that the rate of uninsured people in Vermont could rise from 3.3% to 6% in a 10-year span. In other states, the effects might be even starker, with a predicted increase from 16% to 20% in Texas over the same period.
“I have very great fears that, under Trump, this country is moving toward an authoritarian society,” Sanders said. “Maybe the most dangerous is a very aggressive attack against the media in this country.”
Trump has pushed to reduce funding for public broadcasting and brought lawsuits against media outlets like ABC, The Wall Street Journal and CBS.
Sanders said he worked with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to release about $6 million for Vermont summer and after-school programs and $17 million for school districts across the state.
“We’ve had some success and are proud of that. We’re going to continue to work on that, but most of the money is still being held illegally by the administration,” he said. He did not elaborate on what laws he believed the administration was breaking by withholding the funding.
The senator said he plans to continue to work on increasing funding for community health centers to mitigate the impact of the legislation.
“In Vermont, we are paying some of the highest rates in the country for health care, and this terrible piece of legislation is going to make a bad situation worse,” Sanders said. “So, I would hope, and I’m happy to play a role in that, that we sit down with the leaders in the health care community, the state government and figure out the best that we can do.”
The bill also cut clean energy incentives and could lead to a surge in annual electricity costs per household, affecting energy efficiency and sustainability efforts. Sanders also expressed concern over multiple years of flooding in Vermont and in other states — and how it could get worse in the future.
“The idea of dismantling FEMA or cutting back is, at a time when communities are going to see more and more flooding and other types of disasters, is a terrible mistake,” he said.
The bill also provides Immigration Customs & Enforcement $45 billion to expand detention, a three-fold increase to the agency’s budget.
Sanders said Trump’s immigration strategy is “what authoritarians have always done” — target a minority and foment hatred against them. “Meanwhile, 17 million people lose their health care, kids are not going to have a decent diet because we cut back on nutrition, young people are not going to be able to go to college,” Sanders said.
In a statement to VTDigger on Monday, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., called the Republican bill “the cruelest piece of legislation I’ve seen in my career. It’s an utter moral failure.”
“I’m horrified to see the Republican party almost unanimously support propping up billionaires at the expense of their own communities,” Balint said. “But I’m not giving up hope. It’s going to take all of us fighting together to work to reverse some of the worst policies passed in this bill,” Balint wrote.
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