Many say Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ will devastate Oaklanders. But what does Barbara Lee think?    

Final week, on the Fourth of July, President Donald Trump signed into law an enormous piece of laws to increase tax cuts and intestine social companies throughout the nation. Native officers, from Congresswoman Lateefah Simon to Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, instantly blasted the invoice for its probably “devastating” and “catastrophic” impacts.

One distinguished progressive voice is lacking from the refrain: Mayor Barbara Lee. 

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” comprises $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and provides $350 billion for protection and border safety. The Congressional Finances Workplace has projected that it’s going to enhance the nationwide deficit by trillions of dollars. 

The laws additionally makes deep cuts to the social companies that America’s most susceptible communities depend on. These cuts embrace nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, which covers healthcare for low-income folks, together with over half one million folks in Alameda County. 

It additionally slashes funding for meals stamps — the Supplemental Diet Help Program — and different meals help companies. About 10% of county residents depend upon CalFresh, the state’s SNAP program, to feed their households. And the laws cuts off all Medicaid disbursements to Planned Parenthood, which may lead to layoffs and clinic closures in California, together with Alameda County, based on a consultant for the group. (A federal choose temporarily blocked the Deliberate Parenthood cuts on Monday.)

Whereas Oakland residents gained’t really feel most impacts of the invoice instantly — a few of its provisions are set to go into effect after subsequent yr’s midterm elections — elected officers and advocates are bracing for ache, with hundreds of residents poised to lose entry to healthcare, meals stamps, and different essential companies. 

A few of Oakland’s elected officers attacked the invoice inside minutes of Congress approving it. Assemblymember Mia Bonta referred to as the invoice “devastating.” Bas condemned it as a “ethical failure.” Simon promised her constituents she would discover methods to struggle again in opposition to the administration.  

Notably absent was Mayor Lee. The previous member of Congress, who leaned on her expertise bringing federal assets to Oakland throughout the mayoral marketing campaign, has but to make a public assertion practically per week after Congress authorized the invoice. Nor has she responded to queries concerning the invoice from The Oaklandside.

Largest hits in Alameda County will probably be to Medicaid and SNAP

Trump’s spending invoice makes a number of vital adjustments to Medicaid that the Congressional Finances Workplace estimates will enhance the variety of uninsured Individuals by 11.8 million. It’ll cut back federal income that flows into this system and introduce hurdles that may make it tougher for folks to turn into eligible for help, from work necessities to frequent eligibility checks. 

As for SNAP, many states will probably be caught paying for a portion of this program’s direct advantages and all will probably be liable for overlaying a higher share of the executive prices. SNAP recipients can even face stricter work requirements and luxuriate in fewer exemptions. 

In response to Rep. Simon, an estimated 40,000 folks may lose their healthcare protection in her district, which covers Oakland and far of the East Bay. She stated in a press launch that individuals in her district who obtain healthcare by means of the Reasonably priced Care Act may even see a mean $2,320 annual enhance of their premiums. And she or he stated cuts to SNAP will danger an estimated 16,000 folks dropping some or all entry to meals help. 

Dr. Noha Aboelata of Roots Community Health, a clinic in Oakland, referred to as the adjustments to Medicaid “utterly inefficient and merciless.” She stated near 90% of the sufferers who come by means of her clinic are on Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. 

The work necessities are “actually about penalizing folks — of us with among the highest boundaries to good well being,” she stated. “I do know it’s going to result in extra untreated sickness.” Undocumented residents might maintain again from searching for care as a result of immigration standing will probably be a part of the elevated eligibility checks, she stated. Aboelata can be involved concerning the potential influence on the county’s social companies company, which will probably be in control of routinely reverifying eligibility. 

If Deliberate Parenthood loses its authorized problem, companies at its clinics could also be dramatically scaled again. Alameda County is serviced by an affiliate, Deliberate Parenthood Mar Monte, that operates 33 well being facilities in California and two in Nevada. The biggest Deliberate Parenthood clinic within the nation is situated in downtown Oakland — and is known as after Barbara Lee.

About 85% of Mar Monte’s sufferers depend on Medi-Cal to pay for his or her healthcare, based on Andrew Adams, the group’s chief of employees. Within the final fiscal yr, he stated, the federal portion of these Medi-Cal funds amounted to about $75 million, practically half of the affiliate’s annual income. 

“There isn’t any closing that hole in a considerable manner,” Adams instructed The Oaklandside. 

Adams stated the affiliate could also be compelled to shut clinics and lay off employees inside a number of weeks. 

Ezer Pamintuan, senior coverage advocate on the Alameda County Community Food Bank, which distributes tens of millions of meals a yr regionally, referred to as the Trump invoice the “largest minimize to meals help ever.”

The cuts to SNAP may imply that California must spend as much as $3 billion extra simply to keep up current meals support, Pamintuan stated: “That’s not one thing we are able to afford.” He praised the governor for listening to neighborhood issues this yr and absolutely funding CalFood, a program enabling meals banks to buy regionally grown produce, at $60 million. However that help solely covers a fraction of the general help wanted within the state.

The GOP invoice rolls out the discount in federal protection over plenty of years, a delay that Pamintuan chalks as much as “political cowardice.” 

Pamintuan stated the meals financial institution continues to be capable of meet the wants of the neighborhood for now. The group launched a fundraising match campaign, which works by means of July 15, in an try to arrange for any extra meals wants that will emerge. Starvation ranges that peaked early within the COVID-19 disaster, Pamintuan stated, nonetheless haven’t subsided.

Invoice’s passage sparks outcry

Oakland’s state and federal representatives instantly protested the passage of the price range reconciliation invoice, which they dubbed the “Massive, Ugly Invoice.” 

Rep. Simon posted live updates from Capitol Hill late into the evening, breaking down the laws and reassuring her constituents she was combating for his or her pursuits. She and a number of other different elected officers blasted the invoice inside hours of its passage. 

“The deep, profound penalties that this invoice may have on Individuals are dizzying and overwhelming,” Simon stated in an announcement issued minutes after the vote. “I really feel your anger and concern. I lie awake at evening with the identical anger and concern concerning the nation and planet that my daughters and grandchild will inherit.” 

Mia Bonta, who represents Oakland within the state meeting, additionally issued an announcement, saying, “Republicans in DC solely stand for cruelty and their rich donors, as they inflate the nationwide debt whereas kicking our communities to the curb.”

“California might want to take decisive motion to guard our constituents and ship regardless of these far-reaching, devastating cuts,” she stated. 

Supervisor Bas criticized Congress for passing “what will be the most harmful invoice in American historical past, a catastrophic assault on the working class disguised as fiscal coverage.” 

Bas referred to as the invoice a “fiscal and ethical failure” for allocating $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement. 

In her assertion, Bas urged county officers to faucet a number of completely different swimming pools of cash, together with Measure W, to deal with the invoice’s cuts to social companies. The county board of supervisors will focus on the best way to use a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} from that tax measure, marketed to voters as a fund for housing and homeless companies, on July 22.

“For counties specifically, as a result of we depend on state and federal funding to supply healthcare and meals help, it’s actually as much as us to proceed to bolster that security web,” Bas instructed The Oaklandside. “This can be a second the place public officers must be actually clear about how we’re going to defend our constituents.”

Mayor Barbara Lee has but to talk out

As a member of Congress, Lee’s lone vote in opposition to authorizing the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 earned her a nationwide status for taking public stands for her values, even after they’re controversial. However 5 days after the passage of the extraordinarily unpopular price range invoice — practically twice as many Americans oppose it as favor it — the mayor has but to weigh in publicly. 

Each earlier than and since she took workplace, Lee has spoken out forcefully about different federal points. On the marketing campaign path she declared that she would defend immigrants in Oakland in opposition to “federal assaults,” and he or she spoke at a Fruitvale protest in June in opposition to ICE raids. Final Wednesday, Lee condemned the Trump administration for “ethical negligence” in shutting down the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement, together with cuts to assist that the Lancet has estimated may value 14 million lives; Lee chaired the Congressional committee that oversaw funding to USAID.

“I can’t keep silent. Oakland residents have all the time stood with me within the battle to avoid wasting lives, whether or not in our neighborhoods or half a world away,” Lee stated in that assertion.

It’s unclear why Lee hasn’t spoken out concerning the coverage invoice, which is able to straight influence hundreds of Oakland residents. The Oaklandside despatched Lee an inventory of questions final week asking how her workplace was planning to reply to the federal cuts and what she’s doing to convey extra assets to Oakland. Lee’s communication director Justin Phillips instructed The Oaklandside final week that he was engaged on a response to the queries, however didn’t present one by publication on Tuesday. 

On the marketing campaign path for mayor, Lee leaned closely on her 27 years of expertise in Congress. In questionnaires, Lee cited her monitor document of leveraging state and federal assets to convey tens of millions of {dollars} to Oakland. She promised to make use of her community of relationships with state, federal, and philanthropic partners to offer Oakland “a head begin in securing essential funding” for the town’s precedence companies. 

A number of mayors throughout the nation have taken public stands in opposition to Trump. Most not too long ago, after armed federal brokers rode horses by means of a park in Los Angeles yesterday, Mayor Karen Bass accused Trump of pursuing a “political agenda of scary concern and terror.” On the June assembly of the Nationwide Convention of Mayors in Tampa, Florida, mayors authorized resolutions that condemned federal ICE raids and championed native authority within the wake of Trump’s choice to ship the Nationwide Guard to Los Angeles. 

Jim Ross, a Bay Space political marketing consultant who incessantly works in Oakland, stated it’s not stunning that Lee and another Bay Space mayors are keeping quiet on federal points. Whereas some elected officers with political ambitions are making a present of taking over the president, he stated, others are selecting a calculated silence.

“I believe there’s a strategic perception amongst elected officers in California, particularly mayors, that it’s higher to attempt to fly beneath the Trump radar than straight confront him,” Ross instructed The Oaklandside. “In any other case you may entice ICE raids or different punitive measures in opposition to your metropolis.” 

Former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was an exception to this rule. Within the first Trump administration, Schaaf positioned herself within the nationwide highlight when she warned residents about an impending ICE raid in 2018. Her defiance outraged Trump, who referred to as on his lawyer common to prosecute her. However Schaaf wasn’t prosecuted, and Trump didn’t finally take retaliatory motion in opposition to Oakland. 

Talking with The Oaklandside this week, Schaaf stated it wasn’t a straightforward choice to difficulty the 2018 warning. When she consulted with immigrant service suppliers after receiving reliable phrase of looming raids, they have been break up over whether or not it could be prudent to place out a public alert, because it may have triggered pointless panic.

She acquired blowback initially, she stated, however “over time, I believe folks got here to really feel supportive and even proud that Oakland was standing up for its neighborhood, and talking fact to energy, which is our custom, a few damaged immigration system.” 

Native officers are working beneath completely different circumstances now, she stated. They’ll not rely on a Supreme Court docket that may rule of their favor, if confrontations with Trump attain that degree. And, in her view, the press has turn into much less hard-hitting.

Given these headwinds, Schaaf has admired how native officers have responded to Trump’s second time period to this point, reminiscent of Alameda County supervisors “placing cash the place their mouths are” in funding rapid-response immigration companies.

Mayors she’s spoken with are scared, Schaaf stated, and longing for a unified response that may take the goal off anyone metropolis’s again. Throughout her time period, Oakland put collectively a useful resource bundle to help different cities within the technique of changing into sanctuary cities too, to assist facilitate this sort of collective response. 

The coverage invoice’s passage was a blow, Schaaf stated: “To think about the loss of life and struggling that may come from this degradation of our Medicaid system and the obscene lack of equity within the tax system that was simply enacted — that’s past the pale.” 

However she cautioned in opposition to “studying into” the present mayor’s failure to difficulty a right away public response. 

“I might think about that as a former member of Congress, the mayor is so depressed about that invoice — it’s undoing work she was intimately concerned in,” Schaaf stated