SACRAMENTO - In a callous moment during a townhall this morning, Republican U.S. Senator Joni Ernst shrugged off the devastating human toll of President Donald Trump’s proposed plan to fund tax breaks for the rich by gutting Medicaid and food assistance - saying, “Well, we all are going to die” when warned by her own constituents that slashing these programs would cost lives.

Unfortunately, she’s right about one thing: people will die if President Trump’s Big Ugly Bill becomes law. President Trump’s bill is an all-out assault on America’s safety net, targeting the most vulnerable communities in every state, including California.

Here are 6 catastrophic cuts in the bill that would do real damage to Californians:

-Eliminate coverage for up to 3.4 million Californians, largely among those covered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expansion

-Cut at least $22 billion in federal Medicaid funding by imposing burdensome job loss penalties on low-income adults

-Punish states like California that use state funding to cover undocumented residents for non-emergency benefits by slashing federal support by at least $4 billion annually

-Restrict vital funding mechanisms, such as provider taxes and certain other payments that support hospitals and providers across California, that would result in the loss of billions of dollars

-Shut down nonprofit providers like Planned Parenthood by cutting them off from Medicaid funding

-Cut federal funding for SNAP in California by at least $2.3 to $4.9 billion annually, with at least 250,000 recipients likely to lose this benefit
Governor Gavin Newsom recently spoke about the impacts of the Big Ugly Bill on the MeidasTouch Network: “No state, incidentally, has more to lose on that. 3.4 million Americans will lose support if that bill passes in its existent form in the United States Senate, here in California.”