In a spirited address on the House floor, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vehemently opposed President Donald Trump’s substantial tax cut and spending legislation. His speech, which began just after 5 a.m. Thursday, has stretched beyond six hours, effectively delaying the final vote on a bill central to Trump’s second-term agenda.
Surrounded by stacks of binders, Jeffries meticulously examined the implications of the bill and highlighted the positions of some Republican lawmakers who supported it. “I’ve been given 15 minutes each on a bill of such significant magnitude as it relates to the health, the safety and the well-being of the American people,” Jeffries remarked. “Because that debate was so limited, I feel the obligation, Mr. Speaker, to stand on this House floor and take my sweet time to tell the stories, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
Utilizing the ‘magic minute’ procedure, which allows House leadership unlimited speaking time following the conclusion of debate, Jeffries drew parallels to fellow lawmakers. In 2021, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, spoke for over eight hours during the passage of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act.
A significant portion of Jeffries’ discourse centered on the bill’s projected effects on Medicaid, a federal program critical for seniors and individuals with disabilities. He shared personal accounts from those he claimed would suffer due to the proposed changes. “People will die. Tens of thousands, perhaps year after year after year, as a result of the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people,” he stated. “I’m sad. I never thought I would be on the House floor saying this is a crime scene.”
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, has estimated that the Medicaid adjustments made by the Senate could lead to 11.8 million Americans losing their health insurance over the next decade. Jeffries has lambasted the megabill as a “assault on healthcare.” He affirmed, “Every single House Democrat is fighting hard to protect your Medicaid. We value you and we’re working hard to defend you.”
Republicans have characterized their proposed changes as necessary reforms to entitlement programs that they argue are oversaturated with “waste, fraud and abuse.” The Trump administration has also contested the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis, suggesting it demonstrates bias.
Jeffries criticized additional elements of the bill, including its repercussions for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and its immigration-related provisions. “You see, budgets are moral documents. And in our view, Mr. Speaker, budgets should be designed to lift people up,” he contended. “This reckless Republican budget that we are debating right now on the floor of the House of Representatives tears people down.”
Calling the budget “an immoral document,” Jeffries urged fellow lawmakers to vote against it, citing its detrimental effects on children, seniors, everyday citizens, and individuals with disabilities. He concluded, “And that is why I stand here on the floor of the House of Representatives with my colleagues in the House Democratic caucus to stand up and push back against it with everything we have,” prompting applause from the gathered Democrats.
