Senator Reverend Warnock inspired a passionate crowd at the “Save Medicaid” rally
The current version of the Republican tax bill will kick 16 million Americans off their health care, and raise the cost of care for everyone
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) fired up health care advocates from across the country at the “Save Medicaid Rally” underscoring the dangers of cuts to Medicaid proposed in the Washington Republicans’ tax bill. The rally was organized by Popular Democracy in coordination with American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), Caring Across Generations, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, ACLU, and other national organizations.
The Senator’s remarks come as the Senate is currently deliberating over Washington Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump’s tax bill that provides billions in tax breaks for billionaires by cutting health care for 16 million Americans.
“What he [President Trump] wants to do is unpopular. I don’t blame him for wanting to change the subject. He wants to cut $800 billion out of Medicaid, kick people off of coverage, disabled people, children, the working class. He wants to kick all of them off of health care. He wants to cut $300 billion out of SNAP just to give people like Elon Musk a tax cut,” said Senator Warnock during the rally. “No wonder he’s trying to change the subject, but we’re going to hold them accountable, and we will not be distracted. We will not be distracted, and we will not be divided.”
Senator Warnock has long championed efforts to expand affordable health care access, starting with his advocacy to close the health care coverage gap in Georgia. Most recently, Senator Warnock published a newreport, “Healthy People, Healthy Economy” finding that placing bureaucratic red tape between working people and their health care will lead to hospital closures, job loss, and economic slowdown. In addition to pushing for solutions to close the coverage gap, Senator Warnock led a delegation of Georgia lawmakers in urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide tools to Medicaid non-expansion states like Georgia to help them protect health care access for Medicaid enrollees who lose eligibility after the end of the public health emergency declaration. Senator Warnock also adamantly opposed Dr. Mehmet Oz’s consideration to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), for his lack of commitment to protecting Medicaid services.
Senator Warnock’s remarks during the Save Medicaid Rally are HERE and below:
“The question is: Who are we? And what do we want in a moment like this? I don’t know about you, but I want a country and a vision that embraces all of us.”
“So I’m proud to be here with you in this moral moment. I represent the people of Georgia in the United States Senate. I’m deeply honored that they would send me. You know, it’s a real honor for the people of your state to say that, since we care about our children and we want the best for them. We care about our mothers and our fathers as they deal with the blessings and the burdens of aging, because we believe that everybody ought to have health care and every child ought to have a chance. Since all of us can’t go to Washington, D.C., we’re going to send you. We’re going to trust that in rooms of power, you will remember who sent you there. You will remember your covenant that you have with the people that you represent. I think about that every single day, but every time I come and speak at a rally like this, I am reminded that long before I came to the Senate, long before I represented Georgia in these halls of Congress, the last time the Trump administration was pushing forward a reconciliation bill, the year was 2017, and I was here not as a senator. I was here as an agitator.”
“In 2017, they were focused on cutting health care. They wanted to kick people off of their health care. Y’all remember that? They were trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They said, repeal and replace, but they didn’t have anything to replace it with. And I was here that day as an activist, pastor. Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where I still serve. And we were gathered in the rotunda of the Capitol, praying and singing. [There] were clergy from various faith traditions all across our country, and the Capitol police came and they said, pastors, ‘if you don’t disperse because you can’t sing and pray in this rotunda over here, we’re going to have to arrest you.’ What they didn’t understand is that I had already been arrested. My mind and my heart and my imagination had been arrested by this idea that we are much better than this and that the wealthiest country on the planet can afford to provide basic health care to all of its citizens.”
“So they arrested me that day, and I thought it was a small price to pay, but in the years since, the people of Georgia have seen fit to send this guy who was used to fighting from the outside to work on the inside, and that’s what our fight has to be about y’all. It has to be an inside fight and an outside fight. Are you ready to make it happen?! We got to fight on the inside, and we got to fight on the outside.”
“Because I live in Atlanta, I get to walk around and rub shoulders with giants all the time. I was John Lewis’ pastor. Xernona Clayton, another lieutenant of the Movement, who Dr. King – she’s short – he used to call her ‘Big’ she’s a member of my church. Dr King’s sister, up until two years ago when she passed away, she was always sitting on the second row while I was preaching. Can you imagine preaching in front of Martin Luther King Jr.’s sister every Sunday? But Andrew Young, who’s in his 90s, is still with us. Let’s hear for Andy Young. But I want you to hear me today. Andy Young tells me this great story. He says that after they passed the Civil Rights law of 1964, Dr. King went to see the President, and he didn’t go to the President just to say, thank you for passing the Civil Rights bill. He went to the President to say, ‘Now what we really need right now is a voting rights bill. My people are not able to vote in the South.’ And so LBJ said, ‘Martin, I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t do that right now. I had to expend so much political capital just to get that Civil Rights bill over the finish line.’ He said, ‘I don’t have the power to do that right now. So, they left the White House. The staff was feeling all demoralized and dejected, Andy Young among them, they said, ‘Doc, what are we going to do? The President says he doesn’t have the power.’ And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, with a shrug, said, ‘Well, if the President doesn’t have the power, I guess we’re going to have to go and find him some, we’re going to have to go and give the President the power that he needs to do what needs to be done.’ And that’s why they went to Selma. Selma was the answer on the outside for what they weren’t able to do on the inside.”
“Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you? I’m trying to tell you that I need you on the streets while I’m fighting in the suites, you have to create the context for change. And hear me, and I know you all know this, but you’ve got to spread the word. You have to do it through peaceful means of protest. Otherwise, you lose your moral credibility, you lose your voice. You cannot allow yourself to look like that which you deplore.”
“Isn’t it a sad irony that Donald Trump is talking about he may have to invoke the insurrection clause? Imagine that the insurrectionist President wants to invoke the insurrection clause, but we cannot allow ourselves to look like him, because he is trying to divide us. He is using our military, men and women, and service members as pawns in a sad and cynical political game. He does not respect the military. How many veterans do we have out here? Raise your hand. I know we got folks who serve. Give our veterans a great big round of applause. Donald Trump does not respect our service members. He calls them suckers. He calls them losers, and now he wants to use them in his sad and cynical political game. He wants them to show up on the streets in war gear because he’s trying to convince American citizens that we are at war with one another. Well, I’ve got news for Donald Trump. We are not at war with other American citizens. We are at war against bigotry. We are at war against xenophobia. We are at war against a sad policy that would take food out of the mouths of hungry children in order to give a tax cut to billionaires. That’s what we’re fighting against.”
“Are you ready to stand up in these streets?!”
“Are you ready to fight for health care?!”
Are you ready to fight for human dignity?!”
“We need you in this moment, and so tell our young sisters and brothers, […] I’m serious, tell our young activists that Donald Trump wants nothing more than to be able to call martial law. He wants the story to be about police cars burning. Don’t burn police cars. We need law enforcement every now and then; we’ve got to challenge them, but we need law enforcement. We must not become like him. Do you understand what I’m saying? Because he wants to change the subject, and I don’t blame him. What he wants to do is unpopular. I don’t blame him for wanting to change the subject. He wants to cut $800 billion out of Medicaid, kick people off of coverage, disabled people, children, the working class. He wants to kick all of them off of health care. He wants to cut $300 billion out of SNAP just to give people like Elon Musk a tax cut. No wonder he’s trying to change the subject, but we’re going to hold them accountable, and we will not be distracted. We will not be distracted, and we will not be divided.”
“We’re focused, right!?”
“We’re ready, right?!”
“We know the work that is in front of us, and we know that it’s not about the people in power. It’s about the power that’s in the people. So, stand up today and stand up tomorrow and stand up the next day and stand up the next month, and keep on standing until every child has a chance and every American has health care and we push toward a greater future. God bless everyone.”
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