Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York spoke out strongly in a speech on Wednesday night, calling out a new health care bill that Republicans were trying to pass quickly. The bill is one that former President Donald Trump has supported and even referred to as his “big, beautiful bill.
But Ocasio-Cortez said the bill is dangerous and would cause serious harm to millions of Americans. She warned that if it becomes law, 13.7 million people across the country could lose their health insurance. She said that number—13.7 million—should not be forgotten or ignored, no matter what distractions people may hear.
She criticized Republicans for rushing the bill through the process without enough time to understand what was in it. She described it as something that was thrown together last minute, saying it seemed like it had been written quickly on the back of a napkin. In other words, she felt it was done carelessly and without the proper attention something so serious deserves.
She told her Republican colleagues that many of them might not even fully understand what they had voted for. But she warned them that by the next morning, the truth would become clear—that they had voted to take health care away from millions of people and to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides important health services to many women and families.
Ocasio-Cortez also said this isn’t just about what happens in Congress. She stressed that real people will feel the effects of this bill in their everyday lives. Families will wake up and find out they no longer have health coverage. People who depend on Planned Parenthood for cancer screenings, birth control, or prenatal care might no longer have access to those services. She said this bill, if passed, would have very real, painful consequences for millions of Americans.
Her message was clear: this wasn’t just politics or a debate—it was about life-changing decisions being made quickly and recklessly, and people across the country would suffer because of it.
