We’re not just surviving 2025.   
 We’re shaping what comes next. 

The Full Statement from The 88 Coalition

Public Response to H.R.1 • July 5, 2025

One the eve of Independence Day, Congress passed H.R.1, and I want and need to be very clear about what just happened.This absolutely was not just a budget. It was an announcement to America that families like mine — the families raising children with disabilities, managing medical care around the clock, navigating systems that were never built for us — are disposable and unworthy.They have completely gutted Medicaid while lying to us about what this legislation does. In doing so, they’ve slashed the supports that keep the people we love alive and stable. Then, to add insult to injury, they turned around and called it “fiscal responsibility.” But let’s be honest: this isn’t about saving money—it quadruples the national deficit. It’s about priorities. And it’s clear that Congress prioritizes billionaires over our babies.Senator Bill Cassidy, a former public health physician, voted yes He knows exactly what Medicaid means in Louisiana — not just to the 1.4 million of us who rely on it or take care of someone who does, but for the millions of others who rely on rural hospitals for their health care needs. He knows what it does for children with feeding tubes, for aging adults in home care, for working caregivers stretched to their limit. Instead, Bill Cassidy, M.D., chose party loyalty over patient survival.Speaker Mike Johnson forced this bill through with every trick in the book: stretching the vote, silencing dissent, pushing through cuts that will devastate his own constituents. When he had chance after chance to walk away from this cruelty, he chose to double down and hold the vote open an unprecedented amount of time.While these “leaders” demand resilience from families like ours, they ignore what we’ve already endured: fighting through red tape, denials, understaffed agencies, and countless ER visits. Their votes tell us that, to them, we don’t matter. That our effort, our advocacy, our exhaustion still isn’t enough to guarantee basic care for those who need it most.We are caregivers. We know what it’s like to fight for services that should already be guaranteed. To advocate while exhausted. I know what it’s like to feed my son through a pump while calling a legislator who only sees him as a budget line item or a bump in the road to his selfish power grab.---Let me be clear:
Cassidy and Johnson knew exactly what this would do.
They knew exactly who it would hurt.
And they passed it anyway.---To the Members of Congress who voted yes, if your child never has to fight for ceare, be grateful. But don’t look away when mine does. That’s something we will never forget.---So here’s what’s next:
• We’re organizing.
• We’re watching.
• We will remember.


This isn’t over. → We’re raising voters.

                — Charlotte Cravins for The 88 Coalition

@the88coalition
@life_of_landry
@charshares