From “catastrophe” to “nothing ‘beautiful,” Illinois Democrats on Tuesday slammed the Senate passage of President Donald Trump’s tax bill that would lead to 500,000 Illinoisans losing their health care coverage.
As the measure heads back to the House for approval, Democratic activists are now focusing their efforts on the three Republican members of the Illinois delegation, despite their allegiances to Trump: Reps. Mary Miller, Darin LaHood and Mike Bost. House leaders have said they still want to clear the measure by Trump’s self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.
LaHood is leaning toward supporting the Senate measure, telling the Sun-Times, “Republicans have a responsibility to prevent the largest tax increase in American history and deliver on promises we made to the American people.”
Trump has said the “big, beautiful bill’s” failure would lead to a 68% tax increase, a claim that has been disputed by several organizations, including the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which found an average tax hike of 7.5% in 2026 if the bill doesn’t pass.
In total, the Senate bill includes about $4 trillion in cuts and makes Trump’s 2017 tax rates permanent, while also adding new ones, including no taxes on tips. The bill would also provide $350 billion for border and national security, including for deportations.
The Senate on Tuesday narrowly approved the tax and spending cuts bill 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote after lawmakers spent nearly 48 hours debating and amending the measure.
If it passes the House, the $1.2 trillion in cuts would cost more than 500,000 Illinoisans their health care coverage and put about 427,000 people at risk of losing food assistance The overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit program would cost Illinois $1.2 billion, according to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.
The Joint Economic Committee — a bipartisan committee analyzing the state of the economy — projected on June 30 that 535,849 people would lose health coverage in Illinois under the plan.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth said the bill’s passage “lights trillions of taxpayer dollars on fire to explode our debt and line the pockets of Donald Trump, his family and his billionaire friends.”
“There is nothing beautiful about this catastrophe of a bill — it is fiscally and morally irresponsible,” Duckworth said in a statement. “It’s downright shameful that by voting for this bill, Republicans are once again showing they would rather hurt middle-class families and our neighbors who are most in need than make the wealthy pay their fair share or show any backbone in the face of Donald Trump’s desire to enrich himself and his family.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, who has focused much of his dissent on the difficulties hospitals will face with deep Medicaid cuts, said there’s “nothing ‘beautiful’ about slashing health care coverage for 17 million Americans, closing rural hospitals and taking food off the table for children, seniors and veterans. “
And on social media, Pritzker urged Americans to call their members of Congress — declaring “the fight isn’t over.” Later at a Peoria bill signing, Pritzker warned of the bill’s impact on Illinois.
“This is shameful, if you ask me. And it’s going to be very hard to recover. The state of Illinois can’t cover the cost. No state in the country can cover the cost of reinstating that health insurance that is today paid for mostly by the federal government, partially by state government. In addition, hundreds of thousands of children and families are going to lose food assistance,” Pritzker said. “We live in the wealthiest nation on earth. We should be able to feed the people who cannot feed themselves.”
Democratic and union activists, including SEIU, AFSCME, Citizen Action/Illinois and Indivisible Shawnee on Tuesday delivered petitions to Bost’s Murphysboro office in the 12th Congressional District, asking him to oppose the tax bill. The groups pointed out that 155,000 of his constituents receive SNAP benefits, and more than 218,000 are on Medicaid.
And in LaHood’s 16th Congressional District, the group Protect Our Care Illinois traveled through his central Illinois district with mobile billboards that read, “Over 24,000 people in our community will lose health care coverage.” According to the group, 139,474 people in the district are enrolled in Medicaid and 29,012 residents rely on SNAP.
Miller and Bost did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout