U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) criticized President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was unable to get the measure passed by the House Budget Committee.
On Friday, five Republicans — Chip Roy (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), and Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) — joined all Democrats in voting against the bill. The Republicans demanded deeper budget cuts.
On NBC News’ Meet the Press, Murphy said the Republican budget bill is “the most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich in the history of the country.”
He added, “It is going to kick over 10 million people off of their health care – Medicaid covers about a quarter of all Americans — in order to pass along a trillion dollar tax cut for the richest one percent. No one in this country is asking for that. In addition, it’s going to dramatically drive up the deficit.”
The Republican budget bill – which throws over 10 million working Americans off their health care to pay for a tax cut for the wealthy – is this biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich in the history of the country. It’s outright theft. pic.twitter.com/H3KmA3aTD2
— Chris Murphy
(@ChrisMurphyCT) May 18, 2025
Murphy added that the Trump administration is “running the economy recklessly” and “all they care about is the Mar-a-Lago billionaire class. They only care about their corporate friends.” He added, “It’s outright theft.”
Note: In April 2024, at a $50 million fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago, Trump promised donors in attendance that if elected he will extend the 2017 tax cuts beyond 2025 and keep their taxes low.
Democrats on the whole agree with Murphy. As one replied on X: “We have to call it what it is – a legalized looting. Stripping health care from millions to fund tax breaks for billionaires isn’t a sensible fiscal policy, it’s economic warfare on the working class. This isn’t a good policy reform. It’s robbery in a budget binder.”
MAGA supporters claim Murphy’s comments are “lies” and accuse the Senator of “hating America,” among other insults.
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) told reporters that “dozens” of his fellow House Republicans have told Speaker Johnson that they’re worried about voting on a bill that won’t pass the Senate. “Those members are insisting that either the Senate go first or the Senate and the president bless off whatever bill that we’re ultimately asked to vote on,” LaLota said.
Note: House Speaker Johnson says he still wants to advance the bill through the chamber before the Memorial Day recess.