Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) launched a new video series targeting four pieces of the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-spending bill that she says violate Senate rules and she’ll fight to strip out.
Republicans are relying on the so-called “budget reconciliation” process to pass their bill, which strips Medicaid coverage from millions of people in order to pay for tax cuts for rich people. Any bill passed through this process has to be explicitly related to budget issues, so if it has other things in it that aren’t related to the budget, they have to come out.
In a series of videos, Warren highlights four “dangerous” provisions tucked into the bill that have nothing to do with the budget: defunding Planned Parenthood, eliminating a tax on gun silencers, banning states from regulating artificial intelligence, and an unconstitutional provision that would stop courts from being able to hold Trump or his administration officials in contempt for ignoring their orders.
“Donald Trump and Republicans are using this bill to push through a backdoor ban on abortion across the entire country, even in states where abortion is protected,” Warren says in the video about the Planned Parenthood language.
“Not only does it have nothing to do with our budget, it would actually cost taxpayers millions of dollars, so this shouldn’t even be in the current budget bill,” she says. “I’m going to use every tool I’ve got to try to stop it.”