July 03, 2025 02:17 PM UTC

Evans, Hurd Vote To Pass Fateful "We're All Going To Die Act"

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Caitlyn Kim reports for Colorado Public Radio, what may be the greatest act of political self-sabotage of our lifetimes is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law, as the Senate’s even more pernicious version of the Trump reconciliation budget bill given the Orwellian official name “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the least popular major piece of legislation in decades, passes the U.S. House by four votes–the same number of Republicans that Colorado sent to the House last November.

After hours of backroom negotiating, calls with Trump, and votes held open for hours, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson were able to muscle through the Republican tax and spending bill — dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — Thursday by a vote of 218-214. Two Republicans, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voted with all Democrats against the bill…

Among other things, the bill extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts, institutes some temporary new ones like no tax on tips or overtime, includes work requirements to receive Medicaid, has more money for border security and defense, and tries to spur domestic energy production, mainly by expanding exploration, permitting and production of fossil fuels.

The bill is paid for largely by cuts to health care and nutrition programs and changes to student loan changes. Just over $900 billion would come from cutting Medicaid over a decade, while just over $150 billion in cuts come from changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage. It’s predicted that about 12 million people could lose health insurance.

To the bitter end, America’s Most Vulnerable Freshman™ Rep. Gabe Evans stuck faithfully to the script, even after the bill got even worse in terms of cuts to Medicaid and renewable energy tax credits Evans had pretended to support. This morning just before the vote, Evans appeared on the national NPR program Here and Now, where his dogmatic adherence to talking points in the face of every contrary fact presented by host Robin Young became downright painful to listen to:

YOUNG: Look, the recent polls, including a Fox News poll, show a majority of Americans oppose this bill. What’s your message to those even, you know, in your district who don’t support the bill in general?

EVANS: There’s a ton of misinformation that’s been spread about the bill. You talked about cuts to Medicaid. Under this bill, there will be more federal money going into Medicaid under the Republican plan every single year for the forecastable duration of this bill. That doesn’t sound like a cut to me if more money is going into the program.

YOUNG: Millions of working Americans on Medicaid will be losing it. Millions of working adults who have trouble with the paperwork will be losing their Medicaid, but briefly, you recently toured a food bank in your district, the new bill makes cuts to the SNAP program, what people have called food stamps. Were you, did you support that?

EVANS: Again, there’s so much misinformation about the bill…

Shorter Gabe Evans: “Nothing you say matters.”

Speaking with the Grand Junction Sentinel last night, Rep. Jeff Hurd explained his own abject cave-in on Medicaid funding, despite claiming in a letter just days ago that he could not support the cuts he ended up voting for today:

Sentinel: You and 15 other House Republicans sent a letter to the Senate on June 24 urging them to leave the House’s changes to Medicaid intact. The letter read that the House version is “more pragmatic and compassionate” and that Senate changes would “undermine provisions regarding provider taxes and state-directed payments”, “treat expansion and non-expansion states unfairly” and “fail to preserve existing state programs” while imposing “stricter limits that do not give hospitals sufficient time to adjust to new budgetary constraints or to identify alternative funding sources.” What are your current thoughts on the changes the Senate ultimately implemented?

Hurd: “I don’t think anything’s changed; the importance of Medicaid is still a priority for me. I think the key consideration from my perspective is that this bill delivers on so many of the key priorities that we campaigned on. The Republican Party has a wide array of districts and ideologies and we’re coming together to deliver on the results we campaigned on for the American people. This is something I think contains so many important priorities for not just our district but for our state and for our country.”

Shorter Jeff Hurd: “Nothing I said mattered.”

It’s the same thing Gabe Evans would say about renewable energy tax credits and immigration enforcement if he were able to be honest. Both of these freshmen’s attempts at covering their own backsides by paying lip service to these priorities fell flat when they voted for this bill without obtaining a single concession they sought. They had the power in this extremely close vote to demand changes, and they didn’t.

As a result, Gabe Evans has cemented his status as a vulnerable MAGA misfit in a swing district. Jeff Hurd has broken the trust swing voters in his safer but still competitive district were trying even after his first betrayal to extend him. Both men have done themselves no favors as the midterm elections in which Republicans are projected to lose dozens of seats draw near.

Donald Trump has left an uncountable number of broken careers in the wake of his reckless will to power.

At the end of the day, two flyover-state freshmen won’t count for much.