U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders says he’s working to undo key aspects of what he calls “the worst and most destructive piece of legislation in the modern history of this country.”
At a rare in-person press conference in Burlington Monday morning, Sanders said his office estimates that 45,000 Vermonters will lose health coverage as a result of Medicaid cuts in the budget package approved by Congress earlier this month.
As ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Sanders, an independent, said he’s working with committee colleagues “to do everything we can to address these crises.”
“I mean essentially what we’re going to try to do in a piecemeal fashion, as best as we can, is undo the damage of that legislation,” Sanders said at his Church Street office.
I think there is a reasonable chance we can flip the House.U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders
Sanders said he’s focused primarily on increasing funding for health organizations that will see the steepest revenue declines as a result of cuts to Medicaid. He said those include the 11 federal qualified health centers in Vermont that operate more than 60 primary care sites.
“It’s not going to solve the problem, but at least we want to mitigate some of the damage,” he said.
Sanders said the longer-term strategy to reverse President Donald Trump’s fiscal agenda is electoral. The 83-year-old Democratic Socialist has taken his “Fighting Oligarchy” speaking tour to purple districts across the country, at times drawing tens of thousands of people in districts that swung narrowly for House Republican candidates in 2024.
Sanders said his message — that Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” trades America’s social safety net for “tax breaks for billionaires" — is resonating with right-leaning voters who didn’t anticipate cuts to programs they rely on.
“If we can go to those communities where Republicans have won by small margins, I think there is a reasonable chance we can flip the House,” Sanders said. “And the significance of that, which Trump very well understands, is that if we can flip the House, we can put a significant stop to this reactionary agenda.”
