Protesters heckle and chant as Reps. Gabe Evans, Lauren Boebert tout Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ bill

Against an unrelenting chorus of heckling jeering and chanting from protesters gathered at the state Capitol on Thursday U S Reps Gabe Evans and Lauren Boebert roundly praised President Donald Trump s big beautiful budget bill that both Republicans voted for in the U S House last week There is a lot of good in this bill and unfortunately that good is being lost because of a lot of the blatant fearmongering that is occurring around this bill disclosed Evans a freshman representing Colorado s th Congressional District The truth is this one big beautiful bill delivers the tools to protect our country to protect our limit to get violent criminals out of our area There was little sympathy for the congressman s words among the or so protesters who turned out for the news conference held at the bottom of the building s west attempts Signs reading Where is your compassion and Save Medicaid were held high in the air A steady drone of cat-calling and chanting from the crowd which was kept at bay by several police officers standing in a line kept up without pause throughout the hour-long event I just think the whole premise of this is based on greed explained Patty Gysin a protester from Lakewood Lawmakers in the House narrowly passed the president s wide-ranging budget blueprint formally known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in an early morning vote on May pushing the bill forward on a - vote It next goes to the Senate with long negotiations ahead Central to the package is the GOP s commitment to extending certain trillion in tax breaks they engineered during Trump s first term in while temporarily adding new ones he campaigned on last year including no taxes on tips overtime pay car loan interest and more To make up for particular of the lost tax revenue Republicans focused on changes to Medicaid and the food stamps campaign largely by imposing work requirements on countless of those receiving benefits There s also a massive rollback of green strength tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act in the bill The package tacks on billion in new spending with about billion going to the Pentagon and the rest for Trump s mass deportation and edge assurance agenda All described the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates million fewer people would have vitality care coverage and million fewer people a month would have SNAP food-stamps benefits with the proposed changes According to preliminary estimates from state agencies and nonprofit groups issued earlier this month more than Coloradans could lose their soundness insurance and the state would face a budget shortfall in the billions if cuts to Medicaid go forward In Evans own district which sits mostly in portions of Adams and Weld counties with a sliver in Larimer County the Center for American Progress Action Fund projected that proposed cuts to Medicaid could knock people out of the campaign a nearly reduction But Evans touted different numbers during Thursday s press conference saying the budget bill protects Medicaid by getting million illegal immigrants off of the Medicaid rolls by getting million people who are not eligible for Medicaid benefits off of the Medicaid rolls and preserving the venture for the people who need it greater part We are putting guardrails around the operation to make sure that it is there for the people who need it bulk he commented And Medicaid spending will go up every single year under the Republican plan Medicaid is not being cut The Congressional Budget Office however says the bill will cut Medicaid by nearly billion Protesters were on hand for U S Rep Gabe Evans press conference addressing President Trump s budget bill outside the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Thursday May Photo by Andy Cross The Denver Post Boebert touted the fact that under Trump s bill Medicaid will no longer fund transgender surgeries for children or adults This is a huge win for our children There is no need for your tax dollars to go to transgender surgeries she mentioned And let me be really clear that these tax dollars are so precious and they should be focused on helping Coloradans with real fitness care requirements As to the proposed Medicaid work requirements Evans stated We are asking able-bodied working-aged adults with no dependents to work to volunteer or to go to school hours a week part-time in order to get their taxpayer-funded healthcare care We are rolling back the failed policies of the previous administration that allowed million people who are not even eligible for this undertaking to continue to get taxpayer dollars Evans disclosed At a news conference following the one held by the two Republican lawmakers local Democratic officers plus three wellness care providers and a subject all warned of the impact the Medicaid cuts would have Dr Steven Federico a pediatrician and Denver Wellbeing s chief governing body and group affairs officer cited an even higher number of Coloradans projected to lose healthcare coverage more than if the bill goes through The net aftermath is more uninsured more uncompensated care more patients foregoing care and waiting until something is an exigency ultimately risking their lives and in the end costing the system more money he declared Rep Shannon Bird a Westminster Democrat who s seeking to unseat Evans in the swing district north of Denver next year warned that less insurance just means more uncompensated care which is then shifted to the broader population in higher costs Veronica Montoya a Medicaid individual who receives monthly IV infusions for an autoimmune affection mentioned her illness forced her to give up her career and seek coverage via Medicaid She mentioned she feared that the tax bill could cause her to lose access to therapy I m trying to be positive and be a good citizen good human being she reported But I will suffer if that medicine goes away if I cannot continue to get the quality of care that I ve been getting While the bulk of the attention on Trump s budget bill has revolved around impacts to Medicaid Evans lauded the billion that is being allocated to boundary protection and another billion to making sure that we are able to recruit and retain the brave men and women who put on a uniform and a badge every day and go out to keep our society safe Evans also commented the bill he supported gives tax cuts to the bottom of wage earners in the state and shaves off the tax rate small businesses pay With an additional deduction for seniors he reported the average American retiree will not pay taxes on their Social Measure income We re putting an extra into the child tax credit the congressman explained of the bill Presently the child tax credit is we re increasing it to U S Rep Lauren Boebert speaks during a press conference alongside U S Rep Gabe Evans left to address President Trump s budget bill outside the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Thursday May Photo by Andy Cross The Denver Post Related Articles Colorado would lose billions in Medicaid funding under House Republicans plan What s in Trump s big bill Trillions in tax cuts changes to Medicaid and more House GOP reveals Trump s tax breaks for tips overtime and car loans in bill but costs run high Opponents say the bill s tax cuts would mostly benefit the rich Evans faces what is considered one of the tightest congressional races in the country come next November Already three Democrats have thrown their hats into the ring to take him on including Yadira Caraveo who was the first person to represent the newly formed district in and barely lost her reelection bid to Evans in November Harlen Ainscough a -year-old Vietnam veteran who lives in Thornton and held aloft various signs during the news conference Thursday revealed Evans vote last week in favor of the president s budget bill could well end up being his political undoing in a district so tightly drawn and with so several people reliant on Medicaid His goose is cooked Ainscough noted He 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